Tag: British GP

McLaren gains show what in-season development can do – Wolff

Toto Wolff believes the major gains made by McLaren over the past few races are exciting for Mercedes because it shows what is possible during as season. McLaren brought a major update to the Austrian Grand Prix and further added to it at …

Toto Wolff believes the major gains made by McLaren over the past few races are exciting for Mercedes because it shows what is possible during as season.

McLaren brought a major update to the Austrian Grand Prix and further added to it at Silverstone, where Lando Norris followed up a fourth place at the Red Bull Ring with second at his home race. Oscar Piastri ended up fourth on Sunday having qualified third.

“I think we’ve seen that major step that Aston Martin was able to bring, and now McLaren,” Wolff said. “We have been fighting with the car since a year and a half, trying to do performance but it’s just chipping away at those small gains, rather than to do such a step.

“But I really see the positives, because fundamentally I don’t care whether we finish second or third. It’s important to find our way back to fighting for victories and the world championship. And while podiums make us really happy to see that the car has potential, fundamentally all eyes are on the big prize and that’s why it’s exciting to see that McLaren was able to find a second.

“Why it is exciting to see the McLaren bounce back is that you can within a season. Fair enough, they had much more wind tunnel time, but in any case, coming with upgrades which completely changed the performance of the car.

“We are not talking about two tenths up and down, but we are talking about a second. And that’s good for the sport, that if you do the right things and put things together — we’ve seen it with the Aston Martin year-to-year, we’ve seen it with the McLaren now during the year, and I like it.”

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Although Wolff acknowledges Mercedes doesn’t have as much aerodynamic testing freedom as McLaren, he also says Mercedes can target such a major gain if it changes its approach in future.

“I think we are restricted by the cost cap and by the relative less amount in wind tunnel and CFD time that McLaren was able to have. They finished further back in the championship and they were like fifth or sixth mid-year. So they carried over that more wind tunnel time allocation. And that’s why it’s kind of difficult.

“Do I believe that we have upgrades in there that are going to fundamentally change the car? I don’t believe so. But we have a few small steps that are to come. And you can see that if you find the tenth or two or three, it puts you in a different position on the grid. But yeah, I think we can do that step.”

Silverstone shows Ferrari still needs to make big steps – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness in the British Grand Prix shows that it still needs to make big steps forward with its 2023 car. Ferrari brought an upgrade in recent races that led to a much-improved showing in race pace in …

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness in the British Grand Prix shows that it still needs to make big steps forward with its 2023 car.

Ferrari brought an upgrade in recent races that led to a much-improved showing in race pace in both Canada and Austria, re-igniting its chances of finishing second in the constructors’ championship. However, at Silverstone Leclerc ended up ninth and Carlos Sainz 10th after pitting early and losing out under the safety car, something Leclerc says is more damaging to the end result due to the overall lack of performance.

“Honestly, not having the pace puts us in a situation where it’s very tricky to manage whatever situation there is,” Leclerc said. “So then it looks like bad luck. The timing of the safety car was definitely not the best for us, and was beneficial for many other drivers. At the end, it’s life. We just didn’t have pace. It’s not like we degraded the tires more than others. It’s just that Mercedes and McLaren were stronger than us.

“I managed to keep George (Russell) behind for the first part of the race. Then I think we pitted for George not to pit and undercut us, but that was too early. And then we had the safety car, once I started pushing on the hard, and then we got overcut by most of the people.

“There’s still a long way to go. At the moment, we seem still very sensitive to the change of conditions. When I say change of conditions, I mean mostly the wind. When we have a change of wind, our car becomes extremely difficult, and on that, we have made steps forward, but there are still quite big steps to do.”

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Leclerc says the difference between Ferrari’s single-lap pace and race performance also remains a problem that needs solving, after seeing McLaren make big strides in recent weekends.

“This is very difficult to understand. But we knew that this track was going to be one of our worst tracks, just because of the high-speed corners. This is one of the weaknesses of the car. It was kind of a positive surprise to be so close (in qualifying) — not timing-wise, because I didn’t do a great lap in Q3, but we were very close to Red Bull on the timed lap.

“But then in the race, we have been struggling a lot, and mostly in high-speed corners. We know why we are struggling. We are pushing a lot on the development, especially for these high-speed corners, and hopefully it will be better at the next race (in Hungary) — the track characteristics should suit our car a little bit better.

