British F1 Grand Prix 2019 Qualifying: Saturday's Results, Times, Final Grid
Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas will start the 2019 Formula One British Grand Prix on pole after he topped qualifying on Saturday at Silverstone.
He set a time of one minute, 25.093 seconds, while team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished just 0.006 seconds behind. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc rounded out the top three.
Earlier, Ferrari had completed a one-two in the third and final free practice session. Leclerc set a time of 1:25.905 seconds, putting him 0.026 seconds ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Qualifying Recap
Here's the final classification from qualifying:
Hamilton set a track record in Q1 with a 1:25.513 lap, just 0.02 seconds ahead of Leclerc.
Not for the first time this season, Williams pair George Russell and Robert Kubica propped up the timesheet.
The pair were eliminated alongside Haas' Kevin Magnussen, Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat and Racing Point's Lance Stroll. For the latter, it represented his 14th consecutive Q1 elimination.
Vettel was late out in Q2, but he nevertheless managed to secure passage through to Q3 in P5.
Unlike his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz failed to make Q3.
Alfa Romeo duo Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean of Haas and Sergio Perez of Racing Point also fell short.
In Q3, an error from Hamilton proved costly:
He had to settle for P2, despite improving with his final effort.
Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly split Leclerc and Vettel by taking P4 and P5.
FP3 Recap
Here's the classification:
As rain began to fall early in the session, only Russell set a time for the first 20 minutes, while the other teams to actually venture out restricted themselves to installation laps.
By the halfway point in the session, only Russell's team-mate Kubica and Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas had added to the timesheet, with the teams unsure whether to use slicks or intermediate tyres given the conditions.
The track began to dry, though, and the drivers quickly began to pile times on the board.
Bottas and Hamilton quickly established themselves atop the timesheet, followed closely by Ferrari and Red Bull.
A change to fresh soft tyres put Leclerc and Vettel on top. Despite making the same swap, Mercedes were unable to re-establish themselves at the top on the busy track.
