Winners and losers from the 2024 British Grand Prix qualifying

Mercedes driver George Russell claimed his second pole position of the F1 2024 season in British Grand Prix qualifying ahead of Sunday’s big race at Silverstone.

Lewis Hamilton completed a front-row lockout for Mercedes with McLaren driver Lando Norris in third on another bad day for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Here are the main winners and losers from qualifying…

British Grand Prix 2024 qualifying: Winners and losers

Winners

George Russell

Commitment.

That’s what you need around Silverstone, keeping the throttle pinned – or as close to pinned as you dare – through the high-speed sweeps and marrying all that commitment with precision.

It is to George Russell’s benefit that ‘commitment’ just so happens to be his middle name.

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Much has been made of Russell’s qualifying advantage over Hamilton this season, dominating his illustrious team-mate in the head-to-head battle, but the true test was always going to come when the car became quick enough to pique Lewis’s interest again.

Hamilton has never been happier, never felt more alive, than when driving a truly competitive Mercedes in the comfortable surroundings of Silverstone.

Yet here, in the decisive laps in Q3, Russell was almost two tenths clear.

Take that. This is becoming his team now.

Mercedes

It’s hard to ignore the feeling that Mercedes are slowly rising again – or, at the very least, over the worst of their post-2021 struggles – on days like this.

The sight of a silver car at the sharp end of the field has become increasingly commonplace this side of Monaco, with a pole, a bunch of podiums and a victory from the last three races sure signs of a team gradually regaining their strength.

Toto Wolff was quick to point out last weekend that Mercedes only had the third-quickest car in Austria, and were the very fortunate beneficiaries of the clash between Norris and Max Verstappen in the closing laps.

Yet the difference compared to the last couple of years is that now they are ready and waiting to capitalise on such opportunities.

Not that they needed a slip up here, Norris commenting after a clean sweep of Friday practice that Mercedes were “probably just as quick” as McLaren behind the headline times.

With a first front-row lockout since 2022, Mercedes are becoming a force to be reckoned with again.

Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg is another one of those great commitment drivers, with the added benefit of a rare touch and feel in changeable conditions.

Thus, this session had his name all over it.

A full second clear of team-mate Kevin Magnussen in Q1, Hulkenberg was just a tenth short of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in qualifying best of the rest in sixth, the Haas-Ferrari ahead of the factory Ferrari on the Silverstone grid.

Audi have signed a good ‘un.

Williams

And if you want just a little bit more commitment, look no further than Russell’s old friend Alex Albon, back with a Williams he can work with this weekend.

Splitting the Aston Martin pair for ninth was a fine return in a season in which he has been prevented from replicating his F1 2023 heights.

A word also for Logan Sargeant, convinced he has improved considerably in 2024 even if his often-inferior package compared to Albon has stopped him showing it, who will start a respectable 12th.

Losers

Sergio Perez

This already had the look of a tricky weekend for Perez even before the on-track action started at the circuit where he suffered the last of his five straight races without a top-10 start in mid-2023.

The high-speed nature of Silverstone, and the relative lack of traction areas, counted against him even before Red Bull’s decision to put Isack Hadjar in his car for FP1, denying Perez the chance to bed himself in early on.

Throw in some mixed conditions, a damp track at the start of FP1 and a set of slicks as the circuit began to dry, and you had the most predictable Q1 elimination of the entire season.

Utterly, utterly miserable.

Max Verstappen/Red Bull

Two moments at Copse, seconds apart, on dry tyres in the damp.

Perez ends up pointing backwards, Verstappen catches it and survives by skating through the gravel.

There, in a snapshot, was the intrinsic difference between the Red Bull drivers.

Is fourth on the grid a disappointing result for Max, on another weekend the potential of the RB20 has been difficult to access?

Or a very good one in the circumstances, given that he was forced to carry a wounded, floor-damaged Red Bull for the remainder of the session?

That will become clearer tomorrow, but it is a flaw of these ground-effect cars that a harmless little trip through the gravel has the ability to spoil a driver’s day.

The fight for at the front was poorer without the spectacle of Verstappen trying hold back the tide and squeezing another pole out of a recalcitrant Red Bull.

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc is having one of his out-of-sorts periods. Has been pretty much since his victory in Monaco.

It hasn’t helped that the Ferrari hasn’t been the same since either, the increased downforce of recent upgrades reawakening the bouncing effect in high-speed corners.

The SF-24 has been particularly snappy at times here, every moment through the Maggotts/Becketts section eating away at the driver’s confidence.

In that context, 11th on the grid was not much of a surprise.

Daniel Ricciardo

Almost a year after a test at Silverstone made him feel alive again, opportunity knocks once more for Daniel Ricciardo.

PlanetF1.com reported on Friday at Silverstone that Red Bull have not ruled out a mid-season seat swap with Perez if the Mexican’s form does not improve.

Checo fulfilled his side of the bargain with a pitiful spin into the gravel at Copse in Q1.

But on this evidence Ricciardo – three tenths slower than Yuki Tsunoda in Q1 and nearly seven tenths off in Q2 (albeit after hitting traffic on his last lap) – is in no state to stand out as a viable alternative.

A Red Bull return, you say? Not at this rate.

Alpine

The bad news? Alpine’s encouraging recent form deserted them at Silverstone, where Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly qualified 18th and 20th respectively.

The good news? It appears their poor result was more a case of suboptimal management of the session rather than a loss of pace in the car.

Ocon and Gasly could both be moving forward in the race.

Read next: F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates