Formula 1 at Silverstone: Sixth British pole position for British hero

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) celebrated in tears his sixth pole position in the British Grand Prix today at Silverstone. It’s his 76th pole position in Formula 1 career. Hamilton’s pole is his 50th pole with Mercedes, the second-most by a driver-team combination in history behind Michael Schumacher and Ferrari’s 58.

The British driver in the #44 Mercedes was the fastest in front of his home crowd, beating Sebastian Vettel (Scuderia Ferrari) by 0.044 seconds, in the closest qualifying session so far in the 2018 Formula 1 Championship season. The top three drivers are separated by just a tenth of a second. The third fastest was Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).

Valtteri Bottas will start from the second row next to Raikkonen. Red Bull drivers locked out the third row, with Max Verstappen beating Daniel Ricciardo to fifth. Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean are seventh and eighth respectively. Charles Leclerc (Sauber) and Esteban Ocon (Force India) completed the top 10.