Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari, Silverstone, 2022

Sainz beats Verstappen and Leclerc to take his first pole at wet Silverstone

2022 British Grand Prix qualifying

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Carlos Sainz Jnr took his maiden Formula 1 pole position at the end of a wet qualifying session for the British Grand Prix.

Sainz made the best of his final qualifying lap as team mate Charles Leclerc spun at Chapel on his last effort to beat Max Verstappen to pole position. Leclerc will start third on the grid, while Sergio Perez will start fourth in the second Red Bull.

Q1

Less than ten minutes before the green light at the end of the pit lane signalled the start of qualifying, the rain that had threatened to arrived finally began falling around the circuit.

A queue of cars left the pit lane on intermediate tyres, with big rooster tails of spray protruding from cars as the drivers sought out the grip around the circuit. Max Verstappen was immediately quickest with a 1’45.743, before Charles Leclerc went over two seconds quicker to replace his rival at the top of the times.

The tricky conditions understandably created challenges for drivers. Valtteri Bottas spun at Vale corner on his first timed lap but managed to continue on his way after a brief yellow flag.

With around eight minutes of the session remaining, Lando Norris was warned that no further rain was expected for the remainder of Q1, opening up the possibility of the track drying out and improving in the final minutes. George Russell improved to go fastest overall, but he was quickly beaten by both Charles Leclerc and then Verstappen.

With five minutes of Q1 remaining, the drop zone consisted of the two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, with Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Schumacher also at risk of elimination.

Vettel improved to move out of danger into tenth, before Tsunoda also got himself into safe by jumping up to ninth. That moved Pierre Gasly and Nicholas Latifi into the drop zone. Ricciardo improved out of the drop zone into 13th, dropping Kevin Magnussen into the danger zone, while Latifi also moved into 11th, putting Tsunoda back into risk of elimination.

As time expired, Vettel improved to 15th, but was the first driver to take the chequered flag and powerless to prevent Gasly knocking him out, to the Aston Martin driver’s frustration. His team mate Stroll was eliminated in 20th and last, while the two Haas also could not do enough and were both knocked out in the bottom five.

Latifi managed to just avoid elimination in 15th to progress into Q2 for the first time this season. That came at the expense of team mate Alex Albon, who was 16th in the heavily revised Williams, and expressed his frustration at the team’s decision to instruct him to do cool-down laps when he felt he was lacking grip. Magnussen was eliminated in 17th, ahead Vettel, while Schumacher and Stroll will make up the back row of the grid.

Q1 result

PositionNumberDriverTeamModelTimeGapLaps
11Max VerstappenRed BullRB181’39.12910
216Charles LeclercFerrariF1-751’39.8460.71711
363George RussellMercedesW131’40.0280.89911
455Carlos Sainz JnrFerrariF1-751’40.1901.06111
544Lewis HamiltonMercedesW131’40.4281.29911
611Sergio PerezRed BullRB181’40.5211.39210
724Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-FerrariC421’40.7911.66211
877Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-FerrariC421’41.3962.26711
94Lando NorrisMcLaren-MercedesMCL361’41.5152.38610
1014Fernando AlonsoAlpine-RenaultA5221’41.5982.4698
1110Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Red BullAT031’41.6802.55111
1231Esteban OconAlpine-RenaultA5221’41.7302.6018
1322Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Red BullAT031’41.8932.76410
143Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-MercedesMCL361’41.9332.80410
156Nicholas LatifiWilliams-MercedesFW441’41.9982.86911
1623Alexander AlbonWilliams-MercedesFW441’42.0782.94911
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas-FerrariVF-221’42.1593.03011
185Sebastian VettelAston Martin-MercedesAMR221’42.6663.5379
1947Mick SchumacherHaas-FerrariVF-221’42.7083.57911
2018Lance StrollAston Martin-MercedesAMR221’43.4304.30110

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Q2

The rain was continuing to spit down on the Silverstone crowd when the cars lined up at the end of the pit lane to begin the second phase of qualifying. The Williams of Latifi lead the 15 remaining cars out, ahead of the two Alfa Romeos of Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, followed by the AlphaTauris of Yuki Tsunoda and Gasly.

