The cheers around Silverstone matched those at Glastonbury this afternoon with Lewis Hamilton grabbing Pole Position for the British Grand Prix. He was visibly more cheerful than Andy Murray at Wimbledon too with a mega impressive lap to put him ahead of Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in 4th.
The other British hopeful, Paul Di Resta stole an impressive 5th place, out pacing the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and the pair of Lotus cars too. A super lap and unconfirmed reports state that the Scot is smiling too. Meanwhile smiles were lacking at McLaren with Jenson just missing out to take 11st and Sergio Perez further down the road in 13th.
Sticking with the subject, Daniel Ricciardo’s smile was beaming with his qualifying effort putting Toro Rosso into the top 10 and effectively submit his CV for the Red Bull Racing drive in 2014. Good luck chap.
Williams’ woes continued with Bottas and Maldonado battling between themselves to avoid going out in Q1. Bottas lost out and joined the usual crew at the back of grid. Chilton was rather underwhelming – over a second slower than his team mate. Sauber continued their anonymous season taking 15th and 18th on the grid for Hulkenberg and Gutierrez. At least they are starting ahead of Van Der Garde who, with a 10 place penalty sees his 21st position become 31st (yes, 22nd ok) and so far back he’s starting from the car park.
We look forward to tomorrow with great anticipation. So many British fans would so love to see Lewis Hamilton take his first win for Mercedes on Sunday, but we have to point out that Silverstone really is Red Bull’s playground. Let’s see how it pans out.
The grid for Sunday:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Best | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1'29.607 | - |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1'30.059 | 0.452 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull/Renault | 1'30.211 | 0.604 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull/Renault | 1'30.220 | 0.613 |
| 5 | Paul Di Resta | Force India/Mercedes | 1'30.736 | 1.129 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1'30.757 | 1.15 |
| 7 | Adrian Sutil | Force India/Mercedes | 1'30.908 | 1.301 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Renault | 1'30.955 | 1.348 |
| 9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus/Renault | 1'30.962 | 1.355 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1'30.979 | 1.372 |
| 11 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Mercedes | 1'31.649 | 2.042 |
| 12 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1'31.779 | 2.172 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1'31.785 | 2.178 |
| 14 | Sergio Perez | McLaren/Mercedes | 1'32.082 | 2.475 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber/Ferrari | 1'32.211 | 2.604 |
| 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams/Renault | 1'32.359 | 2.752 |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Renault | 1'32.664 | 3.057 |
| 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber/Ferrari | 1'32.666 | 3.059 |
| 19 | Charles Pic | Caterham/Renault | 1'33.866 | 4.259 |
| 20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia/Cosworth | 1'34.108 | 4.501 |
| 21 | Max Chilton | Marussia/Cosworth | 1'35.858 | 6.251 |
| 22 | G.van der Garde* | Caterham/Renault | 1'35.481 | 5.874 |
