Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent at Silverstone

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen pipped McLaren's Oscar Piastri to pole position at the British Grand Prix with the very last lap of qualifying.

Verstappen beat Piastri by 0.103 seconds, with McLaren's Lando Norris just 0.015secs behind in third and Mercedes George Russell a further 0.019secs adrift in fourth.

Lewis Hamilton, second quickest behind Piastri after the first runs in final qualifying, slipped back to fifth at the end, just ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Briton Oliver Bearman was an excellent eighth for Haas, but will be demoted to 18th on the grid because of a 10-place penalty for going too fast under red-flag conditions in practice, when he crashed in the pit lane.

Read the full report here

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The fans had high hopes for a British Grand Prix polesitter but in the end an Aussie and a Dutchman will share the front row at Silverstone. Max Verstappen's 'simply lovely' lap means he's in the prime spot to claim his third win of the season - but can he keep both McLarens at bay over 52 laps?

Rain is forecast in the hours before lights out but the showers should be gone by the time we go racing at 15:00 BST.

We'll be building up to the British Grand Prix from 13:45 BST tomorrow, so join us then!

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Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who will start the British Grand Prix in fifth: "The lap was pretty decent at the end and then I lost a bit of time in the last corner, which probably would have put me on the front row or at least third.

"We're right on a knife-edge, other than that, I squeezed everything I could out of the car.

"I definitely feel a lot better in the car this weekend, this track is incredible and the crowd is amazing. But we needed just a little more from the car, another 0.1secs of performance to nudge us a little bit closer to the front guys."

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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who will start the British Grand Prix in sixth: "I haven’t been good enough and unfortunately, it’s been more qualies than not that I find myself here saying it could have been, should have been.

"At the end of the day, if I don’t do the job in the car and put up my best corners together, then I end up P6 instead of being on the front row.

"I can only blame myself. I’ve very disappointed because qualies used to be one of my strengths. I am generally performing well in races but in qualifying I am missing something.

"We’ve got some issues on the car that we’re trying to drive around but it’s not always easy, but I wouldn’t take that as an excuse.

"To start from sixth and to try and find free air from sixth is going to be very difficult. I’ll try my best."

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter at Silverstone

It's disappointment for Williams, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon both out in Q2 and I've just been catching up with Alex and he said they made a mistake as a team.

They used three sets of new tyres in Q1 so they didn't have the tyres that they needed.

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Haas' Ollie Bearman, who has a 10-place grid penalty at Silverstone: "It sucks, quite honestly. It is horrible but I can only blame myself for that. It was my fault and a very silly error, this morning.

"At least on the other hand, I'm really glad that we had a good qualifying. First of all to validate the team's hard work because we brought upgrades this weekend and we're in Q3 on merit, that's great because qualifying has been a weak point.

"Now to be in Q3 on a track with high speed which across the season has not been our strongest feature, is a great feeling. Now I am going to start from last tomorrow but I will see what I can do.

On what happened at the end of third practice: "We were doing a slow lap under the red flag and we went into the pit entry with cold tyres and brakes, it was a silly, dumb error. Really kicking myself, I wish I could go back and redeem myself."

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Oliver Bearman will start 18th on the grid tomorrow because of his 10-place grid penalty (he also picked up four penalty points for his third practice incident) and this is what the Briton had to say on the Haas team radio after his second pole shootout appearance of the season:

"Guys, I'm really, really proud of you all. This car has all the potential, so good job. Glad we could show what we're capable of, and yeah, I'm so sorry about earlier because that's not good enough. But I'm glad we could show we had potential today."

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Mercedes' George Russell, who will start the British Grand Prix in fourth, told Sky Sports: "Very happy because we’ve been off the pace all weekend. I was not expecting to be in the fight for a good position, especially with how strong the Ferraris look and we always know the McLarens are there.

"In my last lap, just really came alive and it was mega strong so to be 20-30 milliseconds behind the front row was a good result."

On where his battle will be tomorrow: "It’s a bit everywhere to be honest. I think recent form shows that we’re not going to be the strongest tomorrow in the race pace. Looking a bit cooler – that’s good news for us and it can go any way.

"Obviously we’ve got to be alert to it."

On the Brits always looking at the weather: "Anything but sunshine, which is a bit of a shame to say. I was really happy with that. It’s been a tough weekend with the pace so it’s really good to be up there now."

Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson qualified in P16 and told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We just had a very fast car this weekend throughout most of the sessions and to have a bad session now is not ideal.

