Lewis Hamilton handed ‘amazing surprise’ at British GP | F1 | Sport
Lewis Hamilton declared it an “amazing surprise” to be on pole for Saturday’s Silverstone Sprint race. The home hero sent the grandstands wild by pipping Kimi Antonelli to top spot by just 11 milliseconds despite a small error at the final couple of corners. And a roar of approval rang around the circuit as Hamilton’s name shot to the top of the timesheets.
He wore a beaming smile as he declared: “I love this place, I love this crowd.” And as fellow Brits George Russell and Lando Norris managed only fifth and sixth respectively, the undisputed king of Silverstone stepped up once again to deliver for the locals.
Not that he was expecting that to happen. “We didn’t expect coming to Silverstone that we would be competing for the front row – we really, really didn’t,” Hamilton beamed. “So, this is an amazing surprise. I’m ecstatic.”
He’ll line up alongside Antonelli on the front row with Max Verstappen behind them and expressed pride in his team after getting the better of both of them despite still, he believes, being down on engine strength. He said: “We’re ahead of Mercedes. These guys and the Red Bulls, they have so much power. They’ve been doing amazing all year. The boys in blue this weekend, these champs. But my team just keeps pushing, and that’s what I’m so proud of.
“The car felt really great today, thanks to everyone back at the factory, as I said, for just continuing to push. We’ve got tiny little bits here. Every single weekend we’re showing up with something, just everyone’s pushed to the max and so I’m really grateful to get that pole.”
The short-form nature of the Sprint race means Hamilton won’t have to keep others behind for as long to convert this pole into victory. And he seemed optimistic that he might have enough race pace in his Ferrari to manage it, though he admitted that extra engine power could benefit the Mercedes and Red Bull cars chasing.
Hamilton said: “Our pace was good. We did a short, sort of longish run in FP1 but there was not a lot of time, but the car felt good there. So, yeah, I think we should have a good race tomorrow. I mean, I’m starting from the front row. I don’t remember the last time I started from the front row here. It’s not so easy when you’ve got these guys that can follow you and be close with the extra power, potentially, but I’ll do my best to keep them behind.”
Charles Leclerc was fourth quickest to cap a strong qualifying performance from Ferrari overall. Russell will probably need to do better than fifth in Grand Prix qualifying if he is to win his home race for the first time on Sunday, having been only seven-thousands of a second faster than Norris despite the McLaren cars running an older-spec, inferior Mercedes engine.
