Kimi Antonelli will start from pole for the British Grand Prix for the fifth time this season. The championship leader set a 1:28.111 in Q3 and left Charles Leclerc 0.175 seconds behind in the Ferrari, while Lewis Hamilton will start third, 0.347 off the pace. George Russell took the second grid slot in the other Mercedes. The top four grid positions were shared between the two teams that have set the standard all weekend at Silverstone.

Photo By Mercedes F1

Russell came close to being eliminated in Q1 after a mistake at Luffield, where he locked his brakes, went through the gravel and hit the wall with his front wing. He returned to the pits with shredded tyres and eight minutes to save the session. He managed it with a 1:29.985 that left him fifth in that phase, and from there he climbed to the final fourth place. Hamilton moved to the front on the first Q3 run with a 1:28.591, but a correction for oversteer at Village prevented him from improving on his final attempt and he dropped to third place. Leclerc did find time on his last lap and slotted between the two Mercedes, though Antonelli had already built a margin with his first lap that no one could match.

Isack Hadjar outpaced Max Verstappen by four tenths in Q3, the same gap seen in Sprint qualifying. The Dutchman said over the radio that the situation was a disaster, a complaint that sums up the discomfort he is experiencing with the RB22 this weekend. Lando Norris was sixth in the McLaren, Oscar Piastri eighth, and the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson closed out the top ten. Gabriel Bortoleto was the closest to the cut in Q2, just 32 thousandths behind Lawson.

Photo By Mercedes F1

Q1 left Franco Colapinto out. The Alpine got away from him at Becketts, he ran across the grass and was eliminated in 19th position, but the incident triggered yellow flags under which Esteban Ocon allegedly did not slow down, sending him to the stewards. Pierre Gasly was also under investigation for blocking another driver in the first phase. The Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso occupied the last row, more than three and a half seconds off the best Q1 time, just behind the Cadillacs of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, who also failed to make the cut.

The British Grand Prix takes place this Sunday at Silverstone.

Qualification British Grand Prix 2026

Pos.	No.	driver	team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:29.719	1:28.493	1:28.111
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:29.534	1:28.626	1:28.286
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:29.644	1:28.864	1:28.458
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:29.985	1:28.920	1:28.481
5	6	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	1:29.276	1:29.069	1:28.746
6	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:30.186	1:29.383	1:28.877
7	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:29.549	1:29.113	1:28.893
8	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:29.971	1:29.218	1:29.032
9	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	1:29.661	1:29.324	1:29.305
10	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	1:29.300	1:29.429	1:29.716
11	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	1:30.269	1:29.461
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:30.345	1:30.063
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	1:29.539	1:29.945
14	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	1:30.570	1:30.501
15	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	1:30.562	1:30.623
16	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:30.638	1:30.743
17	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	1:30.680
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	1:31.227
19	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	1:31.321
20	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	1:31.451
21	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:32.863
22	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:32.888