Max Verstappen says drivers should not be allowed to complete a qualifying lap when passing a yellow-flag incident, after George Russell kept his Austrian Grand Prix pole position despite briefly lifting under a single yellow following Verstappen’s crash. Verstappen said: "People are still completing a lap, or others are backing out of it. Now you, of course, can read the rules really well. You complete your lap and you're allowed to keep it. But it should not even be allowed or be possible to finish your lap like that. That's, for me, the main concern in all of it."

P1) Lewis Hamilton P2) Kimi Antonelli P3) Max Verstappen P4) Charles Leclerc P5) George Russell P6) Lando Norris P7) Oscar Piastri P8) Isack Hadjar P9) Liam Lawson P10) Arvid Lindblad P11) Pierre Gasly P12) Gabriel Bortoleto P13) Nico Hulkenberg P14) Franco Colapinto P15) Carlos Sainz P16) Oliver Bearman P17) Esteban Ocon P18) Sergio Perez P19) Valtteri Bottas P20) Fernando Alonso P21) Lance Stroll Pit Lane) Alexander Albon
Martin Brundle says Max Verstappen’s camp wanted to “torpedo” Red Bull’s senior management structure, as he gave his view on the team’s recent run of high-profile departures. Brundle said: "My goodness, they wanted to torpedo the management of Red Bull, didn't they? Team Verstappen did that very well indeed. To start with Christian Horner, and it just carried on from there with Adrian Newey, Dr Helmut Marko and Jonathan Wheatley."

Charles Leclerc said Ferrari were “extremely surprised” by Lewis Hamilton taking pole for British Grand Prix Sprint qualifying and admitted he is struggling to match his team-mate’s ability to extract the car’s potential. Charles Leclerc said: "We are extremely surprised with Lewis taking pole, but in general, we were expecting a much bigger gap to the cars in front. What I have realised is that I don't have the ease I had with last year's car, and even when I push, Lewis is more often at 100% potential of the car, which I am not."

F1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli says he will “go for it” in Saturday’s Sprint at Silverstone after missing out on Sprint pole by 0.01 seconds to Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton in Friday’s qualifying. Antonelli said: "The car felt good. Ferrari have done an incredible step forward, so definitely it's going to be very tough. Plus, Lewis is in great form, but that's good; we like the challenge, and we'll try to make the best out of it. We'll go for it and we'll try to do our best. It's not going to be easy, but everything is on the table to do well."

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown says reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli is "definitely worthy of being in F1" and believes there are real possibilities for the Formula 2 champion to secure a seat on the grid. Zak Brown said: "Yeah, I think there are. He's a great talent. He's been doing some testing with us, and so hopefully he'll secure an F1 seat. I think he's definitely worthy of being in F1."

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said Toto Wolff’s suggestion that Ferrari must “be running out of cost cap” because of its recent upgrades was “quite ironic”, insisting the team has not brought more parts than its rivals. Vasseur said: "I found it quite ironic from Toto, coming from Toto and Mercedes. When Red Bull is developing or when Mercedes is developing, they are genius, when we are developing we are cheating. I think you have to calm down with this, that we didn't bring more parts than Red Bull or another team. I don't know if it was a joke."


Mercedes has found a legal way to recreate some of the benefit of its earlier FIA-banned qualifying deployment tactic by having its drivers lift off the throttle just before the timing line at Silverstone, The Race reports. The aim is to keep maximum 350kW ERS-K deployment for longer on the run to the line, then avoid the normal 50kW-per-second ramp-down requirement because the regulations allow that when driver power demand is negative. FIA sources told The Race the tactic is compliant provided ERS-K power does not fall by more than 50kW in one second before the lift.


