Sainz takes maiden pole for 150th start at British Grand Prix

SILVERSTONE: Carlos Sainz grabbed his maiden pole position on Saturday (Jul 2) when he outpaced world champion Max Verstappen, who survived a spin in an exciting rain-hit qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old Spaniard clocked a best lap of one minute and 40.983 seconds to beat the Red Bull driver by 0.072 seconds in the closing minute of a tense session run in treacherous wet conditions.

His first pole came ahead of what will be his 150th Grand Prix start in Sunday's race, just two weeks after he was a very close second to the Dutchman in a thrilling finish at the Canadian Grand Prix.

In a topsy-turvy session that saw positions shuffled rapidly in the changing conditions, Charles Leclerc was third in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez of Red Bull and home hero seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

After promising to fight for the front row, it was a disappointment for the local fans as Hamilton failed to extend his run of eight British front row starts.

Lando Norris was sixth for McLaren ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Alpine, George Russell in the second Mercedes, Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo and Williams' Nicholas Latifi.

"I put together a lap that I thought was nothing special, but it was on the board to see how it was -- and it was pole position which came as a bit of a surprise!" said Sainz.

"I was struggling a lot with the standing water. There was a lot more standing water on the racing line and it was very easy to have snaps and lose the lap."

He added, as a joke, that as a Spaniard he was unaccustomed to racing in the wet British conditions.

Verstappen, who was briefly booed by a section of the crowd, said: "It was tricky - raining and drying, so you had to be on the track at