Sainz secures maiden F1 pole after Verstappen spin

Carlos Sainz will start the 2022 British Grand Prix from pole position after securing his spot at the front of the grid during a rain-soaked qualifying session at Silverstone.

Max Verstappen will join him on the front row after he survived a Q3 spin as the rain fell hard late in the qualifying session.

Charles Leclerc will start the race in third after he too performed a late-session pirouette, with Sergio Perez in fourth.

Nicholas Latifi and Zhou Guanyu will start the race inside the top 10 after rapid Q2 laps.

Rain turned Q1 session into a lottery

After a dry start to the day with only brief, unimpactful showers, the rain fell hard just three minutes before qualifying was due to begin, wetting the track to Intermediate level.

Verstappen and Leclerc traded fastest lap times throughout Q1 with Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris not too far behind as the track began to find pace.

George Russell roused a roar from the Silverstone crowd when he moved fastest midway through the session – but Verstappen soon toppled his time.

It was a difficult Q1 session for Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon, however, who did not have the pace in the wet conditions to make it through to Q2.

Rain turned to downpour during Q2; Latifi makes Q3

The rain remained for Q2 as Red Bull's sublime dry pace extended into the wet. Verstappen and Perez set the early benchmark as the rest of the pack scramble to keep up.

Norris showed fine pace behind the wheel of his McLaren, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo struggled, exiting in Q2 while his younger colleagues progressed.

And as the rain continued to fall, the drivers found themselves unable to improve on the early lap times they had set.

That left Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda, Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon in the drop zone, while Latifi made it into the top 10 for the first time in his career.

Verstappen spins as Sainz secured pole

Despite the increase in rain, the drivers opted to stick with the faster Intermediate tyres for the Q3 – and as the cars waited in the pit lane for the green light, there was a temporary pause in the rainfall.

Verstappen set about laying down a gauntlet with his first Q3 lap but lost control of his car through Stowe and pirouetted, ruining his lap. His second lap was clean, however, putting him into P2 behind Leclerc.

The Dutchman was not done, though, as he continued to find pace as the rain returned – but he could not stop his former Toro Rosso teammate, Sainz, from snatching pole position with a stunning, surprising lap at the death.

Hamilton will start the race in fifth with Fernando Alonso, Norris, Russell, Zhou and Latifi all inside the top 10.