• Mercedes driver holds nerve with Leclerc a close second

• Russell fourth, with Norris and Piastri sixth and eighth

Much as Kimi Antonelli said he admired the British Grand Prix, its challenge and sporting spectacle, the Italian was in absolutely no mood to give a British driver so much as a sniff of a chance of enjoying a day in the sun as he swept to a majestic pole position for Sunday’s race.

Were will alone enough, the huge crowd at the old airfield would surely have powered Lewis Hamilton into the top spot, but their vocal support was not enough. Antonelli took his first pole here with the type of precision driving and commitment required on the high-speed blast that rewards drivers who can find the very edge. He did so with an authority and almost unconscious ease that unsurprisingly left his rivals a little deflated.

Mit 50,1 Prozent fährt Keiko Fujimori einen äußerst knappen Wahlsieg ein. Aus Washington kommen Glückwünsche. Doch ihr linker Gegner will das Ergebnis nicht anerkennen.

• Ferrari driver qualifies first ahead of Kimi Antonelli

• Hamilton: ‘I love this place, I love this crowd’

Lewis Hamilton gave the home crowd reason to roar as he took pole position for the sprint race at the British Grand Prix for Ferrari, beating the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli into second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.

The pole for the short format race to be held on Saturday morning at Silverstone must be considered somewhat against the odds, as Ferrari had been expected to be somewhat on the back foot to Mercedes, at the power dominated track.