The intermediate tyre remained the preferred choice for all drivers on the still-wet surface throughout the session. After the first timed laps were completed, the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez were fastest, ahead of Zhou’s Alfa Romeo and the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Russell.

Norris jumped up to second place in the McLaren, before Leclerc took the top spot briefly as first Verstappen and Hamilton improved to go ahead of him. In the second Ferrari, Carlos Sainz Jnr moved fourth by setting a time three-and-a-half tenths off Leclerc’s personal best time.

Around half way through the session, the rain intensity began to increase and all drivers stopped improving their times. With five minutes remaining, the drop zone featured Gasly in 11th, Bottas in 12th and Tsunoda in 13th ahead of Ricciardo and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon in 15th. Meanwhile, Latifi sat half a second clear in safety in tenth place.

With drivers reporting that it was now raining harder, no one stood a chance of finding enough grip on the intermediate tyres to improve their times. As the final minutes ticked down, the conditions failed to improve, dooming all of those still in the drop zone to being eliminated.

That left Gasly as the first driver knocked out in 11th, with Bottas alongside him in 12th. Tsunoda will start 13th, ahead of Ricciardo and Ocon. Latifi survived to reach Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career.

Q2 result

PositionNumberDriverTeamModelTimeGapLaps
11Max VerstappenRed BullRB181’40.65515
244Lewis HamiltonMercedesW131’41.0620.40715
316Charles LeclercFerrariF1-751’41.2470.59217
455Carlos Sainz JnrFerrariF1-751’41.6020.94717
563George RussellMercedesW131’41.7251.07015
64Lando NorrisMcLaren-MercedesMCL361’41.8211.16618
714Fernando AlonsoAlpine-RenaultA5221’42.2091.55416
811Sergio PerezRed BullRB181’42.5131.85818
924Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-FerrariC421’42.6401.98520
106Nicholas LatifiWilliams-MercedesFW441’43.2732.61819
1110Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Red BullAT031’43.7023.04719
1277Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-FerrariC421’44.2323.57720
1322Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Red BullAT031’44.3113.65619
143Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-MercedesMCL361’44.3553.70018
1531Esteban OconAlpine-RenaultA5221’45.1904.53517

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Q3

The track was still wet when the crucial third phase of qualifying got underway, but it was not actively raining when the session began. The Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc both queued at the end of the pit lane in order to be the first cars out onto the circuit, with everyone once again opting for intermediates.

Sainz was warned of possible rain towards the end of Q3, making it critical for drivers to make the most of their early laps. Leclerc went quickest of the two Ferraris after their first timed laps, before Zhou and Norris went faster than the pair of them.

Verstappen suffered a spin on the exit of Stowe, but managed to continue after rotating over 360 degrees. On his second effort, Verstappen managed to go second quickest despite appearing to run outside of track limits at Vale. It did not matter, however, as Verstappen improved on his next lap with a legitimate time to take provisional pole.

Hamilton improved to take second place, a quarter of a second behind Verstappen, while Russell jumped up to third, nine tenths from Verstappen’s best time. With just under three minutes remaining, Leclerc moved second, before Hamilton improved on his next lap to move back into second place, just 0.027s from the provisional pole sitter.

Despite the risk of more rain, times continued to improve. The Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz improved to take first and second, before Verstappen went even faster to retake provisional pole by a quarter of a second.

As the chequered flag flew, Sainz improved to jump into provisional pole with a 1’40.983. Verstappen was next across the line but failed to improve by enough and stayed second, while Leclerc spun on his final lap at Chapel, ruining his chances.

Perez’s final lap was not an improvement, leaving Hamilton as the only driver left to take pole position. He improved, but only enough to take fifth place, confirming a career first pole position for Sainz.

Verstappen will therefore start alongside his former Toro Rosso team mate on the front row of the grid, ahead of Leclerc and Perez on the second row. Hamilton will line up with Norris behind him on the third row, with Fernando Alonso and Russell behind them. Zhou and Latifi will complete the top ten for tomorrow’s grid.