“(McLaren) were already surprising last week in Austria. This weekend, they did an even bigger step forward, and they did a great job. We knew also they are strong in high-speed corners — we could see that in Austria. We’re expecting them to be strong here, but probably not as strong as what we’ve seen. Great job by them, and now we need to push to try and catch them, at least in high-speed corners.

“It was a surprise. It’s very difficult to expect this year’s race results, because it’s so inconsistent between teams. (McLaren) were very strong this weekend.”

Hamilton looking forward to ‘more battles in the future’ with Norris after British GP dice

Lewis Hamilton was full of praise for Lando Norris after finishing third behind the McLaren driver in the British Grand Prix, but their fight exposed weaknesses Mercedes needs to address. Norris started on the front row and led for the first four …

Lewis Hamilton was full of praise for Lando Norris after finishing third behind the McLaren driver in the British Grand Prix, but their fight exposed weaknesses Mercedes needs to address.

Norris started on the front row and led for the first four laps before closely following Max Verstappen for a spell of the first stint, but he came under pressure from Hamilton after an early safety car. On the restart, Hamilton attacked on soft tires but couldn’t find a way past and Norris gradually edged away as his hard tires switched on.

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“I threw it up the inside into Turn 7 in the hope that ‘this is the moment that I’m going to make it happen’ and I pressed the overtake button…” Hamilton said. “So we’re both going down the road with the overtake but he had less drag so I guess he said they had a smaller wing and they just started pulling so I had to back out.

“But I was relatively quick in the first half of the lap and I think if you look at our qualifying laps, we were very, very close to Max (Verstappen) all the way until… I think it’s until Turn 13 and then that’s where they pull all their time. So we’ve got some work to do to improve our high speed performance.

“He is very talented, naturally, as you can see and I think is great when you can have close battles like that and rely on the driver that you’re competing with to be fair and hard but fair and so there was never an element or a moment where we thought we were going to come together or anything like that.

“That’s what motor racing is all about. As he wanted to hold onto second, I wanted to get that second but it wasn’t meant to be. So we just get our heads down and keep pushing and hopefully we’ll have some more battles moving forward.”

And Hamilton admits he was surprised that Norris was initially able to keep him at bay given the tire difference between the two, but he hadn’t been aware of how competitive the McLaren was in the opening phase of the race.

“Knowing what it’s like to be on the hards on the restart at the end with someone on the softs behind, I knew that it would be difficult. I hadn’t had any running with the McLarens. So I had no idea how strong they were earlier on in the stint, or in the race. And it wasn’t until that moment that I started to see some of their strengths and see them get stronger and stronger over the laps. 

“So I threw it up the inside and I tried to get past. But we have a little bit more drag down the straights and then through the high speed, as I said, that’s where they were just murdering us.

“So difficult, but it was fun for those first few laps. I wish we could have stayed in that close battle for many more laps, but it wasn’t meant to be. I look forward to hopefully having some more of those battles in the future.”

McLaren pace surprised Verstappen in spite of taking RBR’s 11th straight win

McLaren’s challenge to Red Bull was a surprise to Max Verstappen as he had to fight to beat Lando Norris in the British Grand Prix for the team’s 11th win in a row. Verstappen started from pole but lost out off the line and was left to fend off …

McLaren’s challenge to Red Bull was a surprise to Max Verstappen as he had to fight to beat Lando Norris in the British Grand Prix for the team’s 11th win in a row.

Verstappen started from pole but lost out off the line and was left to fend off Oscar Piastri as Norris took the lead for the opening four laps. While the Dutchman soon overtook Norris, the McLaren was able to stay close for a number of laps and used DRS to put pressure on initially, with Verstappen admitting he didn’t expect such a threat.

“It wasn’t particularly straightforward,” Verstappen said. “I had a bad start, lots of wheelspin, and so I had to work my way up again and get past Lando – it took a few laps. Then it also took a few laps to cool the tires down again in the lead, so Lando came back at me in the DRS, but once everything settled in we could open up the gap lap after lap to nine seconds until the safety car came out.

“So that was very positive and the team was working quite well. But it was still surprising to see that the McLaren, or Lando, was actually that quick over the whole stint. And then because of the safety car we had to make the decision of what tire to put on – the soft or the hard – so we opted to go for the soft, which at the time I thought was right, but when we restarted it only took a few laps and then I realized it was quite tricky to keep them under control with the temperatures.

