Kimi Antonelli earned his fifth pole position of the season, recording the fastest time Saturday in qualifying for Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England.
After setting the provisional pole time, the 19-year-old Mercedes driver landed the top spot with a time of 1 minute, 28.111 seconds around the 5.891-kilometer circuit.
Antonelli questioned why he was first on the track to complete qualifying but brushed off what he considered a slight disadvantage.
“I was a bit stressed because I never really like going first for the last run,” Antonelli said. “But yeah, the last lap was very tidy, I have to be honest. It all came together. It was very tricky with the wind because it was very gusty and unpredictable. But yeah, we built our way through qualifying, and to bring home pole is very satisfying.”
Ferrari landed the second and third spots behind Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, respectively, while Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell was fourth. Isack Hadjar of Red Bull was fifth, Lando Norris of McLaren was sixth and Max Verstappen of Red Bull was seventh.
Norris won last year’s British Grand Prix.
Antonelli also was on the pole at the Chinese Grand Prix, Japanese Grand Prix, Miami Grand Prix and Monaco Grand Prix. The Italy native has won five times in his breakout season and leads the drivers’ championship standings by 43 points over Russell.
–Field Level Media
