SILVERSTONE, England –
Carlos Sainz needed 151 attempts to secure his first Formula 1 pole. Now he will be chasing that elusive first win.
But alongside Sainz, defending champion Max Verstappen will start on the front row at Sunday’s British Grand Prix, a year after the crash with Lewis Hamilton that turned their title fight into a bitter rivalry.
Verstappen was booed in the rain by some in the crowd after Saturday’s action-packed qualifying session and said he could barely hear his interview questions at the track over the jeers.
“If you want to boo, do it. It won’t change anything for me,” he said. “Maybe some of them don’t like me, but that’s okay. You all have your own opinion.
Sainz set the fastest time late in Q3 to overtake Verstappen by just 0.072s. It was Ferrari’s seventh pole in 10 races this season, although Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc had claimed the first six poles before Sainz’s surprise run.
“The first pole position is always something special, and especially in the wet at Silverstone,” said Sainz. “I kept it cool throughout the session and towards the end I decided to push.”
Sainz narrowly missed his first career win two weeks ago at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished just behind Verstappen. The Spaniard has finished on the podium 11 times in his career, but never on the top step. He finished second three times this season.
Leclerc starts third ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
Sunday’s race will be largely dry after a rainy qualifying session. The improved conditions could favor the two Red Bulls after Verstappen set an all-time fastest lap time in the last practice session this weekend before rain started to fall at Silverstone.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth for his home race as Mercedes appeared to have made progress on its high-speed bounce issues. His teammate George Russell finished eighth.
When Verstappen spoke trackside after qualifying, the Dutchman could hear the boos and could barely hear the questions asked during his interview. Hamilton wasn’t happy with his home crowd’s reaction to his rival.
“I think we’re better than that. I would say we don’t have to boo, but we have such amazing fans and our sports fans, they feel emotions, ups and downs, but I definitely don’t agree with booing,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know, maybe some of them are still feeling the pain from last year. Either way, I don’t agree.”
Verstappen and Hamilton collided in last year’s race, with Verstappen hitting the wall while Hamilton overcame a penalty and won. The incident heightened their often bitter rivalry in a title race ultimately won by Verstappen and angered some British fans against Verstappen.
He was taken to a hospital for observation after the accident and complained that Hamilton was showing poor sportsmanship by celebrating the win while Verstappen was under medical examination.
Drivers have been dealing with negative fan reactions of late, with Russell revealing Thursday that he was booed by a random fan in Montreal two weeks ago. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sided with his drivers.
“We shouldn’t see boos in any sport,” said Wolff. “I find it unsportsmanlike. It’s clear we love the support from the riders here and the team, it’s fantastic, and the enthusiasm. But if you’re not into the other guys, then just shut up. That would be a good way.”
“I don’t think any of the drivers deserve any boos, whatever happened last year, no matter what the competition.”
Preparation for this year’s race has been dominated by the use of racist slurs and homophobic language by three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet to describe Hamilton in an interview filmed after the accident at Silverstone last year. The interview didn’t garner much attention until this week before returning to the race track.
Hamilton and other drivers condemned Piquet. Verstappen, who is dating Piquet’s daughter Kelly, said Piquet used “very abusive” language but added that the Brazilian is also “a really nice and laid-back guy” who isn’t a racist.
Leclerc said he felt his Ferrari was “competitive” but a mistake prevented him from fighting for pole position.
“I knew it was the lap where I had to put everything together and I as a driver didn’t, so I didn’t deserve to be on pole,” he said.
Further down the grid there was another surprise in the rain as Canada’s Nicholas Latifi qualified for Williams with a career-best 10th place finish. The Montreal-born, Toronto-raised driver never finished better than 14th all season, driving an older version of the car than teammate Alexander Albon, who finished 16th.
Montreal’s Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished 20th.
“Getting into Q2 was a great performance and a nice confidence boost and then Q3 was more than we could have hoped for,” said Latifi, who was followed by speculation his seat at Williams was in jeopardy.
“We have to be very strategic about how we approach the race. It’s going to be a race of attrition, how we handle the tyres. Anything is possible. So we’re going to focus on our own racing and maximize any opportunities that come our way .” Path.”