British GP – Syndication Server

Silverstone lessons will benefit Ferrari – Vasseur

Ferrari gained technical understanding at the British Grand Prix that should benefit it for the rest of the season, says team principal Fred Vasseur. An upgrade introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix led to an increase in bouncing that was impacting …

Ferrari gained technical understanding at the British Grand Prix that should benefit it for the rest of the season, says team principal Fred Vasseur.

An upgrade introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix led to an increase in bouncing that was impacting performance, with Ferrari trying to identify solutions over the following rounds in Austria and Great Britain. Vasseur says the team compromised the weekend at Silverstone – where Carlos Sainz was fifth and Charles Leclerc failed to score – to analyze the situation, and has made wider progress due to that choice.

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“It’s difficult to say this after the result, but I think we did a step forward [at Silverstone], at least on the technical side,” Vasseur said. “We have a much better understanding of the situation Sunday evening than Friday morning, and this I think is encouraging for the last part of the season.

“For sure the result is not ideal, but we compromised mainly the result [on Saturday], more than [Sunday]. Carlos did a solid race, that he was able to come back at Max [Verstappen] on the first stint and to stay 10 laps on Max’s gearbox, with mediums at the beginning of the race.

“And on Charles it’s a bit more chaotic, because he was stuck behind [Lance] Stroll, he lost 10 seconds, and when we had the first call for the pit stop, it was a bit on the edge. I think we collectively were a bit too aggressive.”

Despite the race results not being to Vasseur’s liking, he says it was a tough decision to focus on the longer-term during the Silverstone weekend, but a valuable one even though the weather further impacted that approach.

“I think we had exactly the same situation last year, almost at the same stage of the season – Silverstone, Budapest, Spa – and we stopped it in Zandvoort to do a complete scan of the situation, and we had a good recovery, because the weeks after we were there,” he said. “

“What is tough in this situation is that when you have an issue, you don’t have a proper test to fix it, or at least to understand it. And it’s quite difficult as a team sometimes to compromise or sacrifice a Friday session, when you know that you are losing a little bit of time during the weekend, and to say, ‘OK, let’s forget about FP1, FP2, be focused on mid-term’.

“Trust me, this decision as a team is very difficult, because you start the weekend, and it was even worse in Silverstone with the weather. It means that we put ourselves in a tough situation, but this we knew before. And it was even worse with the fact that the Saturday morning was with wet tires, that for sure it was not helpful, but we assumed the decision before the weekend, and I think it was the right call to do it.”

Hamilton hopes home win helps him move on from 2021

Lewis Hamilton hopes his victory in the British Grand Prix will help him move on from the impact of the 2021 season after admitting it has taken him longer to get over than he thought. Last Sunday’s win at Silverstone was Hamilton’s first since the …

Lewis Hamilton hopes his victory in the British Grand Prix will help him move on from the impact of the 2021 season after admitting it has taken him longer to get over than he thought.

Last Sunday’s win at Silverstone was Hamilton’s first since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the penultimate round of a fierce championship battle with Max Verstappen. Hamilton was comfortably leading the final race that season and on course to be champion when the incorrect application of the rules led to a final lap restart, with Verstappen overtaking Hamilton to win the title.

After admitting he was particularly emotional after winning at Silverstone due to doubts he’d had about whether he would win again, Hamilton says it has taken him longer to move on from how the sport dealt with the 2021 controversy.

“I think only time will tell,” Hamilton said. “What I can say is that I’m not giving up. I feel like I’m making the right decisions with my life, with how I prepare and how I manage my time; the decision I’ve taken, for example, for next year, the commitment I still have to this team and the love that I still have for this team and the love that I still have for my job.

“I really, really love this job. There’s never going to be anything that comes close to it. And it’s something I’m incredibly grateful for, to be in amongst these 20 drivers within this great sport that’s having such a momentous time. We just had the launch of the trailer of the [“F1″] movie…

“Honestly, when I came back in 2022, I thought that I was over it. And I know I wasn’t and it’s taken a long time for sure to heal that kind of feeling. That’s only natural for anyone that has that experience. And I’ve just been continuing to try and work on myself and find that inner peace day by day.”

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Hamilton says the fact that Mercedes had not been overly competitive in the time since his last victory made it an even tougher time to handle, with Red Bull dominating the majority of that spell.