Q3 result

PositionNumberDriverTeamModelTimeGapLaps
155Carlos Sainz JnrFerrariF1-751’40.98325
21Max VerstappenRed BullRB181’41.0550.07223
316Charles LeclercFerrariF1-751’41.2980.31525
411Sergio PerezRed BullRB181’41.6160.63326
544Lewis HamiltonMercedesW131’41.9951.01223
64Lando NorrisMcLaren-MercedesMCL361’42.0841.10126
714Fernando AlonsoAlpine-RenaultA5221’42.1161.13323
863George RussellMercedesW131’42.1611.17823
924Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-FerrariC421’42.7191.73628
106Nicholas LatifiWilliams-MercedesFW442’3.09522.11224

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2022 British Grand Prix

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Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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53 comments on “Sainz beats Verstappen and Leclerc to take his first pole at wet Silverstone”

  1. British fans at their best. What a festival of rudeness and embarrassment. Nothing has changed, celebrating after Verstappen’s terrible crash – check, celebrating Verstappen’s defeat more than Sainz’s PP – check, booing for no reason – check.

    1. I’m not a fan of the booing but you might want to see the sort of reception Hamilton has had in Spain, Italy, and from Dutch fans in various other countries in the past before you start criticising the British crowd.

      1. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
        2nd July 2022, 16:23

        Ah yes, you can hear when a Dutch person booes in a crowd in a country that isn’t the Netherlands.

        It SURELY isn’t that Hamilton is disliked in more than one country for being a diva.

        1. Person who spouts a constant stream of criticism and negativity on the internet to one driver gets annoyed when their favourite gets a bit of booing.

        2. yeah, one can easily recognize a block of orange fans, booing. or you want to say thats mclaren fans?

      2. When Hamilton was booed, the interviewer always appealed to the audience for respect. I also remember during the race in Hungary, the whistling on TV was specially muted, with additional applause added in the background.

        1. The interviewer in this case was Billy Monger – I don’t think he’s that experienced as an interviewer to do the appealing to the audience. Booing is rude regardless of who’s at the receiving end of it. Don’t make excuses for some cases.

        2. I agree this should have happened. But Billy Monger is a young lad who I think was doing his first on track quali interview. A more experienced broadcaster would probably have said something.

          I’m sure that has happened in the past when Nico Rosberg was the baddie.

      3. well said, lewis received boos at some races last year so its not just a british fans thing.

    2. You are a sore loser ckeck

    3. It was embarrassing.

      Disappointed that the British presenter didn’t call these guys out, either.

      1. The British presenter is a young lad with no legs thanks to a complete screw up by another racer!

        He is simply not experienced enough to know what to do or call it out.

        This kid has endured more crap than most – a bit of booing probably did not register in his big moment and this ‘Brit bias’ crap just because it’s a noisy crowd really needs to step back and think about things.

        No one is going to forget how Max won last year. No one.

        Yes he was deserving but he was not deserving of winning that race. At the end of the day he had his backside handed to him by someone that has defied all stats and history.

        Given my small part in international racing, I can’t think of any of those I raced against in multiple series that would have done anything other than simply follow me home, knowing that they ultimately did not deserve that win. I have had it happen.

        Let alone come out with gold boots and the rest of it the following year.

        It’s understandable that people are going to be annoyed.

        However- picking on a young kid that has already endured more than most?

        I suggest you look at yourselves and think whether MV would think that’s appropriate or even acceptable?

        Particularly given he is absolutely walking this championship without any real opposition.

        1. Just as it has unfortunately become common at certain races to hear crowds booing certain drivers, so too has it usually been called out by the presenters of the interviews on the grid or podium. That it did not happen was disappointing; that’s all. Nobody is picking on anyone, and nobody disagrees that Monger’s accident was an absolute tragedy.

    4. I mean, I don’t really care about booing or cheering either way. It’s a sport, as long as it’s just a bit of booing the away team, it’s kind of whatever.

      However I am very disappointed in the press, including @keithcollantine and team. Last year, going into Zandvoort, there were numerous articles on this website and others, multiple questions in the press conferences and media pens coming up the race, posed at Max about how Hamilton was going to get boo’d and what his thoughts were and if he was going to “ask them to not boo.”

