Hamilton takes pole for Silverstone sprint race

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton pipped Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli to a stunning pole position for the sprint race at the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton, a record nine-time winner of his home race, took top spot from the championship leader by just 0.011 seconds.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third fastest, but 0.321secs off the pace.

Mercedes' George Russell, 40 points adrift of Antonelli in the championship, was a disappointing fifth behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

McLaren's Lando Norris, the world champion and winner of this grand prix last year, was sixth fastest ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Red Bull's Isack Hadjar and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and British rookie Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.

The sprint race at Silverstone takes place at 12:00 BST on Saturday.

The packed grandstands of about 150,000 fans cheered Hamilton raucously as he crossed the line and moved ahead of Antonelli.

Hamilton said: "Wow. OK. I like it. I love this place. I love this crowd. I can't express to you how big a dream it is, and the flow you can get into around this place if you can get the set-up in the right place.

"We're ahead of Mercedes. They have so much power, these guys. We did not expect we would be competing for the front row, so it's an amazing surprise. I'm ecstatic."

Ferrari had a difficult race last weekend in Austria, despite Hamilton taking his first win for his new team in Barcelona the race before that, but the seven-time champion said some small upgrades to the car had helped them get back on top.

"We brought some tiny bits here," he said. "I am really pleased to get pole. It was only 10 milliseconds or something like that and the team really deserve it."

Antonelli said: "It was so close and it was a shame. There was a little bit left on the table but it was a decent lap. Congrats to Lewis and we focus on tomorrow now. Ferrari have done an incredible step forward so it is going to be incredibly tough. Lewis is in great form. We like the challenge. We will go for it."

Verstappen said he thought Hamilton and Antonelli "look a bit quick" to challenge in the sprint.

"It was very close, it could easily have been P3 or P6/7. But we are on the good side. We are still not where we want to be. A few things to figure out to find more lap time and we will try to do that after the sprint."

Leclerc was 0.327secs behind Hamilton and said he was still trying to understand why he was not finding himself as comfortable in the new car as his team-mate.

"Lewis is more often at 100% of the potential of the car, which I'm not," Leclerc said. "I have to work on everything, really.

"I am struggling to be consistent at my 100%. I just don't feel the car as well as I want.

"We are extremely surprised in general. We were expecting a much bigger gap to the cars in front."

Russell, who needs a good run of races to narrow the gap to Antonelli, was a similar margin adrift - 0.346secs behind the Italian.

"Story of the year, always on the back foot. Usually in Q3 I can make a step but today it wasn't the case. We need to understand why that is," Russell said.

Norris was 0.364secs off pole, and just 0.032secs ahead off Piastri, but that was a decent result given he was hampered by a broken brake duct, which was fixed just before his final run.

He said: "It was (hampering) me throughout. For the final run we fixed it, but the car was completely different and way better again. By the time I got the feeling for the final lap I felt like I could have pushed way more. So, just unfortunate today, but the pace was still there or thereabouts."

The big question after sprint qualifying was why Ferrari were so quick after finishing nearly half a minute off the winner just a week ago in Austria.

Hamilton came into the weekend saying he expected the gap to Mercedes on the straights to potentially double compared with Austria.

And Russell said after qualifying: "Very surprised by the pace of Ferrari. They have been on the back foot with the PU (power unit) and energy management and today they look the best.

"We've always known they have a great chassis. Some things are not quite making sense. Ferrari have had the upper hand all day."

But part of the answer may lie in the fact that Silverstone has some similarities with Barcelona, where Hamilton so convincingly won three weeks ago.

Both tracks have a preponderance of medium and high-speed corners, and it is known that Ferrari have the best chassis.

On top of that, Ferrari had an engine upgrade in Austria, albeit one they said they expected not to be enough to close the gap to Mercedes.

A comparison of the laps of Hamilton and Antonelli showed the Mercedes still making time on the Ferrari on the pit straight and the Wellington Straight to Luffield.

But interestingly - and unexpectedly - the Ferrari gained time on the Mercedes along the old pit straight and through the high-speed Copse right-hander, where the cars were expected to start recovering energy.

And although Antonelli won a bit of time back through Becketts and down the Hangar Straight to Stowe, where he was slightly ahead on entry, Hamilton gained through the fast right-hander and on the run to the final chicane at Vale and Club and on the run to the line.

After the sprint race, the teams will have an opportunity to change the settings on their cars, including their deployment plans, so the situation could be different in grand prix qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 1:28.376

2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.011

3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.321

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.327

5. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.357

6. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.364

7. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.396

8. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.459

9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.551

10. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +0.991