“It’s been such a long time. Someone just told me 946 days or something like that since the last win. Really challenging,” he said. “A difficult time, obviously, 2021 and then coming back with a car that we’ve not been able to fight with for the last couple of years. It’s been incredibly mentally challenging, I think, for everyone in the team.

“But just knowing how hard everyone’s continued to work, knowing how I’ve managed just to keep my head in it, and then with everything that’s happened this year as well, with so many emotions this year, announcing that I’m leaving and at the same time starting with a car that we didn’t feel that we could win with, to then finally be in a place where we win — and not only that but at the British Grand Prix in front of my home crowd…

“Honestly, it’s the most incredible honor to be standing on the top of the podium and hearing the national anthem with the King’s name in it, for example. It’s the first time I’ve had that.”

Stella admits McLaren’s self-doubt over British GP decisions

McLaren doubted itself when it had tough decisions to make in the British Grand Prix and the drivers should not take a significant share of the blame, according to team principal Andrea Stella. Lando Norris was leading when the final round of pit …

McLaren doubted itself when it had tough decisions to make in the British Grand Prix and the drivers should not take a significant share of the blame, according to team principal Andrea Stella.

Lando Norris was leading when the final round of pit stops to swap intermediate tires for slicks was made, and came in a lap after Lewis Hamilton had fitted softs and Max Verstappen hards. McLaren asked Norris for his preference and ended up also fitting a soft tire despite having a brand-new medium available, and it proved to be the wrong call as he suffered from high levels of degradation and dropped to third place.

“In those conditions we wanted to check also with Lando what his preference was, what we should be going after, and one aspect was also ,‘Do you think it will be tricky?’” Stella said. “This we didn’t ask.

“The sense of deciding with Lando was will it be tricky going on a C2 compound in these conditions? But in fairness, as a matter of fact it wasn’t that tricky, because Verstappen on a hard compound managed the transition to the dry tires without big issues.

“So I think this one was a decision that we should have taken once again — like in stopping Oscar [Piastri] in the double stack — we should have taken the responsibility to say the medium is just the right tire; we go for it. I think in checking with Lando, we kind of self-doubted and this led us to follow this direction, which in hindsight wasn’t correct.”

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The Piastri situation had occurred earlier in the race, when McLaren was running one-two and intensifying rain meant the team needed to stop both drivers for intermediate tires. In order to avoid time lost in the pits, Norris made his stop first but Piastri lost huge amounts of time completing one further lap.

“I think we were a little greedy that we didn’t want to accept that we would have lost time with the double stack, but effectively sometimes you just have to be patient and accept that you’re going to lose time — just do the right thing rather than hoping that one lap more is not going to cost that much.

“Especially when the rain was pretty steady, so it’s not like he’s going to face easier conditions staying out one more lap. I think Oscar would have been in a really strong position — at least as strong as Lando in terms of opportunities to win the race.”

Mercedes ‘clearly back’ after Silverstone showing – Russell

George Russell says Mercedes has proven it is “clearly back” and will be fighting for regular wins with its performance at the British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton took victory at Silverstone after Russell’s win in Austria to give the team …

George Russell says Mercedes has proven it is “clearly back” and will be fighting for regular wins with its performance at the British Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton took victory at Silverstone after Russell’s win in Austria to give the team back-to-back successes and continuing an upturn in form. While the Austria result was aided by the top two colliding in that race, Silverstone saw Russell on pole ahead of Hamilton before he was forced to retire with a water system issue, but he says the overall performance level is confirmation of recent progress.

“It’s incredible,” Russell said. “We had the car in normal dry circumstances to be one-two. We’re clearly back and I think we’ll be fighting for race wins more often now.

“Within myself and the car I’m feeling good, but obviously this is a real blow retiring from any race, let alone your home grand prix and when you had the car to win. But we’ll have another go.”

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Russell was leading the early part of the race but had dropped behind Hamilton and the two McLaren drivers before his retirement, and he felt the race was going to come back to him before his exit.

“I knew it was going to be a long race and sort of wanted to be patient,” he said. “We were still in the fight but ten laps before the failure I knew I had problems. I was losing power.

