F1 Grand Prix, GP Great Britain, Silverstone Circuit

Mercedes driver George Russell beat his team-mate Lewis Hamilton to secure pole position for the British Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the qualifying session.

Q1 - Tricky conditions

Drivers encountered very difficult conditions in the opening qualifying session. When the session started, it was still damp which prompted drivers to hit the track on Pirelli’s intermediates.

Sergio Perez had a disaster after becoming beached in the gravel in the opening minutes of the session. Having been unable to rejoin, the Red Bull driver will line up in P19. The session was red-flagged so that the stricken Red Bull could be removed from the gravel trap.

When the session restarted, drivers headed back on to the circuit, but this time on slick tyres. With the rain clouds having gathered over the circuit, everyone was in a hurry to get at least a soft-tyre quick lap under his belt, but ultimately the conditions allowed drivers to complete three quick laps.

Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly were eliminated at the end of Q1.

Q2 – Disaster for Leclerc

Track conditions further improved for the middle part of qualifying with the rain staying away from Silverstone.

It was a disappointing day for Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari man was pushed into the elimination zone of Q2 to end the session in P11. The Monegasque made a mistake into the fast turn of Chapel which meant that his exit onto the long Hangar straight was compromised.

Charles Leclerc, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo were eliminated at the end of Q2.

Q3 – Dominant form from Mercedes

The last segment saw Mercedes emerge as fastest with George Russell setting the benchmark with a 125.819s to secure his second pole position of the season.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton ended the session in P2 with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking third for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen suffered from understeer all through the final qualifying segment and ended up only fourth fastest.

Oscar Piastri will line up fifth tomorrow and he will be joined by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg on the third row.

Following Leclerc’s elimination in Q2, Ferrari endured another disaster in the last qualifying segment as Carlos Sainz secured a disappointing seventh place, seven tenths of a second behind Russell.

Lance Stroll claimed P8, from Alexander Albon in P9 and Fernando Alonso in P10.