Carlos Sainz the surprise star of the show at Silverstone as Mercedes fail to deliver

Though the eyes of the sodden Silverstone spectators were focused on Mercedes’ British duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell during a damp qualifying session on Saturday, it was Formula 1’s smooth operator who finally claimed pole position in a landmark 150th Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz has so often been the nearly man since arriving at Ferrari in 2021 and despite his enormous potential – and a car to match this year in the F1-75 – no race victories were also paralleled with no pole positions in 149 races since his debut in 2015. But no longer, as the Spaniard put his car first on the grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix after an enthralling Q3 amid steady rain which caused chaos out on track.

Max Verstappen, who was the runaway leader in third practice and the first two qualifying sessions, will start next to him on the front row after clocking just 0.072 seconds behind Sainz, whose team-mate Charles Leclerc completed the top-three.

Reigning world champion Verstappen, who memorably crashed in the opening lap of last year’s race with Hamilton before nipping the Brit to the title in controversial circumstances in Abu Dhabi, was booed by sections of the crowd during his interview on-track after the session.

“It was a bit disappointing because I couldn’t really understand (interviewer) Billy (Monger),” said Verstappen of the crowd’s reaction.

“It was a bit of a problem. But if they want to boo me, they can do that. For me it is not going to change anything. I am happy to be here. It is a great track, a great atmosphere in general. Maybe some of them don’t like me. That is fine. They all have their own opinions and I don’t care.”

Ultimately, there was disappointment for eight-time Silverstone winner Hamilton and team-mate