Max Verstappen took another pole position at Silverstone, but the real story of the day – by a distance – was the performance of the McLarens.
Lando Norris will start alongside Verstappen in second, with rookie driver Oscar Piastri storming into third ahead of both Ferraris and both Mercedes – with Fernando Alonso all the way down in ninth.
Yet another qualifying session this season was affected by rain, with drivers at Silverstone forced to deal with drying conditions after wet weather earlier in the afternoon.
Sergio Perez lost out again to drop out of the session in Q1, losing out in the damp to miss Q3 for the fifth consecutive race.
As cars came out for a single frantic flying lap each after the red flag, it became clear that the track had improved by over a second a lap – making it effectively a one-lap shootout.
Q2 appeared more representative of teams' 'true' dry one-lap pace, Max Verstappen flying to lead the pack into Q3 with – remarkably – the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri second and third.
F1 Silverstone Qualifying Results: British Grand Prix 2023
1. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] - 1:26.720sec
2. Lando Norris [McLaren] - +0.241sec
3. Oscar Piastri [McLaren] - +0.372sec
4. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] - +0.416sec
5. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] - +0.428sec
6. George Russell [Mercedes] - +0.435sec
7. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] - +0.491sec
8. Alex Albon [Williams] - +0.810sec
9. Fernando Alonso [Aston Martin] - +0.939sec
10. Pierre Gasly [Alpine] - +0.969sec
ELIMINATED IN Q2
11. Nico Hulkenberg [Haas]
12. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]
13. Esteban Ocon [Alpine]
14. Logan Sargeant [Williams]
15. Valtteri Bottas [Alfa Romeo]
ELIMINATED IN Q1
16. Sergio Perez [Red Bull]
17. Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri]
18. Zhou Guanyu [Alfa Romeo]
19. Nyck de Vries [AlphaTauri]
20. Kevin Magnussen [Haas]
How does F1 Qualifying work?
The 60-minute qualifying session is split into three finite windows which provides a dramatic prelude to Sunday's big race.
The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.
Then Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.
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