“McLaren were super-fast during that period. It was difficult but I wasn’t too flustered because I knew the race was going to be long. Really surprised there was no Safety Cars, but I knew we had the pace in the car.”

With Hamilton winning his home race for a record ninth time, Russell says the result is just reward for the work the drivers have been doing with the team and he’s keen to see what it can achieve in Hungary and Belgium over the coming weeks.

“Congratulations to Lewis and the team though,” Russell said. “He drove a great race and it’s a fully deserved victory. We’ve both been pushing so hard to help the team develop the car and it’s great to see that paying off.

“The car felt so good. We knew it was going to be a long race with the weather conditions. When the rain first came down, we struggled a little. We were able to find our pace again though and it would have been an interesting battle to the end. Nevertheless, it’s been an amazing weekend for us as a team. We can be proud of what we’ve achieved and look forward to the final two races before the summer break with excitement.”

Post-Monaco run ‘worse than a nightmare’ – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says his run of races since victory in Monaco have been “worse than a nightmare” after finishing a lap down in the British Grand Prix. The win in Monaco came one week after Ferrari introduced an upgrade that kept the team competitive …

Charles Leclerc says his run of races since victory in Monaco have been “worse than a nightmare” after finishing a lap down in the British Grand Prix.

The win in Monaco came one week after Ferrari introduced an upgrade that kept the team competitive at the front of the field with Red Bull and McLaren, but Leclerc then dropped out in Q2 in Canada amid set-up issues, going on to retire from the race with a power unit problem. Fifth place in Spain was followed by a first-lap puncture in Austria that let to him finishing 11th, and he was then 14th at Silverstone after again failing to reach Q3.

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“It’s very hard,” Leclerc said. “Very hard, I don’t really have the words to explain it but it’s been four races that have been worse than a nightmare, so I hope we can come back soon.

“It’s very difficult to look at positives in days like this, I just want to go back with the team, analyze the ways we are making decisions, and why we were on the wrong side.”

Starting out of position, Leclerc had moved into the top seven early on but opted to make a pit stop for intermediate tires during an early shower that the rest of the field rode out on slicks, and the strategic call cost him huge time and soon put him a lap down.

“It was clearly the wrong one, I’ll look back into it with the decision,” said Leclerc. “With the message I got and the information I had it felt like it was the right one, it was raining a lot, I was told the rain was going to be heavy so I stopped to anticipate, but the rain came eight or nine laps later, so that was obviously the end of our race. Very frustrating, another weekend to forget and it starts to be a lot.”

And it’s not just strategic calls that are troubling Ferrari, with Leclerc admitting a further upgrade introduced in Spain has not led to the level of performance the team was hoping for.

“It’s a tricky situation that we are in at the moment. The upgrade brought us the numbers we were expecting but it also brought us quite a lot of bouncing in the high speed and at a track like this we decided it was probably better having a bit less performance but having more the consistency and I think it was the right choice.

“Going forward we’ll analyze the data of the two packages and see if there’s anything we didn’t understand with the new one.”

Hamilton’s Silverstone win ‘like a little fairytale’ – Wolff

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in his last British Grand Prix for Mercedes is “like a little fairytale,” according to team principal Toto Wolff. Mercedes failed to win a race in 2023 while Hamilton’s own drought extended to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand …

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in his last British Grand Prix for Mercedes is “like a little fairytale,” according to team principal Toto Wolff.

Mercedes failed to win a race in 2023 while Hamilton’s own drought extended to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but after George Russell’s victory in Austria it was Hamilton’s turn to stand on the top step again at Silverstone. The win is Hamilton’s ninth at his home race, and comes before he joins Ferrari in 2025, something Wolff admits is special.

“It was so difficult over the last two years [not really finding any] performance; we couldn’t give the drivers a car that was able to go for the victories,” Wolff said. “To make him win again, the British Grand Prix, in his last race for Mercedes here, it’s almost like a little fairytale.”

Wolff admits it was a challenging race to handle with the changing weather conditions, but also feels a sense of frustration after polesitter Russell was forced to retire with a water system issue.

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“It was difficult. We were really controlling the pace at the beginning and that was very encouraging,” he said. “Then it started to rain and you see the massive performance that the McLaren had, and they were simply in the sweet spot of the tire. But we came back in those conditions and I think we had it under control.