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“It wasn’t particularly nice to drive, so we will look into that and maybe we should have gone on the hard tyre so we could have pushed a bit harder over the whole stint because the first two or three laps were a bit difficult.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was less surprised that Norris got the jump at the start but was left fearing Verstappen could be caught in an incident with Oscar Piastri as the pair went side-by-side into Copse on the opening lap.

“I need to hear what Max has to say and what the engineers have to say,” Horner said. “But historically, here, second place has tended to get the better start. Lando and particularly Piastri had a flyer. It was just a question of staying cool and then Max was able to make the pass a few laps later.

“My thoughts were ‘not great,’ but at least he came through Copse! Once he was through Copse I thought at least I can go over to the pit wall and from there it was just a matter of settling in and staying in the DRS.”

‘My heart was racing’ Norris says after leading British GP and landing first F1 podium

Lando Norris admits his “heart was racing” while leading his home race after his strong start to the British Grand Prix. Max Verstappen suffered wheelspin from pole position and Norris took the lead from the front row, with Oscar Piastri also …

Lando Norris admits his “heart was racing” while leading his home race after his strong start to the British Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen suffered wheelspin from pole position and Norris took the lead from the front row, with Oscar Piastri also attacking the Red Bull for second place. Verstappen withstood that pressure and then overtook Norris on lap four, but the British driver says the spell leading the field at Silverstone was a special time.

“My heart was racing a bit more than normal, and I was watching the crowd a few times…” Norris said.

“The team have done a good job. They’ve improved the car. The last few weeks have been extremely good. I’m very happy for them. But to get the launch kind of saved me from some of the chaos behind, because you never know what can happen in Turn 3 and Turn 4.

“I managed to push on quite a bit the first few laps, which was exactly what we wanted to do. It doesn’t always go to plan. We planned for that, and got me out of trouble. Very good pace the first stint. We managed to break away from everyone quite a bit. We managed to go with Max for a little bit, just not as much as I would have loved to do.”

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Going on to hold off Lewis Hamilton after a safety car period and finishing second, Norris says his first podium in his home race makes it the best result of his career to date.

“I would say the best, most exciting one. I think your first podium in Formula 1 is always pretty special. That’s one you remember forever. Maybe not when you’ve got as many as (Verstappen and Hamilton) do. For me, I’m still in that phase where every one means a lot, especially my first one here in my home grand prix.

“It’s special hearing everyone chanting, seeing all the fans, seeing all the team below the podium. It’s something like I saw back in 2007, 2008, when I first started watching Formula 1, seeing Lewis and Fernando (Alonso) here. Now it’s my turn. It’s pretty special to be here now and to be in that position, and especially on a day like today give how tricky it was at times. I’m very proud.”

Having been so comfortable for the first part of the race, Norris was given a tough task to finish ahead of Hamilton on hard tires with the Mercedes on softs, and admits he felt it made for an unnecessarily tense finish.

“We would have been in the same position (if McLaren fitted softs), so I don’t see why we wouldn’t have done it. I feel like we put ourselves under more pressure to try and get a hard tire to work with a safety car restart with 10 laps to go pretty much.

“It’s one we’ll talk about. I was telling them to think of the softs quite a bit, insinuating it as much as I could. But then they just told me you’re on the hards. So not really what I wanted, but it still worked out.”

Piastri rues lost podium chance following ill-timed safety car

Oscar Piastri was pained at having missed out on an opportunity for his first podium finish in Formula 1 after he was demoted to fourth place in the British Grand Prix during a safety car period. The McLaren rookie was shadowing teammate Lando …

Oscar Piastri was pained at having missed out on an opportunity for his first podium finish in Formula 1 after he was demoted to fourth place in the British Grand Prix during a safety car period.

The McLaren rookie was shadowing teammate Lando Norris throughout the first half of the race at Silverstone, with the pair running second and third to Max Verstappen and with the pace to pull away from Ferrari and Mercedes behind. However, Kevin Magnussen’s retirement came three laps after Piastri had made his pit stop, and with Lewis Hamilton having yet to pit the Mercedes driver was able to jump up to third place.

“Definitely, yep — it hurts to be so close to a podium,” Piastri said. “We were looking so good — we executed everything we could, we were pulling away from the cars behind, all to be one second too far behind pretty much when the SC came out. It hurts a little bit, but I’m so happy that I’m disappointed with P4, as opposed to what it’s been earlier in the season.”