"Tyre temperatures are a lot different today than they were yesterday. It's very sensitive this year, especially with tyres and putting them in the right window. It's a shame but tomorrow is a more important day."

Image source, Reuters

So, how does Oscar Piastri, leading the driver's championship by 15 points from Lando Norris, feel about how the front of the grid has panned out for tomorrow's British Grand Prix?

"It’s been very evenly matched with us," said the Australian, "Max [Verstappen], the Ferraris, I saw even George [Russell] got up there at the end, so I think it’s going to be a pretty evenly paced race tomorrow and all of us have got slightly different strengths.

"The Red Bulls are quick in a straight line, we’re slightly quicker in the high speeds, so it’s going to be a fun one."

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McLaren's Lando Norris, who will start the British Grand Prix in third: "Good qualifying, I'm not going to be unhappy with third. Of course, we'd love to be on top here at Silverstone but Max did a good job. Not quick enough for us today but it was a fun qualifying. Qualifying here is pretty fast. And it's enjoyable and good fun so, not the top but still a good day."

On the challenges at Silverstone and what he will focus on: "Little things, little things today that can put you ahead or behind like we saw how close Q1 was which is pretty shocking.

"Little margins. Little mistakes. A couple of hundredths here and there can win or lose you the game today.

"Tough especially with the wind and the conditions. A little bit of rain.

"I think it's going to be fun tomorrow. I think it's going to be a good battle between the three of us or probably more with Lewis, Charles and George.

"It's going to be an interesting Sunday. I'm looking forward to it."

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McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who will start the British Grand Prix in second: “I was trying to think of how I was going to go faster and didn’t. The last lap was a little bit messy, but it’s been tight all weekend. I think the first lap was very good and I don’t know how much the track would have improved but a little bit on the table. We’ll never know if it was enough.

"The team's done a great job. We tried a lot of things this weekend to try and get a little more pace. Car’s felt mega all weekend but there’s been a few points where we’re scratching our heads why we’re not quicker.

"The team’s done a great job getting us back onto the front and it can be an exciting race for tomorrow.

"It’s tough, especially when you think it’s a good lap. You don’t want to overdo it and try and go over the limit. There was a couple of corners where maybe I was a bit safe on the way in and tried to make up for it on the way out and it didn’t quite work.

"Fine margins as we know but happy with second on the grid and looking forward to a fun race."

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who will start on pole at Silverstone: "It was tricky out there with the wind. It was shifting around a bit. It's a bit different around here, these cars are extremely sensitive to it.

"That final lap was good enough. This is a proper track when you have to go flat out in qualifying. You have to be really committed and it's really enjoyable.

"We are quite quick on the straight, which is not easy in the high speed corners to manage but we did today. We have to wait to see what tomorrow will do and if there's rain around or not.

"I'm happy with qualifying. It's a big boost for the team as well and I'm excited to go racing tomorrow. We'll try. We are going to go racing. We are going to have fun and try to do the best we can."

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Max Verstappen now has the same number of pole positions for Red Bull - 44 -as fellow four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

"You went motor racing Max," said his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, after he swiped that pole away from Oscar Piastri.

A win at Silverstone tomorrow would be just the tonic following Austria's DNF - his first since the Australian Grand Prix in 2024. Verstappen is 61 points behind championship leader Piastri and 46 adrift of second-placed Lando Norris.

11. Carlos Sainz (Williams)

12. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)

13. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)

14. Alex Albon (Williams)

15. Esteban Ocon (Haas)

16. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)

17. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)

18. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

19. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)

20. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 1:24.892

2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

3. Lando Norris (McLaren)

4. George Russell (Mercedes)

5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

7. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes, three-place grid penalty)

8. Oliver Bearman (Haas, 10-place grid penalty)

9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

Oliver Bearman's pit lane shunt in final practice has put paid to him starting in eighth place on Sunday. Instead, the Haas rookie will line-up in P18 because of his 10-place grid penalty.

Kimi Antonelli and his three-place drop sees the Mercedes teenager move down from P7 to P10 tomorrow.

Quite a few drivers put in scruffy laps on the final runs. I'd tell you what Charles Leclerc said on the team radio after he qualified in sixth but I'd be sacked on the spot.

Lando Norris will start in third - the same place he did last year. George Russell lifted his Mercedes up to fourth and Lewis Hamilton will line up fifth. This has been a disappointing qualifying for Ferrari after their practice performance.

Jeremiah: Nobody had given Verstappen a chance. No wonder the commentators end up asking "How did he do that?"! What a lap! Kudos to him. Ferrari fell apart despite the effort by Hamilton.