“It’s just a shame we DNF’d with George; he had the pace and we let him down here with a water leak. It’s just not great but the overarching result here with Lewis, last British Grand Prix… George is going to win one.”

Hamilton was particularly emotional after the race and, to Wolff, the latest victory feels like a long time coming, particularly after the seven-time world champion revealed he had doubts over whether he’d win another race.

“It’s clear our relationship goes back a long time,” Wolff said. “Each of us has suffered at various stages. He’s been there for me and most recently I’ve tried to do my contribution to his doubting at times. That’s why it feels really good that he’s been able to put all the negative thoughts, all the negativity aside, and come up with this performance. I think it’s a weight off his shoulders.”

‘We threw it away’ – Norris laments critical errors at British GP

Lando Norris says McLaren made two mistakes that cost it victory in the British Grand Prix and that he’s tired of missing out on opportunities. Lewis Hamilton took a record-breaking ninth victory at Silverstone to secure his 104th win, jumping ahead …

Lando Norris says McLaren made two mistakes that cost it victory in the British Grand Prix and that he’s tired of missing out on opportunities.

Lewis Hamilton took a record-breaking ninth victory at Silverstone to secure his 104th win, jumping ahead of Norris by pitting one lap earlier to make the switch from intermediates back to slicks for the final part of the race. McLaren had a new set of medium tires available for the final stint — something its rivals did not have — but opted to follow Hamilton onto softs and failed to make them last as effectively, slipping to third behind Max Verstappen.

“I’ve heard that a lot lately, so I hate saying it again,” Norris said of a win that got away. “I mean, so many things were going well. We threw it away in the final stop, so one lap, but also I don’t think it was a lap. I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go on to the softs was the wrong one. I think Lewis still would have won no matter what. Two calls from our side cost us everything today. Especially here, pretty disappointing.”

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Norris has just one win so far this season but has been in the mix for multiple victories since a major upgrade was introduced in Miami, and he says he has a role in the final calls the team makes on strategy and has to take a share of responsibility.

“First of all, congrats to Lewis,” he said. “That crucial decision at the end, he just did a better job on, so hats off to him and Mercedes; they deserve it. It was tough; it was enjoyable. It was fun battling these guys, and these tricky conditions are always on a knife edge and you’re risking a lot. Many [good] things, but a few too many letdowns today. As a team, I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done, or good enough, but still lovely to be on the podium here in Silverstone.

“I’m not making the right decisions. …I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions. I hate it. I hate ending in this position and forever having excuses for not doing a good enough job.

“But I’m still happy. I’m still going to enjoy it. I think we still did so many things right, so many positives. Especially here in Silverstone, the one place I would love everything to go perfectly, it didn’t today, but I’m good. We’ll come back stronger next year and try again.”

Hamilton admits shedding tears after fearing he’d never win again

Lewis Hamilton admits he was so emotional after his victory in the British Grand Prix because has had moments where he thought he would never win another race. Mercedes locked out the front row at Silverstone and Hamilton took the lead from teammate …

Lewis Hamilton admits he was so emotional after his victory in the British Grand Prix because has had moments where he thought he would never win another race.

Mercedes locked out the front row at Silverstone and Hamilton took the lead from teammate George Russell in the first part of the race when light rain saw the frontrunners trying to keep lapping on slick tires. As the rain intensified and the field switched to intermediates, Hamilton dropped behind Lando Norris before regaining the lead with a well-timed pit stop for slicks, securing his first victory since 2021 — a run of 945 days.

“It feels different to previous races, particularly…where you’re having race after race after race, or seasons where you’re having multiple wins,” Hamilton said. “I think with the adversity we’ve gone through as a team, and that I personally felt that I’ve experienced — those challenges — [it’s a] constant challenge, like we all have, to get up out of bed every day and give it our best shot.

“There are so many times when you feel like your best shot is not good enough, and [there’s] the disappointment sometimes that you can feel. We live in a time where mental health is such a serious issue, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve not been… that I have experienced that.

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“There’s definitely been moments where [I] thought that ‘this was it,’ that it was never going to happen again, so to have this feeling coming across the line… I think honestly, I’ve never cried coming from a win. It just came out of me. It’s a really, really great feeling. I’m very, very grateful for it.”

