Formula 1 News: George Russell wins pole for 2024 British GP

To the delight of the large partisan British crowd, George Russell turned a lap of 1m25.819s to win the pole position for the 2024 British GP at Silverstone and lead a British driver 1-2-3.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Russell’s lap was 0.171s faster than his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. It was the first front-row start for Hamilton this year and the third career pole for Russell.

“What a feeling! At the start of the year I don’t think we could have dreamt of being on pole here,” said Russell. “A 1-2 for Lewis and I, Lando in P3. This is just mega. It’s down to all these fans as well, they give us so much energy. Thank you so much for that.”

“First off a big thanks to this incredible crowd – so proud to be here,” said a happy Hamilton. “Three Brits in the top three is incredible. A huge congratulation to George, he did such a great job. We definitely didn’t expect to be front row this weekend but this is huge for us and for our team. The car felt fantastic out there, so everyone in the garage here, all our team that have come here, they deserve this.”

Lando Norris, quickest in practice Friday, was third quick for McLaren, 0.211s behind Russell. “I’m happy with P3. Three Brits lock out the top three so pretty cool here. Good laps by George and Lewis – they did an excellent job and put in some nice laps. A little mistake on my part at the end but P3 is still good.”

The new Red Bull upgrades are not working as expected and Max Verstappen struggled throughout qualifying and was only able to qualify 4th best, 0.384s behind Russell.  He will start alongside arch-rival Norris on the 2nd row. Verstappen did suffer damage to his floor in Q1, and they may explain his lack of pace.

Oscar Piastri rounded out the top-5 in the #81 McLaren, as Mercedes-powered cars occupy 4 of the 5 top spots on the grid.

Sergio Perez spun off on a damp track on slick tires and was out in Q1 in the 2nd Red Bull. Christian Horner could just shake his head.

It was a disappointing day for Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari being pushed into the elimination zone of Q2 to end the session in P11. He will start alongside the Williams of Logan Sargeant in P12, marking the American’s best qualifying performance of the year.

The RB pair of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo exited in 13th and 15th respectively, with the Kick Sauber of Zhou Guanyu between them in 14th place.

Valtteri Bottas just missed out on progressing to Q2 in the Kick Sauber, putting him in P16, while the Haas of Kevin Magnussen followed in P17 after an excursion at Copse in the final minutes of the segment.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were a disappointing P18 and P20 – though Gasly was already set to start from the back due to a penalty for taking on new power unit elements – while Sergio Perez had a disaster after becoming beached in the gravel in the opening minutes of the session. Having been unable to rejoin, the Red Bull driver lines up in P19.

What a qualifying session that was, with Mercedes taking a very unexpected 1-2 to lock out the front row of tomorrow’s grid. That’s also history in the making – there has never been a British 1-2-3 on the grid at the British Grand Prix!

For the last time there were three Brits qualifying in the top three, you have to go all the way back to South Africa 1968. That was Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart that day.

2024 British GP Qualifying Results