Norris took the lead from Verstappen at the start and Piastri was also able to attack the Red Bull, but says he had his momentum halted because the front row blocked his route towards Turn 1.

“I was pretty excited to be honest, when I got off the line and was like, ‘OK, I’ve got the best start out of everyone here’ and had to find somewhere to go. I ran out of space, but I think the more exciting part was being able to hang onto the back of him for a few laps — and even for the rest of the race it wasn’t like he was stupidly quicker than us. So that was very exciting — to be genuinely the second-quickest team today exceeded all of our expectations.”

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Despite the disappointment of not picking up a trophy, Piastri says the more encouraging aspect is validation that McLaren has improved its race pace after some difficult Sundays earlier this season.

“Still a bit more to come, too,” he said. “I’ve got the new front wing next weekend which Lando had, which is exciting, a couple more other bits, so yeah, nice to know we’re fighting here and we still have a little bit more to come.

“Clearly the upgrade’s a massive step forward — very good step forward over one lap, but the race pace is clearly where we’ve made a massive jump. Going into the race I was maybe slightly cautious we’d hit reverse like we have done recently but if anything it was even stronger than Austria, so that was super exciting.”

Verstappen overcomes McLaren challenge in British GP win

Max Verstappen led Red Bull Racing to a record-equaling 11th consecutive grand prix win with a straightforward victory at the British Grand Prix. The triumphant streak, dating back to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, matches McLaren’s legendary …

Max Verstappen led Red Bull Racing to a record-equaling 11th consecutive grand prix win with a straightforward victory at the British Grand Prix.

The triumphant streak, dating back to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, matches McLaren’s legendary 1988 streak that saw the team win all but one race that season.

Verstappen was made to work for his win in the opening phase of the race, when he was jumped from pole by second-place starter Lando Norris.

Norris got the better start to sweep into the lead at the first turn, and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri attempted to make it a one-two by pressuring Verstappen all the way up to Copse, where he thought better of attempting to dive down the Dutchman’s inside.

But McLaren’s dream of an unlikely victory lived only as long as it took for race control to enable DRS. By lap 5, Verstappen breezed into the lead with an easy slipstream pass.

A safety car restart on lap 39 — called for Kevin Magnussen’s combusting Haas power unit — brought the field back together again, but a perfect getaway meant no threat ever eventuated, and he cruised to the checkered flag.

“We had a terrible start, so we need to look into why that was,” Verstappen said. “But even after that both McLarens were super quick. It took a few laps to pass them, then at one point I could ease out a gap and everything looked all right again.

“Of course very happy that we won again — 11 wins in a row for the team, I think is pretty incredible.”

Norris converted his front-row start to second place after a late-race duel with Lewis Hamilton for the runner-up position.

Norris’s switch to the hard tire during the caution, whereas Hamilton took the soft, gave the Mercedes significantly more grip for the first few laps of the resumption. Norris’s defense was inch perfect as they diced through Brooklands, Luffield and Woodcote, and twice Hamilton had to think better of a bold move through Copse.

But by the time DRS was enabled three laps into the restart, Norris’s tires were up to temperature, preventing an easy pass. Hamilton, meanwhile, had cooked his tires, and his challenge faded. Norris took the flag with a 2.9s advantage for his best result since finishing second at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

“Pretty insane,” Norris said. “I just want to say a big thanks to the whole team. They’ve done an amazing job. Pretty amazing.”

McLaren looked on track to score a double podium, but the safety car period was poorly timed for Piastri, who had made his sole stop on lap 29, just two laps before Magnussen’s car ground to a halt with fire erupting from beneath his engine cover. Hamilton, who was yet to stop, took advantage of the reduced pace to jump Piastri and nab third from the Australian.

“That [McLaren] was rapid through the high-speed corners. I couldn’t keep up,” Hamilton admitted. “I think this is a good positive for us as a team to know we’re not that far away. We’ve just got to keep on pushing and we can catch those guys up front.”

Piastri saw off a challenge from George Russell for his best finish in Formula 1, while Russell restricted Sergio Perez’s recovery from 15th on the grid to sixth.

Fernando Alonso finished seventh in a muted performance for Aston Martin, having spent the final stint defending against the rapid Williams of Alex Albon.

