Antonelli takes pole position, Russell down in fourth

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli has snared his fifth pole of the 2026 Formula 1 campaign at the British Grand Prix, defeating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at a sunny Silverstone as George Russell faded.

Antonelli improved on his first Q3 run to secure his first pole since the Monaco Grand Prix a month ago, which was a much-needed improvement as Leclerc also found a chunk of time to snatch second away from team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Russell.

Mercedes had yet to be defeated in grand prix qualifying this year, and a surprisingly strong pole lap from Hamilton in sprint qualifying suggested the Silver Arrows’ streak could be broken in Silverstone. But after Antonelli passed Hamilton to win Saturday afternoon’s sprint, the championship leader further backed up his title credentials with his fifth pole of the year.

Russell was second after the first of two Q3 runs but failed to improve on his second lap, which was over half a second slower than Antonelli. That relegated him to fourth behind Leclerc and Hamilton, who did improve but only found one tenth compared to his first effort.

Isack Hadjar was a distant fifth in the Red Bull ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, as both teams stared down a significant pace deficit compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. Max Verstappen was only seventh after reporting issues with his power unit deployment, while Oscar Piastri struggled for grip on his way to eight on the grid.

Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson again locked out row five as the best of the midfield runners.

Antonelli also topped Q2 with a 1m28.493s lap despite going off track on his first effort. The Italian subsequently went a tenth clear of Leclerc with Hamilton and Russell third and fourth.

The McLarens showed early signs of struggle with Norris only ninth, while Piastri was in the drop zone after run one, but the Australian managed to find a way through in seventh as he drove around a lack of grip and balance.

Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto missed Q3 to Lawson by just 0.032s, apologising to his team for not extracting more out of the car. Pierre Gasly was 12th on a difficult weekend for Alpine, followed by the second Audi of Nico Hulkenberg.

Oliver Bearman was 14th, lamenting a Haas car that he felt had been outdeveloped by its midfield rivals, while Williams’ struggles continued as Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon qualified 15th and 16th.

In Q1 the gusty conditions made the start of qualifying tricky, with a 20km/h tailwind into Copse and a corresponding crosswind blowing into the Maggotts-Becketts complex. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto suffered a huge spin there on his final attempt as his rear end snapped, which left the Argentine unable to improve on his 19th place.

Russell also had a “weird” scare when he went off into the gravel at Luffield on his first attempt as his car locked up, damaging his front wing. That meant he had to set a lap time in the final minutes of the session to advance, but the Briton did so relatively comfortably.

There were also immediate issues for Audi’s Bortoleto, who reported he couldn’t grab sixth gear on his out-lap and returned to the garage with a suspected gearbox problem, but the team managed to get him back out to qualify for Q2.

Esteban Ocon wasn’t so lucky, the Frenchman again being handed a qualifying defeat by Haas team-mate Oliver Bearman, who narrowly advanced to Q2 at Ocon’s expense.

The luckless Colapinto split Cadillac drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, with an off-the-pace Aston Martin team again closing the ranks at the bottom of the back.

We want to hear from you!

– The Autosport.com Team