2025 British Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
Jul 5
3 min read

With three home drivers in the fight around one of the best tracks on the calendar, we were set for a terrific Qualifying around Silverstone to set the Grid for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, and Franco Colapinto were the five slowest drivers! Liam Lawson will be really disappointed to have been knocked out this early into Qualifying after his superb performance last weekend, and the same can in fact be said about Gabriel Bortoleto! Lance Stroll could only manage 18th for Aston Martin after being caught out by the Yellow Flag whilst Nico Hulkenberg ended up 19th despite being less than 7 tenths off Pole! Crazy, but also a very disappointing day for Kick Sauber! Franco Colapinto ended the session slowest after crashing (which brought out a Red Flag), and this can’t keep happening! It was Max Verstappen who managed to top Q1, a tenth clear of Oscar Piastri!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Carlos Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar, Alex Albon, and Esteban Ocon all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Whilst he might not have made Q3, Carlos Sainz will be satisfied with a Top 10 start (thanks to grid penalties for others) whilst Yuki Tsunoda could only manage 12th for Red Bull! Isack Hadjar was 13th as Racing Bulls struggled for pace, ahead of the other Williams of Alex Albon (who was unhappy with a setup change), whilst Esteban Ocon ended up slowest in the session! It was a Ferrari 1-2 in Q2, with Lewis Hamilton heading Charles Leclerc!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a 1:24.892 was enough for Max Verstappen to take a blockbuster Pole Position in front of the Silverstone crowd! This was simply lovely, wow, and also very fitting that it took place in Great Britain! A slight mistake on his final run potentially cost Oscar Piastri, but he will still be happy to be ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris whilst George Russell did a great job to get his Mercedes into 4th! In fact, there was only 34 thousandths of a second separating Russell to Piastri! Ferrari will actually be disappointed with 5th and 6th, especially Lewis Hamilton who lost time right at the end of his final lap (he still edged out Charles Leclerc, though)! Andrea Kimi Antonelli will serve a 3-place Grid drop for tomorrow’s Race, but it’s not nearly as bad as Oliver Bearman who will have to drop down 10 places for an incident in FP3! What a disaster, because Bearman was brilliant today! Fernando Alonso achieved another Q3 for Aston Martin, he will start 7th despite a disappointing final run, and Pierre Gasly did a mega, mega job to get his Alpine into Q3!