Albon picked up four points in his third top-10 finish of the season after a gutsy duel with he Ferrari drivers following the restart, benefiting in part from the chance to pit for softs behind the safety car.

Charles Leclerc led home teammate Carlos Sainz in ninth and 10th after difficulties squeezing pace from the hard tire.

Leclerc was among the first to stop for the white-marked rubber but struggled to make an impact with it, and despite undercutting Russell with the early tire change, he was passed easily only a few laps into his defense. He used the safety car to abandon the strategy and switch back to the medium tire, which helped him back past Sainz, who was stuck with his hards, after the safety car restart.

American rookie Logan Sargeant came achingly close to his first points, finishing 11th and just 4.1s behind Sainz.

Valtteri Bottas finished 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and the penalized Lance Stroll, who had crossed the line 11th but was penalized for cutting the Vale chicane and banging wheels with Pierre Gasly. The contact appeared to break Gasly’s suspension, forcing him into retirement — and a double DNF for Alpine, which also saw Esteban Ocon’s race end with a hydraulics failure after only nine laps.

Zhou Guanyu finished 15th with brake problems ahead of AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries.

Perez admits he struggles in low-grip conditions after Q1 exit

Sergio Perez admits he struggles with the Red Bull in low-grip conditions after being eliminated in Q1 at the British Grand Prix. The Mexican has now failed to reach Q3 in five consecutive qualifying sessions, leaving him starting from 15th on the …

Sergio Perez admits he struggles with the Red Bull in low-grip conditions after being eliminated in Q1 at the British Grand Prix.

The Mexican has now failed to reach Q3 in five consecutive qualifying sessions, leaving him starting from 15th on the grid at Silverstone after gaining a position due to Valtteri Bottas’ disqualification. With light rain falling and wet patches during qualifying, Perez concedes it represents the scenario he finds the most difficult to handle.

“I think in these conditions it’s where I struggle the most with the car,” Perez said. “My issues with the car become more apparent in the changeable conditions, so I think it’s something as a group we need to get on top of and understand what we are able to do better, simple as that.”

However, Perez also says he wasn’t helped by the amount of time he had to sit at the end of the pit lane during a red flag delay in Q1, with his tires rapidly losing temperature.

“Yeah, the red flag lasted longer than we expected initially — that didn’t help for the temperature of the tire. Just a shame to lose out as we had a great Friday — the race pace was looking really good. Starting from the back it’s going to be another race where we try and minimize the damage.”

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Despite another tough Saturday, Perez was defended by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who backed his race performances.

“He has to get this under control,” Marko told Sky Germany when asked about Perez’s qualifying issues. “Normally he delivers well in the races. He can overtake well here. It’s a weakness, even in his past. It just happens too often. We have to work on it. When one (car) is on pole and he’s 16th…

“But he’s second in the world championship. There is currently no need for action. In addition, there is no one we could replace him with.”

Top-3 placing ‘very special’ for McLaren’s Piastri

Oscar Piastri admits his first top-three result in qualifying at the British Grand Prix is “very special” after a stunning day for McLaren. Qualifying took place in damp conditions but stayed dry enough for slicks throughout and as the track dried …

Oscar Piastri admits his first top-three result in qualifying at the British Grand Prix is “very special” after a stunning day for McLaren.

Qualifying took place in damp conditions but stayed dry enough for slicks throughout and as the track dried further McLaren came on strongly to secure second place with Lando Norris and Piastri in third. Receiving the updated McLaren at Silverstone — one race after Norris — the Australian pulled out the best result of his rookie season to date and says he took his opportunity when it came.

“It’s very special to be in the top three,” Piastri said. “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to one of these press conferences so it’s nice to be back. It’s been a great day — even this weekend, we thought we could get into the top 10 at least.

“When the conditions were looking like they were, it’s generally been solid for us previously. I think we went in quietly confident that we could pull off something pretty special and we managed to do it. Happy with the lap I did — wasn’t too much left out there.”

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Given the changing conditions, Piastri says McLaren responds well to such situations and took full advantage with both cars.

“I think we’ve had about four of those (type of) sessions this year. I think we’re all getting good practice with it, but those conditions, most drivers really enjoy them. They’re always tricky to get right — you need to find where the grip is on the track. Sometimes you couldn’t see where the grip was, you just had to pray you were on a dry bit of track.

