Hamilton led the field after the first rounds in Q3 with 1: 26.134 minutes, while Verstappen – who had confidently led the only practice session on Friday – was behind and was dissatisfied with his Red Bull understeer at Silverstone.
In recent runs, Hamilton seemed to improve the fastest time with purple sectors in the first two thirds of the lap, but a lurid slide that left the first part of the final sequence of Turns at Club cost him and he didn’t go any faster.
But even though Verstappen shortened the gap to his title rival from 0.172 seconds after the first rounds to 0.075 seconds, the championship leader took second place – to the delight of the crowded spectators at Silverstone.
Valtteri Bottas was third in the second Mercedes, Charles Leclerc was fourth after Sergio Perez lost his best and final lap in Q3 because he drove too far out of Stowe, which mixed the Mexican driver behind the Ferrari.
Lando Norris ousted Daniel Ricciardo to sixth and reversed the order between the McLaren teammates through Q1 and Q2.
George Russell, Williams FW43B
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
George Russell ran a staggered Q3 program after making it sensationally to the last segment and running alone for over four minutes in the third part of qualifying.
His 1: 26.971 minutes were all cheered by his home fans. During this time he was ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sebastian Vettel, who lost his first Q3 time at the end of the top 10 due to a violation of the track restrictions in Stowe.
In Q2, Russell’s lap jump failed to reach Q3 for the second time in a row, Fernando Alonso, as Norris also snapped in shortly before the Alpine driver and left him in 11th place.
Pierre Gasly was twelfth ahead of Esteban Ocon, who was the only retired driver who failed to set a personal best in his last laps in the middle segment.
Antonio Giovinazzi could not repeat his best time from Q1, where he finished 12th as he finished Q2 for Alfa Romeo in 14th place, ahead of Lance Stroll, who found time compared to his best lap in the first part of the session, but not enough to get him all the spots for the sprint qualifying race.
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT02
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
In Q1, Yuki Tsunoda was unable to set a personal best in his last lap in the first segment when he finished 16th and was eliminated in the second AlphaTauri.
Kimi Raikkonen and Nicholas Latifi set their best times on their final laps, but didn’t find enough time for Alfa Romeo and Williams respectively when they finished 17th and 18th.
The Haas pair finished in the last two spots, with Mick Schumacher leading Nikita Mazepin, who half-spun late in Q1 after losing the rear of his car and throttling power exiting Turn 3, Village.
The entire race on Friday evening took place on the soft tires – according to the rules of the sprint qualification race weekend format – without the rubber used in Q2 being needed for the start of the Grand Prix on Sunday.
All teams can therefore freely choose which tires they want to start with both for the sprint qualifying race and for the Grand Prix.
