2024 F1 Round 12, British GP qualifying: Russell takes pole in 1m25.819s as Mercedes lock out the front row for the first time in nearly two years and Britons fill the top three

Qualifying for Round 12 of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the British Grand Prix, concluded at Silverstone on the evening of 6 July China time (UTC+8). Mercedes’ George Russell took pole with a 1m25.819s lap, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton second, 0.171s behind. It was Mercedes’ first front-row lockout since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. McLaren’s Lando Norris was third, giving the home crowd an all-British top three, the first time British drivers had filled the top three qualifying positions at Silverstone. Yuki Tsunoda reached Q2 and finished 13th.

Q1 began on intermediate tyres before drivers switched to soft slicks as the track dried. With seven and a half minutes remaining, Red Bull’s Perez oversteered off at Turn 9 and became stuck in the gravel, bringing out the red flags. It was his third Q1 elimination of the season. Verstappen also lost control and ran into the gravel at the same corner, but maintained enough momentum to escape and return to the track. He narrowly progressed to Q2 in 11th, although the excursion damaged his floor and compromised the rest of his session.

Tsunoda produced a last-gasp escape in Q1. He was still in the elimination zone when the chequered flag fell, but the fastest first sector of anyone helped him climb to sixth on his final lap and knock Sauber’s Bottas out. DRS was enabled in Q2 and lap times dropped sharply as the surface continued to improve. Tsunoda ultimately finished 13th, while team-mate Ricciardo failed to put together his last lap and was only 15th, 0.680s slower.

Ferrari’s Leclerc missed out to Stroll by 0.159s and was eliminated in Q2 in 11th. Williams’ Sargeant made Q2 for the third time that season and finished 12th, with Zhou Guanyu 14th. In Q3, Verstappen made a mistake at Turn 5 on his final lap and had to settle for fourth on the grid. Piastri was fifth, while Hulkenberg took sixth for a heavily upgraded Haas. He set the fastest first sector, which included two slow corners, and was just 0.101s behind Piastri overall. Ferrari, troubled by high-speed bouncing and a worsening balance after its upgrades, could not challenge for the top five. Sainz was seventh, around 0.7s off pole, while Stroll beat Albon and team-mate Alonso to eighth.

At the 1962 British Grand Prix at Aintree, British drivers Jim Clark, John Surtees and Innes Ireland had occupied the top three positions. Russell, Hamilton and Norris repeated that achievement at Silverstone. The 52-lap race was scheduled to start at 22:00 China time (UTC+8) on 7 July.