Fifth pole position in a row for Verstappen, but the McLarens are the real surprise!

(Cover picture: McLaren - Twitter)

Who would have bet on a qualifying with two McLarens in the top three places on the eve of the British Grand Prix?

Considering Ferrari's form and, why not, the surprising Williams of Albon, few would have thought of finding the two papaya cars of Norris in P2 and Piastri in P3 behind the usual poleman Verstappen. But that is exactly what happened, and before talking about how it all came together, let's look at the final results of these qualifications:

Whereas Verstappen is a certainty, the McLarens benefit from low temperatures

After a rainy FP3 session for large stretches, the bad weather didn't hit the qualifying session; on the other hand, as expected in England, the temperatures were pretty low... As we have seen several times this year, the low track temperature is where one of the weaknesses of the Red Bull RB19 lie.

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

But whereas Verstappen manages to paper over the cracks, his teammate Sergio Perez - exactly as happened in Melbourne and Barcelona - doesn't even reach Q3. On this occasion it was the cut in Q1 where he was eliminated, placing him in an uncomfortable P16 from which it won't be so obvious to recover in the race.

It's weird to say the least that in the last 5 qualifying sessions held, while Verstappen set 5 consecutive pole positions, Perez failed to break into the top 10 even once! After a start to the World Championship that gave us hopes of some fighting at the top, it's now established that Max has no competitors at all...

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Verstappen's best laptime didn't came out easily: instead of the usual sidereal gap, today we saw a laptime difference of only 2 tenths on Norris and almost 4 tenths on Piastri. The big problem, for Max as for the others, was dealing with a very slippery track, made treacherous by the rain that only stopped falling during Q1.

“It was a hectic qualifying, and the track was quite slippery in places like turns 15 and 16. Despite that, we did our laps, and while pushing to the limit in Q3, when you know you have a fast car there's no need to get to 100%. I was surprised to see the two of them [referring to Norris and Piastri] so high. I mean, it's fantastic for McLaren and I hope they can have a good race tomorrow too. For our part, we are very happy to be in pole position”

Max Verstappen

If the low temperatures and slippery track surface made the World Champion's job harder than usual, it's in these same conditions that the McLaren duo brought home their best result of the year in qualifying. Already from the last stint of the race in Monaco and from qualifying in Barcelona it was clear that the MCL60, an average car until those revealing moments, had a strong point in its ability to immediately "switch on" the tyres.

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

This proved to be an advantage not just for Lando but above all for Oscar, who being a rookie benefitted enormously from having in his hands a car that was "ready" straight out of the box. In fact, we saw that while Norris was able to set impressive laptimes starting from Q1, Piastri had to take a little more time to get to that level of competitiveness.

“Thank you to all the fans, I was close to pole: I was in front in Q1 and Q2, and the last lap in Q3 was good too... I could hear Zak Brown's happiness on the radio! Max is a annoying, he always ruins everything for everyone! Seriously, a Saturday like this is truly incredible”

Lando Norris

After all, however, there's less than two tenths of a gap between the two, so I consider the performance provided by the Aussie worth: in Formula 1 everything runs fast and nobody can afford the luxury of taking some time before starting to perform at a high level, but we mustn't forget that it was only the tenth qualifying session in Oscar's career!

“What a qualifying! In Q1 I was almost out, then in Q2 and Q3 the car was a rocket. Being up front like this is exceptional, and we'll try to replicate that tomorrow. In free practice we didn't express our full potential because we weren't in the right window... But in Monaco and Canada we had already shown that we were going very fast in these conditions. Many thanks to all the guys who worked in the factory”

Oscar Piastri

From 4th to 7th position, a close fight between the two Ferraris and the two Mercedes!

Behind the top 3 we find the two Ferraris with Leclerc in P4 and Sainz in P5, and the two Mercedes with Russell in P6 and Hamilton in P7: between the first and the last of this group there's an extremely narrow gap of 0.075 s!

The least satisfied team of the two will be Ferrari for sure: arriving in Silverstone as the second quickest team, they find themselves looking for something to get the better of the surprising McLarens in the race.

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Charles Leclerc rightly believes that today he had a SF-23 competitive enough to obtain pole position: immediately after his last flying lap, he admitted to his track engineer on the radio that he had pushed too hard, thus making a mistake...

“I risked everything in the last sector: the approach I had was paying off up to that point, but in these conditions it's difficult, because as soon as you go over the limit you lose a lot... Even in turns 6-7 I think I struggled, but there are still positive sides. In Q1 and Q2, where there were the conditions in which I suffered the most in the last rounds, I didn't perform badly: I worked a lot on this, and I'm happy with the steps taken. That's not to say I'm already at the level I want to be, but I felt more comfortable than before. The McLarens are really strong, we'll see if the same applies to the race pace: our goal will be to reach at least 2nd place, even though we know that Mercedes is very strong in the race"

Charles Leclerc

Speaking of Mercedes, the situation has improved since Friday's free practice: the slippery track conditions led to a different scenario, in which the struggles endured yesterday by Russell and Hamilton gave way to other smaller issues (mainly the need to put temperature in the tyres), and the picture appeared to be clearer.

If the "movie" seen in Austria were to be repeated, it will be difficult for the two drivers of the English-German team to get rid of the Ferraris: their low downforce setup will make the two SF-23s difficult to pass on the straights, while as we know the W14 doesn't excel in terms of top speed... Even at a strategic level, on paper there is little to do: when dueling in 2 vs 2 conditions, both Ferrari and Mercedes can use one of the two drivers to mark the opposing team.

What a shame for Albon: he's only P8 after three free practices always in the top 3

We conclude the analysis of Saturday at Silverstone by talking about the eighth position of Alex Albon and his Williams. A result which, considering the results so far in the 2023 World Championship, is to be welcomed positively, but which, as far as we have seen on the English track, is a bit of a missed opportunity.

We recall that in free practice Alex positioned himself as follows:

  • P3 in FP1;
  • P3 in FP2;
  • P2 in FP3;

Even in Q1 and in Q2 his performance hadn't declined, but evidently when it was time to get 100% out of the single-seaters, what the FW45 had to offer him wasn't enough to attack the two above-mentioned teams.

What can Albon hope for in view of the Grand Prix? We have seen how his car doesn't lack top speed, and even the race pace in general does not seem weak... So I would assume a place in the points zone achievable, which would be pure gold for a team like Williams which in the Constructors Championship standings currently has more rivals than points!

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Together with the #23 from the Grove team, who we counted among the disappointed drivers on Saturday, we also have to mention Fernando Alonso: like his teammate Lance Stroll, Fernando was never at ease on a slippery track throughout the session, and starting from ninth place on the grid can be a serious impediment - given the low straight-line speed of his Aston Martin AMR23.

Having said that, I hope you enjoyed the qualifying and the analysis I brought you here... In the meantime, don't forget the race is tomorrow at 4.00 pm CET: have fun!

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