Hamilton’s emotions were clear over team radio after the race, crying as he spoke to his team and telling his race engineer Pete Bonington “I love you, Bono.” The nine-time British Grand Prix winner says the win means more to him emotionally given where he is in his career, after becoming the first driver to win a race in Formula 1 after making his 300th start.

“Yeah, it does, because…I’ve had my parents come to the race here and there,” he said. “My mum was there when I won a championship, my dad was there when I won a championship. It’s always been just at a different point of life. First world championship was incredible, but it was really difficult to absorb it all, [at the age I was].

“I think this weekend, just within life — your parents are getting older, you’re traveling so much, time with family is a constant challenge. My niece and nephew are growing up and growing out their cuteness, but I had them here this weekend, and we all try to be there for each other, even at a distance. But to have them there…

“I know I’ve always had their support, but to be able to see them there and have them share that experience — they wanted to be there for my last British Grand Prix with this team that has been so incredible to us. Mercedes supported me since I was 13, so it’s definitely meant the most today, to have them there and be able to share it with them.”

Hamilton ends winless streak with record ninth Silverstone victory

Lewis Hamilton took a record-breaking ninth British Grand Prix in a chaotic wet-dry race at Silverstone. The seven-time champion fended off a fast-finishing Max Verstappen in the final laps to claim victory by 1.5s, his first in the 945 days since …

“Thank you so much, guys,” an emotional Hamilton said over team radio as he was handed a British flag by a trackside marshal. “It means a lot to me this one.”

“This one means a lot to us all,” his engineer, Peter Bonnington, said.

“I love you, Bono,” Hamilton replied.

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Hamilton’s route to an unprecedented ninth victory at one grand prix was tortuous in challenging mixed conditions, beginning with a launch that had him slot behind pole-getting teammate George Russell off the line.

The Mercedes drivers led the first phase of the race, with Max Verstappen fighting for the podium behind, slicing down Lando Norris’s inside at Village and relieving him of third place around the outside of Loop.

The top five, with Oscar Piastri bringing up the rear, remained tightly grouped in the opening part of the race defined by constant radio chatter about impending rain, which was forecast to lash the circuit in two bands, the second harder than the first.

The first lot of drizzle arrived on lap 15, and the suddenly massively variable grip levels shuffled the order at the front. The McLaren drivers, typically fastest at the end of a stint, came alive on the slippery surface. Norris took back third from Verstappen with DRS assistance into to Stowe on lap 15, and Piastri followed him through into fourth on the following tour.

Hamilton too was feeling a wet-weather boost and was suddenly all over the back of Russell. Clearly much faster, he also slipped past into Stowe to take the lead, only for both to sail off the road at the first turn on lap 19.

The McLarens were poised to pounce. Norris immediately demoted Russell to third as the two Mercedes rejoined, and with far superior tire grip in the conditions he then swept past Hamilton at Abbey to take the lead. Piastri followed his teammate past both to form a McLaren one-two by the end of lap 20.

The rain subsided and settled the battle, but only temporarily. It returned more intensely on lap 24, forcing drivers to choose when to switch to wet-weather tires.

Verstappen, who had struggled in the early drizzle, was on the front foot switching to intermediates on lap 26. Having languished in fifth, he was brought right back into the fight in third after Norris and Hamilton pitted on the following tour, rejoining only just ahead.

It was bad news for Piastri, however, who was left to inherit the lead rather than lose time in a double stack. It was painfully costly for the Australian, who lost almost a pit stop worth of time to his teammate during that single lap on slicks in the wet, putting him out of victory contention.

Russell’s afternoon too ended up spoiled when a water system failure forced him to retire from the grand prix from fourth after 33 laps.

The race settled back into a rhythm, this time with radio chatter consumed by the timing of a switch back to slicks as the rain subsided and sun broke through the clouds. Hamilton was the first of the front-runners to pull the trigger on lap 37, with Verstappen following him in. The Briton chose a set of used softs, while the Dutchman opted for hards.

Norris stayed out in the lead but almost immediately realized it had been a mistake. By the time he came in at the end of the following tour his intermediate tires were groaning under the strain of lapping in the dry.

Avoiding some Ferrari mechanics waiting to receive Carlos Sainz and sliding long into his pit box, his stop was 4.5s. It was a costly and race-defining delay, with Hamilton steaming past him as he exited the pits with a 2.5s lead.

