2020 British Grand Prix - Saturday

2020 British Grand Prix - Saturday

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team secures front row lockout for the British Grand Prix

  • Lewis scored the 91st pole position of his F1 career – his third of 2020, seventh at Silverstone and his 100th front row place with the Mercedes F1 Team
  • Valtteri finished in P2, marking his 66th consecutive appearance in Q3 – equalling the record for most Q3s in a row, previously set by Lewis
  • Lewis’s pole lap of 1:24.303 is a new Formula One track record at Silverstone
  • The result marks the eighth pole position in a row for the Mercedes F1 Team at Silverstone, breaking the record for most consecutive pole positions at the same track
  • Both drivers will start the 2020 British Grand Prix on the Medium tyre
  • Imagery of the day is available on our media site. All imagery is rights-free for editorial use.
  • To download all available imagery from today with just one click, please use the following link (please note that imagery will download in a zip folder): Image selection

Driver

Chassis No.

FP3

Q1

Q2

Q3

Lewis Hamilton

F1 W11 EQ Performance /02

P2

7 Laps

P2

9 Laps

P2

6 Laps

P1

1:25.900

Soft

1:25.347

Medium,

Medium,
Soft

1:24.303

Soft,

Soft

Valtteri Bottas

F1 W11 EQ Performance /03

P1

5 Laps

P1

6 Laps

P1

6 Laps

P2

1:25.801

Soft

1:25.015

Medium,

Soft

1:24.616

Soft,

Soft

Lewis Hamilton

This feeling never gets old, that’s for sure! We made some changes to the car going into Qualifying and it felt worse, so it was a real struggle out there in the first two sessions. At this track, there can be a headwind, tailwind and crosswind all at different parts of the circuit, so it’s like juggling balls whilst you are on a moving plate. Qualifying is a lot about building confidence and after that spin in Q2, I had to take some deep breaths, compose myself and mentally reset – especially knowing Valtteri was putting in fast lap after fast lap. Q3 started off well, the first lap was nice and clean, but the second one was even better. A big thank you to everyone at the team, working at the track and at the factories not far from here, for all their tireless work and continuing to push us forward. I’m really proud to be a part of it. It’s going to be strange racing out there tomorrow without any fans, we definitely miss them and it’s just a completely different energy. I know they’ll be watching from home and supporting us, so hopefully we can put on a good show for them.

Valtteri Bottas

It’s disappointing to be second but the reality is that Lewis found more time in Q3, I just couldn’t quite catch him. He did a really good job today and deserves to be on pole. It was a pretty smooth session and I had some clean laps in Q1 and Q2 – the car felt pretty good out there. But I had a harder time in Q3 as I struggled to attack the slow-speed corners and the rear end was drifting more than before. But tomorrow is what counts and I think my long-run performance has been really good this weekend. I believe there will be opportunities, and everything is still wide open, so I’m looking forward to it.

Toto Wolff

We can be very satisfied with our Qualifying session today although I guess we’re not making many new friends out there. Our car was working very well today, it was really in a league of its own and the performance shows all the smart work that has gone into it at the factories just down the road from here. Both Lewis and Valtteri really delivered today as well and were able to extract everything out of the car. We can be really happy the result today, but we know that the points are scored tomorrow, and our competitors will put up a hard fight. We’re determined to give it everything and carry our momentum into the race to hopefully put on a good show for everyone supporting from home.

Andrew Shovlin

Well done to the team and the drivers on this front row lockout, particularly to Lewis on his fantastic lap for pole. It’s not been easy for him and Valtteri to put the laps together here; the wind has a big effect on the car balance and as soon as you start sliding, the tyre temperatures rise, and you lose grip. The conditions may have moved in our favour today, but we were also doing a better job of managing the tyre temperatures at the start of the lap. We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow; we don’t quite know where Red Bull are on pace. They looked very close to us on the long runs yesterday and have generally looked better in race trim than qualifying so we will be prepared for a fight and won’t be taking anything for granted.

2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
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2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
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2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
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2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
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2020 British Grand Prix, Saturday - Steve Etherington
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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2020 British Grand Prix,Saturday - LAT Images
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