Article #69692

• 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.