Ross Brawn was thrilled with how the inaugural Sprint Qualifying race unfolded at Silverstone, with the British venue playing host to the first session serving as a new qualifying format that is being trialed by Formula 1. With the finishing order of the 17 lap race being used to determine the starting grid for the British Grand Prix on Sunday, there were fears drivers may have approached the race in a conservative fashion. But these fears were quickly allayed as Red Bull's Max Verstappen stormed into the lead, while others employed aggressive tyre choices with some tremendous battles through the field. Brawn, a vocal proponent of trying out the new format, was very satisfied with the outcome. "Very pleased," Brawn told RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview, revealing he would have given it a score of eight out of 10. "The main thing was we had some exciting racing because racing drivers can't help themselves. That's why they're doing what they're doing. And we had some fabulous battles, that were short and sharp. The teams didn't have a say in what happened in the race because it was just down to the drivers as there was no strategy, no pit stops and I've given it a vote of success and certainly a good platform for something in the future." The next time the Sprint Qualifying format will be used at a Grand Prix weekend will be for the Italian round at Monza, with a third round to be confirmed later in the season, as Brawn elaborated. "Monza, for sure," he said. "The third one, we're just seeing how the cards fall vis-a-vis COVID and which races and how that's all going to look. So we prefer to keep that in our pocket until we see how that calendar plays out in the second half of the year."
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