Sainz takes maiden pole position at 2022 British Grand Prix

Formula 1’s wet weekend in Silverstone continued as Carlos Sainz navigated the difficult conditions to take his first pole.

As F1 returned home to the United Kingdom, surely there was nothing more familiar for the teams to come back to than the classic British weather.

Q1 remained relatively clean despite the conditions, as the first part of Qualifying drew to a close in disappointing fashion for the home team, Aston Martin, only finding themselves 18th and 20th.

Similarly, Haas would also see both cars knocked out in Q1, joining the Williams of Alex Albon who failed to best his teammate on one-lap pace for the first time in 2022.

The weather became much heavier part-way through Q2, threatening Carlos Sainz who failed to set a strong time early on. Luckily for the Spaniard, he was able to improve to fourth.

The rest of the session would see no competitive times, as the increasing rain left drivers unable to improve on their earlier times.

Despite their best efforts, Esteban Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and both AlphaTauri cars would exit Qualifying in the bottom-five. Celebrations would continue at Williams, with Latifi making it to Q3.

Drivers were able to push more easily in the early stages of Q3, with rain stopping in between the second and third stage. Max Verstappen, however, would spin his RB18 before continuing on for another lap.

Charles Leclerc and Sainz would initially best Fernando Alonso to provisional pole before Verstappen would split the two Ferraris.

The championship leader would take a big lead over the rest of the field before Leclerc closed that gap to just two tenths of a second. On his final lap, Leclerc would spin and lose a shot at pole position.

It was the other Ferrari of Sainz who would jump Verstappen for his first pole position, following 150 previous attempts.

The Spaniard was elated, telling his team over team radio:

“I didn’t expect that one, I felt terrible out there.”

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