F1 Today | Hamilton stars on home soil as Russell baffled by Ferrari performance

Sprint Qualifying at Silverstone belonged to Lewis Hamilton, who looked comfortable from the very first session and carried that pace all the way to pole. The Ferrari driver topped both SQ1 and SQ2 before delivering once again in the one-lap shootout of SQ3, beating Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011s to secure the best possible starting position for Saturday's Sprint.

Antonelli emerged as Hamilton's closest challenger throughout qualifying, while Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen remained firmly in the fight for the front two rows. In the end, the Dutchman snatched third from the Ferrari driver by just six thousandths of a second, with George Russell unable to match the pace at the front and settling for fifth. Racing Bulls also impressed, as Liam Lawson and Liam Lawson both reached SQ3 after strong performances in the opening phases of qualifying.

The Briton was left disappointed after qualifying fifth for the Sprint at Silverstone, admitting he could not explain why he was unable to match the pace of teammate Kimi Antonelli and pole-sitter Hamilton. Although the Mercedes driver felt the car was performing reasonably well and expected to take another step forward in qualifying, he instead found himself lacking the speed to fight at the very front.

He insisted the W17 felt better than anticipated around Silverstone, particularly through the high-speed corners, making the final result even more confusing from his perspective. While he stressed that Saturday's running will be more important, he acknowledged the team needs to understand where the missing lap time came from.

Russell also admitted he had not expected Ferrari to be the benchmark at Silverstone, pointing out that the Italian team had struggled with power unit performance and energy management in recent races. While he has long considered Ferrari's chassis to be one of the strongest on the grid, he confessed he was surprised by the Scuderia's pace this weekend and felt some aspects of its performance compared to the rest of the field were difficult to explain.