Norris, however, had made one other critical error. Having had the choice between new mediums and used softs, he’d picked the latter, leaving him vulnerable to Verstappen behind.

The Dutchman was slow to warm up his hard tires but soon became inevitable. On lap 47 he cut easily past Norris for second with DRS and began bearing down on Hamilton’s lead. But he ran out of laps to catch his old foe. Hamilton crossed the line with 1.465s in hand to win his 104th grand prix and his first since his failed 2021 title bid.

“I can’t stop crying,” he said. “Since 2021 every day getting up, trying to fight to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team — and this is my last race here at the British Grand Prix with this team.

“I wanted to win this so much for them because I love them, I appreciate them so much.

“All the hard work they’ve been putting in all of these years, I’m forget grateful to everyone at this team, to everyone at Mercedes.”

Verstappen was philosophical in defeat, having looked out of contention in the first stint of the race before the rain gave him an opening to re-enter the lead battle.

“We just didn’t have the pace today,” he said. “It didn’t look great.

“We made the right calls going from the slicks to the inters and also from the inters back to the slicks. I think it was every time at the right lap.”

Norris was disappointed to have another victory shot slip through his fingers, ruing poor strategy calls that dropped him to third.

“As a team I don’t think we did quite the job we should’ve done,” he said. “I’m not making the right decisions — at the same time I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions.”

Piastri finished fourth ahead of Sainz, the sole Ferrari to finish in the points after Charles Leclerc had his race ruined by a too-early switch to intermediates.

Nico Hulkenberg finished an impressive sixth for Haas for the second race in a row, beating Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

Alex Albon recorded his third points finish of the year in ninth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 10th.

Logan Sargeant was 11th ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez and Zhou Guanyu.

Pierre Gasly retired at the end of the formation lap with a gearbox issue.

‘Couldn’t have even dreamt’ of 1-2 earlier this season – Russell

Mercedes couldn’t have even dreamt of securing a front row lockout in qualifying earlier this season, according to British Grand Prix polesitter George Russell. Russell beat teammate Lewis Hamilton to secure his second pole of the season at …

Mercedes couldn’t have even dreamt of securing a front row lockout in qualifying earlier this season, according to British Grand Prix polesitter George Russell.

Russell beat teammate Lewis Hamilton to secure his second pole of the season at Silverstone, with Hamilton joining him on the front row ahead of Lando Norris in a British 1-2-3. For Russell, it’s just a third pole position of his career and first at his home race, and he admits it led to a special moment given how competitive Mercedes was in the dry.

“This is definitely one of the best feelings I’ve ever had on a Saturday afternoon,” Russell said. “The car was just insane. When we went out in Q3, it just really came alive and without doubt, one of the best feelings I’ve ever had driving this circuit and crossing the line, seeing my name in P1, and then seeing we’re both on the front row.

“We couldn’t have even dreamt of that after the first three or four races. Yeah, it feels good.

“It’s been feeling great since Canada when we brought these upgrades. The two of us have been qualifying in the top three consistently, but it really came into its own today. We were really quick in FP1 yesterday. We struggled in FP2 a little bit, but these conditions just really got the car into a perfect window, and the lap was just really, really nice.

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“There’s no guarantees for tomorrow, for sure, but we feel like we’re riding this wave at the moment. I mean, obviously, for us as a team, I don’t know when the last time was we were on a front row.”

Russell’s excitement was backed up by Hamilton, who managed to jump Norris with his final attempt to match his best qualifying performance of the season so far.

“It was a great session,” he said. “Naturally, the best session that we’ve had as a team to just have the real pace and be able to actually compete with the McLarens and the Red Bulls, I think is incredibly satisfying — just really a huge boost for the team.

“The car felt great. A huge congratulations to George for getting the pole, but to be on the front row, I think, is massive for our team. So many of them are here this weekend with their families, and it’s been a long time since we’ve had it, so this is a great feeling.”

While Russell believes Norris and Max Verstappen might have a slight advantage in race pace, Hamilton says his focus has been more on how his car performs on Sunday rather than in qualifying.

“I think I was cautious with my set-up, more thinking to have a nice balance in the race rather than all for one particular lap,” he said. “I do think that the car will be good tomorrow.”