{"id":777603,"date":"2026-07-04T01:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T01:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777603\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T01:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T01:45:12","slug":"f1-news-2026-lewis-hamilton-takes-pole-british-grand-prix-oscar-piastri-seventh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777603\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news 2026: Lewis Hamilton takes pole British Grand Prix; Oscar Piastri seventh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> continued his long love affair with Silverstone by seizing pole position for the British Grand Prix sprint race as his home crowd hailed their Ferrari hero\u2019s achievement.<\/p>\n

The seven-times world champion was fastest in sole practice and all three phases of qualifying, finishing the day with a best lap of one minute 28.376 seconds on a sunny afternoon at Silverstone.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton of Britain celebrates after setting a pole position for the sprint race at the British F1 Grand Prix.\u00a0AP Photo\/Darko Bandic<\/p>\n

Mercedes\u2019 Formula One<\/a> leader Kimi Antonelli <\/a>was 0.011 slower than Hamilton, who has won a record nine British Grands Prix since his 2007 debut with McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this place and I love this crowd. I can\u2019t express to you how big a dream it is,\u201d said Hamilton after stepping out of his car and saluting the adoring crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car has felt great today… I\u2019m really grateful to get that pole. I was quick through all the sessions but still, it was only 11 milliseconds, so it was very close to these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen<\/a> qualified third with Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc fourth and George Russell, Antonelli\u2019s teammate and closest rival, fifth. McLaren\u2019s world champion Lando Norris<\/a>, last year\u2019s winner, starts sixth after battling brake duct damage.<\/p>\n

Antonelli is 40 points clear of Russell after eight rounds and the 19-year-old Italian could extend that on the weekend, with eight points going to the winner of the 100-km race.<\/p>\n

The pole was Hamilton\u2019s first of any sort this season and first also since a sprint qualifying in China last year.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old great, who took his first grand prix win for Ferrari <\/a>in Spain last month, has yet to take a regular pole since July 2023 when he was at Mercedes.<\/p>\n

Throughout the session Hamilton made the difference, the Briton pushing himself to another level as has been the case so often in the past at a circuit where he has lived some of the great afternoons of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull and these guys have so much power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been doing amazing all year, but my team just won\u2019t let up and they keep pushing and that is what I am so proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t expect we would be coming to Silverstone and competing for the front row. We really, really didn\u2019t. But this is an amazing surprise and I am ecstatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Hamilton celebrated, Russell added another setback to a lengthening list and pondered Ferrari\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very surprised (by Ferrari),\u201d said the Briton, winner of two of three previous sprints this year. \u201cThey\u2019ve been on the back foot with the PU (power unit) and energy management and here they look the best at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always known they have a great chassis, but I think some things aren\u2019t quite making sense… obviously Kimi did a great job, but Ferrari have had the upper hand all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri<\/a> qualified seventh with Red Bull\u2019s Isack Hadjar eighth and Racing Bulls pair Liam Lawson and British rookie Arvid Lindblad completing the top 10.<\/p>\n

Hamilton and Leclerc were one-two after the first phase, but Antonelli found some speed in the second to split the two Ferraris, with Norris right on the cusp in 10th place and in danger of going out.<\/p>\n

\"Piastri<\/p>\n

Piastri finished seventh.\u00a0AP Photo\/Darko Bandic<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a little bit left on the table, but it was a decent lap, and unfortunately super close to Lewis,\u201d said Antonelli of the final phase. \u201cBut congrats to him, and on our side we\u2019ll focus on tomorrow now.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the sprints so far this year have been won from pole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton continued his long love affair with Silverstone by seizing pole position for the British Grand Prix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-777603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}