      Yes, in the run up to this race, nothing. Just silence on the topic. So, are we now okay with booing? Does Hamilton not bear any responsibility for these boos as Max apparently did pre-Zandvoort for the ones directed at Hamilton? Seems like a double standard to me by the press.

      1. there are at least two articles here on the day of occurrence.

    5. Max said that he didn’t mind about the booing. If the fans want to boo, they do.
      He has a more stable and mature personality than some other drivers.

  2. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
    2nd July 2022, 16:18

    And not a single word from the ‘objective’ Sky Sports commentators or Formula 1 when British ‘fans’ boo Verstappen. Yet come Zandvoort when Hamilton might get a P1-3 (although naturally I hope he doesn’t), it’ll make for at least 5 articles on how the Dutch are the most terrible people on earth when they do it.

    When Croft said British fans are the best fans, he must’ve had something quite impressive to smoke…

    1. The point is, that Barry is right. It works both ways. Otherwise the English press, known for riding the high horse, are just a hypocrites. So, why believe them, then?

    2. How many dutch commentators complained about stupid booing fans in Zandvoort?

      1. try listen to youtube, several Zandvoort tubes available so you can see and hear for yourself.

  3. Latifi somehow lucked out to make it to Q3. I don’t know he has made it in o Q3 ever … i could be wrong

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      2nd July 2022, 16:53

      It was his first time in his F1 career, but it wasn’t exactly lucky. It was team mate with the huge upgrades to his car. In Q1, Latifi set his best time on his 2nd to last run. And albon couldn’t beat it on either of his last 2 attempts, when the final run in these conditions should have been his best chance as Latifi himself didn’t improve. Even in Q2, latifi did a good job as he set his time very early on, which the 5 drivers behind him failed to do soon enough for the conditions.

      Latifi is usually very poor, but this was Q3 on merit.

      1. Yep, he earned it! It was crazy qualifying session

  4. BLS (@brightlampshade)
    2nd July 2022, 16:20

    Bit of a surprise there, the session seemed to consist of Verstappen putting in purples 1+ second clear of everyone else lap after lap but then Sainz who was nowhere nicks it.

    Lets see who’s got what tomorrow.

    1. Max Verstappen had yellow flags in Chapel and had to slow down.

      1. And he spun on another lap

        1. Yes, but that was early on and the track was several seconds off the ultimate pace, so nothing lost there.

          The yellows were on the final lap.

      2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        2nd July 2022, 16:43

        Indeed Leclerc spun at the end causing yellow flags, Max was ahead in time of Sainz but had to lift due to the yellow flag causing him to miss pole.

        1. @jelle-van-der-meer although Verstappen might have gone on to beat Sainz’s time (I say might, because by the time you reach the microsector before where Leclerc was, Verstappen had lost the advantage he’d gained earlier in the lap and was only about equal with Sainz in terms of lap time), the available telemetry data also shows that Leclerc was setting a better lap time than Verstappen was.

          The more likely scenario is that, if Leclerc hadn’t spun, Verstappen might have then have gotten ahead of Sainz, but would then have been beaten by Leclerc to pole.

      3. The Ferrari drivers caught a yellow flag in the first sector earlier in Q3 which prevented them to attack. The track was improving for everyone and Verstappen was on the best possible position.

        1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
          2nd July 2022, 16:47

          Till Leclerc spun and caused a yellow flag forcing Verstappen to slow down, that yellow flag cost Max pole.

  5. Lots of cockpits opening up for the silly season:

    Esteban
    Daniel
    Seb
    Mick

    1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      2nd July 2022, 16:45

      I agree with 3 of the 4, disagree with Seb as the team mistimed him for his final lap chance.
      Also Vettel actually has driven pretty well this season given how bad the Aston Martin is. Obviously Stroll’s name should be in your list but we all known why his seat is save.

      1. I wasn’t as much a criticising Seb personally (he did beat Lance, again, after all) as expressing my doubts that these sorts of Aston Martin performances will convince him to extend his stay with them.

