Verstappen beats Hamilton in thrilling F1 Sprint at Silverstone to claim pole position for British GP

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won the inaugural F1 Sprint at the iconic Silverstone circuit, earning himself three points and pole position for Sunday’s British Grand Prix, as he triumphed over the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

With all of the top 10 starting the 17-lap F1 Sprint on medium tyres bar the Mercedes of Bottas on used softs, Verstappen was incisive off the start from second on the grid, out-dragging the Mercedes of Hamilton – who’d started P1 – into Abbey, despite flames having been spotted licking from his front-left wheel on the grid.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the first ever F1 Sprint at Silverstone

Fans were then treated to a thrilling opening lap, with Verstappen resisting the passing attempts of Hamilton – including an audacious one to go around the outside of the Red Bull at Copse – while Fernando Alonso impressively used the soft starting tyres on his Alpine to jump from 11th to 5th, as the two Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin touched in the Village complex, with Mazepin spinning.

Qualifying hero George Russell also made contact on Lap 1 with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, Sainz coming off worse than the Williams as he fell to P18 – with the incident to be investigated after the session by the stewards.

As the drivers settled down, Verstappen was able to eke out the gap over Hamilton, who complained of not having an answer to the Dutchman’s pace, with both cars developing blisters on their medium tyres.

Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez found himself in bother, however, as he got on the throttle too early out of Chapel and spun his Red Bull on Lap 5, falling down to P19 – with the Mexican eventually retired before the end.

Hamilton had asked his race engineer Pete Bonnington for more power from his Mercedes W12. But ultimately as the laps ticked quickly down, Verstappen was able to open the gap up on his title rival to take the F1 Sprint win by 1.4s and claim pole for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.

Behind, despite running the softs, Bottas was able to hold onto P3 from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo earning fifth and sixth, having demoted the fast-starting Alonso to P7.

WATCH: Perez plummets to P19 after huge spin

Sebastian Vettel claimed P8 for Aston Martin, having narrowly failed to pass Alonso on the 17th and final lap, as Russell and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10.

Sainz did a fine recovery job after his Lap 1 crash, ending up P11 after a string of neat overtakes, while AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly will line up 12th for the British Grand Prix, ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen, who did well to end up 13th after starting P17.

Lance Stroll was 14th for Aston Martin, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi – as the two Haas cars of Schumacher and the recovering Mazepin rounded out the order in 18th and 19th, with Perez the sole retirement.

So, after the first ever F1 Sprint, it’s Max Verstappen who claims his fifth pole of the year, as well as three points – with Hamilton claiming two and Bottas one. But with Perez set to start from the back in the British Grand Prix, and two Mercedes starting alongside Verstappen, the action is far from over at Silverstone this weekend.

The key quote

“Around here it’s difficult to pass, but we had a good start and a good fight with Lewis in the first lap then we tried to do our own pace. But you could see we were pushing each other hard because at the end of the race the tyres were blistering a lot, so we had to manage that to the end.

“Nevertheless, happy to have scored three points. It sounds a bit funny to then hear you scored a pole position but anyway, we’ll take it. I think it will be a really exciting, exciting battle tomorrow” – Max Verstappen, Red Bull

The key moment

As mentioned above, the start was electric as Verstappen launched off the line to take the lead from P1 starter Hamilton, who then battled hard to try to retake the position, while Russell and Sainz had contact further down the field. Check it out in the video below...

Biggest movers

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were the biggest gainers after Friday’s qualifying, both jumping four places in the F1 Sprint – Alonso from P11 to P7, as Raikkonen moved from P17 to P13.

What’s next?

The grid is now set for Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which begins at 1500 local time. And with a Mercedes not starting on pole here for the first time in nine years, follow all the action on F1.com and F1 TV.