Williams driver Carlos Sainz says Silverstone has been “downgraded” by the current 2026 engines, after finding the power deployment through the lap “pretty shocking” in the simulator. Sainz said: "Yeah, the simulator was pretty shocking, as [Verstappen] would say, which was just like a clear sign and understanding that whatever we came up with for this year is not good enough. That's why the regs change was necessary for next year, because a great racetrack like this being a bit, not spoiled, but downgraded because of the way you do an engine is not what F1 should be about."
Lewis Hamilton says building trust and improving alignment with Ferrari’s leadership and his own engineering group has been key to his increased comfort at the team this season. Hamilton said: "Each weekend was a really difficult weekend last year. So, when you're having that, people tend to listen to you less. Rather than listen to you when you're getting these results. That's taken a long time to build that trust, and I think that trust is now there, and things can get done. It's a two-way street, actually, you know. We're really pushing each other along, and the collaboration is finally there. I think that's the most important thing."

Zak Brown says rumours linking Max Verstappen with a move to McLaren are wide of the mark, insisting any discussions with the Red Bull driver’s camp “didn’t go anywhere” when asked at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix. Brown said: "They didn't go anywhere. I've got my two drivers, so there's nothing to report."

George Russell said he was "very surprised" by Ferrari's pace at Silverstone after Lewis Hamilton took sprint pole for the British Grand Prix. Russell said: "Very surprised, they've been on the back foot with the PU and energy management. Here, they look the best. That's been a real surprise. We've always known they've had a great chassis. Some things aren't quite making sense. If I were to predict it, I would have said Ferrari to be quick last week and us to be quick this week."

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says he is confident the team can produce the fastest car on the Formula 1 grid before the current regulation cycle ends, but accepts it will “take some time”. Brown said: "I've got a lot of confidence, but it's going to be very tough. The other 10 teams in Formula 1, these are the best racing teams in the world. So, the competition never sits still. But we have gone from ninth to quickest. So, we can definitely go from third to quickest. It'll take some time."

Lando Norris says winning his first Formula 1 title has made him more relaxed and given him a deeper level of confidence as a driver. Norris said: "Yeah. Both of those, really. When people say, 'What's changed since you've won the championship?' Simply, it's just those two things. I feel more relaxed because I spent 20 years trying to achieve one thing, and I've achieved it. Winning the championship last year has allowed me to have more confidence in an underlying way because I feel like I can lean on that."

Oscar Piastri said McLaren did not have the “fundamental” pace at Silverstone after qualifying seventh in sprint qualifying on Friday. Piastri said: "P7 is more or less what we expected. We knew coming into Sprint Qualifying that we probably weren't in the fight for the very front, and while we made some small improvements to the car after practice, it just wasn't enough to close the gap to the leaders. It's a shame because I felt like we were on it and got everything we could out of the car, but we've just not had the fundamental pace."

Williams driver Carlos Sainz says Silverstone could be “entertaining for the wrong reasons” this weekend because energy management could trigger a return of “yo-yo racing”. Carlos Sainz said: "One of the most entertaining tracks, in my opinion, for the wrong reasons, because we are very energy-starved. We will be playing with 'spend [energy] here, but then you pass me back'. I think you will see a bit of yo-yo racing again this weekend."

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown says the team is not yet running Mercedes’ latest power-unit upgrade at Silverstone because it still has mileage left on its current engines. Brown said: "You've got to cycle through your engines, and we've got life left on our current engines, so we need to wait till we do an engine change. You'd want it as quickly as you can, but you need to run the cycles through the engines. Obviously, you can move things in and out, but we'll have it soon, hopefully next race. Of course, we'd like to have it."





George Russell said he could not explain why he was so far off the pace in Sprint Qualifying at Silverstone, after taking only fifth on the grid and ending nearly four tenths down on surprise polesitter Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli. Russell said the car “felt quite okay” but that “relative lap time is just not really there”, calling it “kind of the story of the year”.

Senior Red Bull GmbH figures Oliver Mintzlaff and Mark Mateschitz are set to meet FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem during the British Grand Prix weekend, RacingNews365 reports. The meeting is expected to focus mainly on Red Bull’s involvement across various forms of motor racing beyond Formula 1, following talks Mintzlaff held with Ben Sulayem in Paris in June. RacingNews365 adds that the parties are also due to continue discussions around ADUO, after Red Bull was reportedly surprised its power unit was judged strongest on internal combustion engine output.

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