Lewis Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 reporter Natalie Pinkham that he was ‘not surprised’ by Max Verstappen’s pole position at the British Grand Prix. The Dutchman struggled to extract pace from his RB21 until the critical moment at the end of Q3. Heading into the final part of qualifying on Saturday, the battle for pole position looked to be between the McLaren and Ferrari drivers.
Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc locked out the top two positions in Q2, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri punched in rapid times on their Q3 banker laps. However, in what is becoming trademark fashion, Verstappen put a heroic lap together on his final run, leapfrogging both McLaren drivers to upset the British charge for pole position. Hamilton, meanwhile, was forced to settle for fifth place. He was tracking for a front-row start alongside the Dutchman but lost time at Club corner.
In the media pen after qualifying, Pinkham noted that ‘everyone was surprised’ by Verstappen’s pole lap, but Hamilton disagreed. “Yeah, well they’re always in Q3 run 2, they come out of nowhere and they’re always quick, so it’s not surprising,” he replied.
Looking more generally at his qualifying, Hamilton took the positives. The seven-time world champion has struggled to beat team-mate Leclerc since swapping Mercedes for Ferrari, but has demonstrated plenty of promise at the track where he is already a nine-time Grand Prix winner.
“Pretty decent qualifying. It’s generally been a decent weekend so far,” he said. “I’m definitely feeling more comfortable with the setup of the car and the balance of the car. Right up until the last corner, I think I was close to second on the grid, but had a bit of understeer and ended up losing a tenth-and-a-bit.”
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Hamilton went on to add: “In Q1, the timing was off and we only had one lap of fuel and there was still time on the table. It was a big, big risk and definitely was not well executed, and we executed better in the next two.
“I think it will be very, very hard to beat the McLarens or the Red Bulls but when there is a will there is a way. I’ll give it absolutely everything tomorrow. We are a little bit far behind where I want to be, but with the weather and this amazing crowd…”
While Hamilton chose to take the positives from Saturday’s pace, his team-mate was less happy. Leclerc was incensed on the radio, launching into a sensational self-depreciating rant after making a mistake at the final corner – the same spot where the seven-time world champion lost time.