At last, Carlos Sainz will start first in a Formula 1 race. For the first time in his career in the great circus, after 151 grand prix, the driver from Madrid achieved pole position, suffered in a crazy session, altered by the rain, with multiple poleman changes. The Ferrari man beat Max Verstappen by just 72 thousandths of a second, his main rival to aspire to the first victory.
Carlos Sainz was surprised by the achievement of his first pole. “Thank you all for being here in the rain, the Spanish have a hard time with the rain but you are used to it. It was difficult for me to keep the temperature of the tires. It caught me by surprise. The pace has been there all weekend, and if we have the pace of free practice 2 we have a good position for the race, although I know that Max and Charles will push me”, commented the Madrid native.
In a wet qualifying session, a common ingredient in the English countryside of Northamptonshire, the usual set the tone: Max Verstappen, reinvigorated by his successive wins in Baku and Montreal, flew over the sodden asphalt of Silverstone, leaving his immediate pursuers to a world: Leclerc at 7 tenths and Hamilton -motivated running at home- at 1.3s, with Sainz fifth at 1.4. This was the still photograph from Q1.
How little he moved in the second round, commanded again by Verstappen, although with less margin, 4 tenths over Lewis Hamilton and almost 6 over Leclerc, his most incisive rivals of the day. Sainz progressed one position, fourth, 9 tenths behind the Dutchman, while Alonso managed to enter once, the eighth, in the top 10. The surprise was Latifi’s Williams, who was in Q3 for the first time this season.
The rain increased in the last and final leg, the track was getting slower and slippery. Verstappen experienced it with a spin at turn 15, which did not prevent him from controlling the car and staying on the track, although it did force him to abort the lap.
Everything was possible in that delicate state of asphalt. So much so that Zhou with his Alfa Romeo came to be first, also Fernando Alonso (with 7m to go), and then Sainz, for a few seconds, until Leclerc snatched it from him. And Verstappen regained control of him with 4 minutes to go.
Then the grid positions behind the poleman were established: Hamilton returned to the front row -which had not happened for 10 GPs, in Abu Dhabi 2021-; Alonso returned to the charge and was third for a few moments.
The last minute of the session was a crazy change of positions in the provisional pole: there were up to four pilots opposing the pole. It started as Sainz, with an advantage of 815 thousandths; but Leclerc surpassed him by 883; then came Verstappen, who surpassed them by 243 thousandths; and in the last attempt Sainz beat the Dutchman by only 72 thousandths. Pérez, who was still on the track, had the option of snatching pole from him, but he stayed in fourth time.
“I did not expect. It can’t be, how did I get it?”, Sainz’s silly laugh loosened over the radio, excited, between pots of porpoising.
1. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
6. Lando Norris (McLaren)
7. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
8. George Russell (Mercedes)
9. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
10. Nicholas Latifi (Williams).
11. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri)
12. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
13. Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
14. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
15. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
16. Alex Albon (Williams)
Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
18. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
19. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
20. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
