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British GP 2022 - Qualifying: Surprise maiden pole position in the rain for Sainz, Verstappen P2

Carlos Sainz scored the first pole position of his career around a very wet Silverstone, making him the 104th pole sitter in the history of Formula 1, just 0.072 sec ahead of Max Verstappen in P2, with Charles Leclerc in P3.

As forecasted earlier, rain hit the track just a few minutes before the start of the session, forcing the drivers to go out in the track using the intermediate compound.


Q1: All drivers used the intermediate tyre, but with rain stopping towards the end of the session, atrack conditions begun to improve causing the surface to start drying up. Eliminated in Q1: Alex Albon (P16), Kevin Magnussen (P17), Sebastian Vettel (P18), Mick Schumacher (P19) and Lance Stroll (P20).


Q2: Heavier than earlier rain hit the track again, with several drivers reporting some aquaplaining, no change in tyre choice. Note that Nicholas Latifi made it into Q3, with Williams team principal, Jost Capito, coming on the Canadian's team radio congatulating him: "Nicky well done! You are in Q3, fantastic job!". Eliminated in Q2: Pierre Gasly (P11), Valtteri Bottas (P12), Yuki Tsunoda (P13), Daniel Ricciardo (P14) and Esteban Ocon (P15).


Q3: A session with mixed conditions, with bits of rain here and there, mixing the order of the grid up. We saw Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in a very exciting battle for pole, with the Spaniard Ferrari driver dominating the other two.

Sergio Perez in P4, followed by Lewis Hamilton in P5, who probably expected more, after running in P2-P4 in all free practice sessions.

Just behind them, Lando Norris in P6, who once again outperformed his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo (P14), and Fernando Alonso in P7.

Completing the top 10, George Russell in P8, who just like his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, would expect to be higher up the starting grid on tomorrow's race, Guanyu Zhou in P9 and Nicholas Latifi in P10.


Full Qualifying Classification:



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