British Grand Prix 2026 — Friday

The British Grand Prix 2026 delivered a thrilling Friday at Silverstone, with a nail-biting Sprint Qualifying setting the stage for a packed weekend. Kimi Antonelli will line up second on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint race, while George Russell starts fifth. A record crowd is expected to pack the grandstands for the British motorsport extravaganza, and the opening one-hour free practice session saw the stands already full. Antonelli topped FP1 in P2, Russell in P4. The Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc looked particularly strong, a form that carried into Sprint Qualifying. Both Mercedes drivers progressed to SQ3, but neither could match Hamilton’s pace in the final shootout. Antonelli missed pole by just 0.011 seconds, with Hamilton on pole, Verstappen third, and Leclerc fourth. Russell starts tomorrow’s 19-lap Sprint from fifth on the grid, third row. Sprint Qualifying was brutally close, and Antonelli admitted frustration at missing pole by a whisker. “I didn’t feel totally comfortable in the car in SQ1, but SQ2 was like night and day,” he said. “The balance improved dramatically, and I found my rhythm again. My SQ3 lap was solid, but Lewis did a great job—congrats to him.” Antonelli stressed the team’s progress across the sessions and vowed to fight for victory in the Sprint. “Ferrari and the rest have made big strides. We know we’re in for a real scrap, and that’s exactly the kind of challenge we love.” Russell echoed the sentiment, conceding Mercedes were “not far off” but still short of the Ferraris’ pace. “We were close to P3 in the final sector, but when it mattered, the lap time just wasn’t there,” he said. “I was surprised by Ferrari’s pace—this isn’t their strongest track on paper—but clearly they’ve made a huge step forward and were competitive all day. They had the edge from the first session, so we’ll need to dig deep overnight to see if we can close the gap and get into the fight tomorrow.” Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, called Friday “frustrating.” “We’ve done a good job in recent races getting the initial setup right, but today we felt we were on the back foot,” he said. “We made changes to improve stability, but even in SQ3 we still felt the front was too strong—especially tricky with the gusty wind. There’s a speed delta we still need to understand that cost us time on the straights. We can’t make any more changes before tomorrow’s Sprint, but we’re working hard to get on top of it and come back with a better setup for qualifying.”