        Agreed on Lance. 👍

        1. Not sure what’s up with Ocon recently, but Ricciardo and Schumacher are indeed seeming no closer to getting on top of their issues than they were at the start of last season.

          Does Vettel want to stick around? Only he knows. He sometimes puts in a great drive, but it’s hard to judge in these bad cars how well anyone actually does. For the person with the third most wins in F1 history, struggling to get out of Q1 can’t be an exciting prospect. Especially when he has a family at home, plenty of other interests, and more money than he and any of his kids will ever be able to spend.

    2. I think Seb will stay unless he gets an offer from McLaren, which is probably getting tired of waiting for Ricciardo to rise to his former level. But if McLaren will let Ricciardo go, they might instead do the old switcheroo by bringing Palou from IndyCar and sending Daniel there.

      Ocon has a year or two left in his contract I think and he hasn’t been THAT bad so I’ll say he’ll stay.

      If Williams doesn’t need the money, I think Latifi has already shown what he’s capable of and more importantly what he’s not. Enter Piastri.

      Mick is problematic if he doesn’t raise his performance level soon. Ferrari might want to give him more time, but is Haas willing and able to do that.. they need every point they can get. I don’t know if Haas can say no if Ferrari wants Mick to stay?

    3. re: Mick

      I think it is only fair to add that AMuS is reporting that Haas apparently managed to forget re-inserting a shim in his car’s left steering rod, resulting in both geometry and steering being significantly off.

      There’s only so much any driver can do when their team can’t decide if they’re taking this whole going racing thing serious or not.

  6. We’ll done to Sainz on the pole in a tricky session.

    But again the coverage was frustrating, showing Sainz on board and Ferrari garage as soon as Verstappen crossed the line despite there being 4 or 5 cars yet to finish their final laps.

    1. Kind of bizarre really, you’d think we’d have been seeing the 2 Mercs at least since it’s the British GP and all. But didn’t see either of them on their final laps, or like you say the other cars that were still going such as Perez.

      1. Exactly. I think both mercs, Perez and Alonso were still on their laps. Any of them could have sneaked the top 3.

    2. Right, the Mercedes duo had shown decent pace and warranted being covered at the end of Q3.

  7. Jonathan Parkin
    2nd July 2022, 16:26

    Not wishing to be a Jeremiah but today’s qualifying is a demonstration of why I don’t like three separate sessions. Latifi in 10th place has the slowest qualifying time and there are multiple drivers who qualified 11-15th that are slower than drivers behind them.

    If we had one session like we had in 1996-2002, all the drivers would properly line up fastest time first slowest time last

    1. If we had a single session, the result would’ve been set by about minute 15~18, and we would’ve been stuck watching the clock tick down as the puddles grow larger and larger.

  8. XTC, cocaïne, speed and I take a joint to relax. And you?

  9. MV looked faster by a lot. His bad luck not to be on pole. It’ll be interesting in the dry, if it’s dry tomorrow.

  10. Great quali session there, bravo Carlos

    1. I’m very happy for Carlos. But this was far from his best quali session; a lot of luck involved this time.

  11. No love for Latifi here? Man took the old Williams jalopy to q3 while Albon with the upgrades could not. In the wet. Brilliant job

    1. If you scroll up, there is some love. Not a fan, but he earned this one!

  12. It was interesting that David Croft described Silverstone as the greatest track in the world. For a qualifying session, I would certainly put it below Spa-Francorchamps, Suzuka and Monaco, all of which are more exciting to watch a Formula 1 car on its own going at the limit, but none of those three tracks are particularly good for exciting racing, and including that I would probably agree with Croft’s assessment that, for current F1 cars at least, Silverstone is the best track in the world as, as well as being exciting to watch the cars on their own, it also provides great racing and allows the cars to run side-by-side for multiple corners around parts of the lap, particularly from the Wellington Straight all the way to Maggots.

  13. …so anyway, should be a good race between Leclerc and Max tomorrow.

  14. It’s funny how some guys get better when their seat is at risk.
    Last year was Giovinazzi, now Latifi.

    1. And even Lewis beat George..
      ;)

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