The Qualifying round for the 2023 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was arguably the best till date in the season with some expected and unexpected results. As expected, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen bagged yet another pole position, making it his fifth pole in a row this season. The Dutchman set a lap-time of 1m 26.720s on his pole lap. This was no easy task as the track was evolving from wet and greasy to dry conditions with increasing pace from the whole grid. Verstappen had to overcome a moment in the pit lane that saw him damage his front wing.
Teammate Sergio Perez had yet another disastrous qualifying session, as he failed to make it to Q3 for a fifth consecutive time, the Mexican got out in Q1 and is set to line up P16.
The unexpected result and “shock package”, as Official F1 Report put it, came from McLaren as they came forward to take P2 & P3 with McLaren teammates Lando Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri taking the places respectively. Norris ended the session two tenths behind Verstappen, with the British driver receiving roaring applause from the home crowd. For the Aussie Piastri, this was his best ever qualifying session in F1. After struggling for pace early in the season, McLaren is making a comeback after upgrades were introduced to the cars last weekend in Austria.
Both Ferraris finished in P4 and P5 with Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz. The Mercedes AMG duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were right behind the Ferraris respectively.
Another surprise came in the form of Alex Albon putting his Williams W45 in P8 ahead of Mr El Plan Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin. Frenchman Pierre Gasly rounded up the top 10 in his French Alpine.
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Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th for Haas while his teammate Kevin Magnussen will start 19th, the Haas driver lost power and came to a halt at the exit of Stowe in a moment that brought out the red flags.
Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll finished P12 and P13 for Alpine and Aston Martin respectively. Williams rookie Logan Sargeant bagged the 14th starting position while Valtteri Bottas made it through to the Q2 in his Alfa Romeo but was later disqualified after his car was unable to provide a 1.0 litre sample of fuel.
AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries will be starting 17th and 19th with Zhou Guanya starting 18th between them.
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