“I really enjoy those conditions, and so does our car it seems. I think we did a good job, managing on the team side. When it comes to qualifying, nine times out of 10 we do a good job with that. Full credit to the team for the calls today — and the car as well, clearly it was working well today.”

While not getting two carried away by the qualifying showing, Piastri is hopeful that McLaren can at least keep both drivers in the top 10 given the race pace shown by the updated car in Austria last weekend.

“Firstly stay in the points, I think that would be good,” he reckoned. “I think we have to see what our race pace was like. Lando showed last week that we can hang on in the races now to a much better extent. Hopefully we can try do the same tomorrow. Staying in the top three will be tricky with quite a few quick cars behind us, but definitely a solid points score can be on the cards.”

Verstappen heads McLarens in British GP qualifying

Max Verstappen secured pole for the British Grand Prix ahead of a surprise McLaren two-three led by Lando Norris. The qualifying hour started in the damp, but grip ramped up rapidly as the sun broke through the clouds and dried the track into its …

Max Verstappen secured pole for the British Grand Prix ahead of a surprise McLaren two-three led by Lando Norris.

The qualifying hour started in the damp, but grip ramped up rapidly as the sun broke through the clouds and dried the track into its optimum window by Q3.

The tricky conditions caught out Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, in Q1, delivering him his third bottom-five elimination of the season in another body blow to the Mexican’s campaign.

But what had been a randomized session swung back to a conventional pole shootout, and Verstappen came to the fore with the fastest lap of the weekend to seal his fifth successive P1 start and seventh for the season with a 0.241s margin.

“It’s been quite a crazy qualifying,” he said. “It’s been quite hectic and also quite slippery in some places.

“Knowing we have a quick car, you don’t need to go to 100 percent the limit. That’s why in Q3, when we go for it, we eked out the gap a little bit.”

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It wasn’t the cruisy qualifying session Verstappen has enjoyed at previous rounds, with the Dutchman having to push for a second lap after losing provisional pole halfway through Q3 to Norris.

Conditions were perfect for the MCL60, which has shown a preference for cool conditions given how quickly it fires up its tires.

The upgraded and reliveried McLaren MCL60 was a horse of a different color at Silverstone, where Lando Norris put it on the front row. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

McLaren has also brought its season-defining Austria upgrade to both cars this weekend as well as some extra new parts for Norris’s car as part of its multi-race plan to overhaul the car.

“It makes up for everything, all the hard work that we’ve been putting in,” he said. “Home race for the team, for myself — we couldn’t have had a better result today — apart from Max!”

Piastri, who was 0.131s further back, also praised the team for its work revising the car to haul it up the order.

“To pull it off in Q3 like that is a mega result,” he said. “I can’t thank the team enough for continuing to push.”

Ferrari prevailed in a super-tight battle with Mercedes to a spot on the second row. Charles Leclerc beat Carlos Sainz to fourth, and George Russell beat Lewis Hamilton to sixth, but the quartet was spread over just 0.075s.

Alex Albon turned his Williams car’s excellent pace this weekend into a meritorious eighth on the grid ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

Nico Hulkenberg was knocked out 11th ahead of Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon, the latter tow having tangled setting up their final laps.

Ocon attempted to cut past Stroll into the Vale chicane but locked up and went wide, badly compromising the start of the following tour.

Logan Sargeant was furious to be eliminated 14th on such a fast afternoon for Williams after being fouled for exceeding track limits at Copse.

Valtteri Bottas didn’t set a Q2 time after his Alfa Romeo switched itself off on track at the end of the previous qualifying segment

Perez will start a demoralizing 16th after a frenetic final three minutes of Q3 jumbled up the qualifying order.

Kevin Magnussen’s Haas stopped on track at the pit entrance with a spontaneous system shutdown, triggering a red flag. While the marshals rescued his car, the previously damp and greasy track began to dry, forcing the 19 remaining drivers back on track for what would be one lap apiece.

The number of circulating cars rapidly ramped up track grip, but Perez was first out of pit lane. His sole lap put him at the top of the order, but by the time the other cars had set their lap, he’d tumbled catastrophically to 16th, missing out by just 0.019s.

There was more time to be had for Perez, though, given Albon right behind him made it through comfortably. It’s the third time he’s been knocked out in Q1 this year and sixth time he’s failed to make the top-10 shootout.

Yuki Tsunoda will start 17th ahead of Zhou Guanyu, Nyck de Vries and the stricken Magnussen.