With the action at Silverstone subsided, we can review just what happened with qualifying. As a recap, I will review the top 10 qualifying drivers: 1. George Russell 2. Lewis Hamilton 3. Lando Norris 4. Max Verstappen 5. Oscar Piastri 6. Nico Hulkenberg 7. Carlos Sainz Jr. 8. Lance Stroll 9. Alexander Albon 10. Fernando Alonso. Having a Mercedes front-row lockdown for the first time in a long time can make a person feel a bit nostalgic, an almost bitter-sweet memory with Hamilton heading to Ferrari next year, but a welcome one. The field is closer than it ever has been, with the top ten only being separated by a hair over 1 second and the top 5 only being separated by 0.4 seconds, to say that Q3 was anything short of exciting, would be a massive understatement. There were 2 notable surprises in this week’s qualifying, the first being Verstappen not making it into the top 3, and Nico Hulkenberg getting 6th place in the Haas. With Max Verstappen being painfully dominant in the last 3 years, to see him not in the top 3 is actually something of note, this is proven by Max having the pole position in 8 of the last 11 races, qualifying 2nd in Canada and Spain, and the only other time that Max has not qualified in the top 3 this season being Monaco where he qualified in 6th place. This lacking performance from Verstappen has been attributed to an unfortunate foray into the gravel pit during Q1, which I presumed was the cause of his lackluster pace which is atypical of him, while the qualifying was taking place. However, Nico Hulkenberg looked quite impressive in the normally underperforming Haas, securing a qualifying position of 6th place. Those new upgrades that Haas has brought to Silverstone must be working quite well, we will see just how well when it comes to race day tomorrow and we get to see what that translates to in race pace. I for one hope to see Haas have a good race, as I have always liked Nico Hulkenberg, and have felt like he has had unfortunate luck when it comes to performance on race days, with very few being his fault. Verstappen will definitely be having a tough race tomorrow, as the recent increase in competition from Mclaren, and as of late Mercedes again, will not make it easy on him. I have full faith that as long as he drives as perfectly as he has in recent years, he will have a good chance of making up for his underwhelming performance in qualifying, with a race win. If you want to view more info about today’s qualifying just follow this link. https://www.formula1.com/ Author: Elias Horton, Class CIS212
