Valtteri Bottas charges to pole at Silverstone - Qualifying Report

F1 News

13 July 2019 at 14:50
Last update 13 July 2019 at 15:17
  • Louis Shaw
  • Editor

Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position at the British Grand Prix with a record-breaking lap around the iconic Silverstone circuit. It was always going to be close between the Mercedes and Ferrari and the start of the race will be interesting as the cars are on differing strategies. Lewis Hamilton made a mistake on his hot lap much to the home fans disappointment. Here's what happened in Qualifying.  

Q1 

This session reflected what we had seen during the previous practice sessions of the weekend. The Williams of George Russell and Robert Kubica looked slow but the Brit was faster than his teammate once again. Lance Stroll continued his dismal qualifying streak, failing to get out of Q1 yet again this season for SportPesa Racing Point. A last-minute lap from Sergio Perez saw the team get one driver into Q2. Daniil Kvyat wasn't able to match the performance of his Toro Rosso teammate and it was the same story for Kevin Magnussen's Haas.  

16. Kevin Magnussen 

17. Daniil Kvyat 

18. Lance Stroll 

19. George Russell 

20. Robert Kubica 

Q2

Teams rushed out at the start of Q2 due to incoming rain clouds, meaning teams wanted to bank a lap in case it started to get wet. The rain didn't fall but all of the expected drivers got through to Q3. Romain Grosjean struggled to get his car performing and Alfa Romeo's problems continued to occur with both drivers failing to get through. 

In the final minutes of the session, everyone apart from Hamilton headed out on the soft tyre and times started to improve for Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel meaning that they will both start the race on the soft tyre. 

11. Antonio Giovinazzi 

12. Kimi Raikkonen 

13. Carlos Sainz

14. Romain Grosjean 

15. Sergio Perez

Q3

The final qualifying session started in quick fashion. All of the cars headed out on track and clocked record-breaking lap times. Ferrari seemed to be struggling with Red Bull's Max Verstappen seeming to be on pace. Lando Norris continued his impressive streak and pushed his McLaren to the limit to finish in the top 10. As cars headed out for the final shootout the grip seemed to go for Mercedes. But the team seem to have returned to their dominant selves. Vettel really struggled to perform and has been shown up by his teammate once again. The German will start in 6th.   

1. Valtteri Bottas

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Charles Leclerc 

4. Max Verstappen

5. Pierre Gasly 

6. Sebastian Vettel  

7. Daniel Ricciardo 

8. Lando Norris   

9. Alex Albon 

10. Nico Hulkenberg