Winners and losers from Silverstone F1 sprint qualifying 2026

Lewis Hamilton defied his and Ferrari’s own predictions to narrowly beat Kimi Antonelli to pole for Formula 1’s Silverstone sprint race.

So it was a good day for them.

Not so much for almost everyone else.

Loser: George Russell (5th)

George Russell wasn't the only driver in a top team on the end of a three tenths of a second deficit to his team-mate today. But on home ground, having just revived his title bid with Austria victory, this one looked painful.

"Story of the year, always on the back foot," said Russell, "very much off the pace to Lewis and Kimi".

He says the Mercedes is feeling quite good, and doesn't understand where the deficit lies. I don't think it would be unfair to describe his mood as downbeat or dejected.

Ferrari being much better than expected here might explain a bit of Russell's trouble, but it doesn't explain the deficit to his own team-mate and he doesn't have the answers for why as the title battle rages out in front of him. - Jack Benyon

Winner: Lewis Hamilton (1st)

"There's only a few corners to charge the engine, so the [MGU-]K will be switched off for a large portion of the lap. 

"That's where we will struggle probably the most. The deficit could be twice as big."

That was Hamilton's pessimistic prediction of Ferrari's prospects for the weekend on Thursday, with a continuation of its Austria struggles expected.

But that wasn't the case on Friday at Silverstone as Ferrari beat Mercedes in qualifying in F1 2026 for the first time. 

Antonelli's Mercedes had the best theoretical lap of anyone, but it was Hamilton - not the fastest in any of the three sectors - who delivered the actual fastest outright lap, with a particularly strong run through Village. 

Whether that will translate to the Ferrari having the pace to beat the Mercedes over a race distance remains to be seen, but its weekend has already beaten all predictions. - Josh Suttill

Loser: Charles Leclerc (4th)

Leclerc managed to stay within two tenths of his clearly on-form and dominant Ferrari team-mate Hamilton in SQ1 and SQ2, but when it counted, Leclerc was 0.321s off in the third and final segment.

This risks becoming the rule instead of the exception for Leclerc. He had Hamilton's number in qualifying and races last year but in recent times Hamilton looks like the go-to for a Ferrari result. Leclerc just doesn't have "the feeling" with this car and acknowledges Hamilton is extracting the maximum, more often. A terrible thing for an elite driver to have to admit.

It's only been a short period of Hamilton intra-team dominance, so it's hardly panic stations just yet, but things do need to turn around. He doesn't seem to know where he can find the deficit though. - JB

Loser: Isack Hadjar (8th)

It's rare to hear a driver "happy with my driving" and "on it from lap one" be happy with eighth, but that was just the way Isack Hadjar's day went.

He was faster than Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in SQ1, and shockingly, shipped just 0.138s to Verstappen in SQ3.

But that was the difference between third and eighth!

Hadjar said it was even more frustrating knowing if he "tidied up" a few corners here and there, he'd find that time.

He's a loser in the sense that he paid an enormous price for a very, very small deficit. But he's not a loser in the way he drove, nor in his performance versus F1's toughest team-mate. - JB

Winner: Racing Bulls (9th & 10th)

Racing Bulls has now achieved three consecutive ‘one-two' finishes in F1's midfield with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad ninth and 10th in sprint qualifying. 

They'll need to move forward on Saturday to turn that into points, but it's encouraging for Racing Bulls how routinely it's now leading the way behind the top four.

"The car is really good; it's been good all day," Lawson enthused. 

"We've honestly barely changed anything, so that's something that's been really good for us recently. We've come to these weekends and been quite aggressive, and it's been working."  - JS

Loser: Haas (17th & 18th)

A new front wing for Williams at Silverstone may have relegated the Haas to being F1's ninth-best car as both Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon failed to advance to SQ2. 

Bearman was 0.010s from safety, and the time lost from having 90% battery instead of 100% at the start of his qualifying lap would have been more than that difference. 

But it was still a struggle for the Haas duo with Esteban Ocon over six tenths further adrift of Bearman. 

There's a clear sense at Haas that it has simply been outdeveloped by its midfield rivals, falling from the high of its Red Bull-challenging status in China. 

"We've got a new rear wing and it seems to be working as expected, which is nice," Bearman said. 

"But I think it's just too little too late at this stage, if I'm honest. It seems that everybody around us who we're competing with has done more. That's it. 

"It's a sign of where we are and we need to keep pushing. To be honest, we don't have anything big before the summer break. 

"So I'm expecting these last few to be a big, big push. That's a shame, but that's how it is."  - JS

Losers: All the drivers from Copse to Club

Expectations weren't high among the drivers about the impact of the 2026 power units on Silverstone, and they were right to be concerned. 

Hamilton's pole position lap was 3.484s slower than Verstappen's 2025 mark. Thanks to the demands of the energy regime it was in the high-speed turns at Abbey, Copse and Maggots that there was a big difference. 

This year, Hamilton was around 34km/h (21mph) slower than Verstappen at Abbey, approximately 20km/h (12mph) slower at Copse and his top speed in Maggotts/Becketts was 28km/h (17mph) down.

While a little of that is down to the reduced downforce, mostly it's because of the lopsided energy demands of this track forcing drivers to be below the limit of grip in these legendary turns. In total, around 1.7s of the year-to-year drop was between Copse (Turn 9) and the entry to Stowe (Turn 15). Lance Stroll summed it up well. 

"[It's] less enjoyable with the energy management," said the Aston Martin driver.

"We lost some of the special feeling of driving here just with the energy and the energy management. It's not that same kind of fast circuit that we had in the past. It's a shame." - Edd Straw