BRITISH GRAND PRIX: 2021 SPRINT QUALIFYING REVIEW

Verstappen Sprints To Pole Position

Max Verstappen became Formula One’s first sprint qualifying pole sitter after a scintillating race. Mercedes’ duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will start the British Grand Prix behind Verstappen with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, George Russell, and Esteban Ocon rounding up the top 10 for Sunday.

Formula One’s newest format got off to a thrilling start with Verstappen attacking Hamilton right from the get-go to take the lead heading into the first corner, leaving Hamilton and an optimistic Bottas, starting on the softs, well behind. But it wasn’t Verstappen’s start that was the highlight of the race, it was the old warhorse, Fernando Alonso, starting 11th, made up an astounding six places in the first few corners to run P5, albeit George Russell’s first lap contact with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz helped the Alpine driver, with Russell and Sainz’s contact being under investigation post the race—further down the grid, starting on the softs Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen also made up four places on the opening lap.

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who put in all of his experience and skill on track to have a brilliant opening lap was desperately holding onto his place as the two McLarens of Norris and Ricciardo were fast approaching the Spaniard. Contrasting to Alonso’s opening few laps, the other Red Bull of Sergio Pérez had an absolute shocker as he spun off after losing his rear on lap 6, without any contact from any other driver, down at Maggotts-Becketts, just managing to keep off the wall but fell down to P19. Once the McLarens picked off Alonso, Alonso was engaged in another epic Silverstone battle with his old foe Sebastian Vettel for P7. The Aston Martin, which seemed quicker, was charging at Alonso but the two-time world champion held off the four-time world champion in a breathtaking mini duel, which should bode well for Sunday’s race if there is more of the same to come!

As the sprint race entered its final few laps of the scheduled 17, Verstappen had built a comfortable couple of seconds’ gap to Hamilton, who just didn’t have enough pace to catch the Red Bull. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc once again showed his skills to extract every possible tenth from his car as he starts a brilliant fourth ahead of the two McLarens. His teammate, Sainz, whose first lap contact with Russell left him right at the bottom of the field, did a commendable job to finish P11, giving the Spaniard something to cheer about, being on the fringes of the points.

The top three also were awarded three, two, and one point, respectively, with Verstappen extending his championship lead to 33. Mercedes will start on the back foot once again, at Silverstone, but with Pérez starting from right at the back of the grid, the Brackley-based team once again has the advantage to attack Verstappen with two cars at the start. As Formula One’s first sprint qualifying comes to an end, drivers and fans alike welcomed the new format. Most drivers acknowledged the excitement of reshuffling the general schedule to have qualifying on Friday.