Home hero Hamilton storms to Sprint pole at Silverstone as Russell falters

Lewis Hamilton picked up where he left off in FP1 by topping the timesheets in SQ1, much to the delight of the home crowd. The Brit set a 1:29.273 on the medium compound to finish a tenth clear of his Ferrari teammate. Isack Hadjar continued his impressive start to the weekend by taking third, looking sharper than Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen up to that point.

Mercedes struggled for outright pace, with George Russell only fifth and four tenths off the benchmark, while Kimi Antonelli could do no better than seventh, almost half a second adrift of Hamilton. Liam Lawson ended the session eighth, Nico Hülkenberg impressed in ninth for Audi, and Lando Norris also found himself off the pace, scraping through in 10th.

Eliminated in SQ1 were Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Hamilton continued to set the pace in SQ2, once again going quickest with a 1:28.747 to finish ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. Liam Lawson produced another impressive performance to take fourth, followed by Oscar Piastri in fifth and Max Verstappen in sixth.

George Russell continued to struggle and could only manage seventh, with Isack Hadjar eighth. Arvid Lindblad and Lando Norris completed the top 10, the latter scraping through to the final segment by the narrowest of margins.

Eliminated in SQ2 were Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoleto, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

With only one flying lap in SQ3, Hamilton once again came out on top to secure pole position for Saturday's Sprint. Kimi Antonelli claimed an impressive second and will line up alongside the seven-time world champion on the front row. Max Verstappen edged out Charles Leclerc by just six thousandths of a second to take third, while George Russell endured another difficult session and could only manage fifth.