Kiwi Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has qualified ninth for the sprint race at this weekend's British Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton coped best with adapting his driving style around F1's new reliance on battery power to take pole position in qualifying for Sunday's sprint.
Lawson, who drives for Racing Bulls, put in a best lap of 1:28.927 in Q3, lining him up just one place outside the points for the sprint at Silverstone.
It comes amid a run of good form for Lawson, who has consistently finished in the points this season and currently sits 10th in the drivers' standings.
The Kiwi said it was a "good starting position" for the sprint, saying the car had been "really good".
"We've honestly barely changed anything, so that's been something that's been really good for us recently," he said.
"We've come to these weekends and been quite aggressive, and it's been working."
A hallmark of this season has been the gap between the top four teams – Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bill – and the rest of the field.
Only the top eight finishers tomorrow will get points, and Lawson admitted it would be "tricky" to finish the sprint with a prize to bring home.
Asked if he could fight for a point, Lawson said: "If they (the top four teams) all finish, probably not, which sucks.
"We'll try and get a good start, and see what we can get in the first few corners.
"But I think pace-wise, normally in the long run, they're a bit ahead of us anyway, so we're very focused on quality tomorrow and the race on Sunday."
Hamilton takes pole at home race
Despite a slight wobble in the final corner, Hamilton held on to take pole by just 0.011 of a second at a track where he'd predicted he and Ferrari would struggle. The seven-time world champion stood atop his car and soaked in the applause as he waved to the crowd.
“I love this place, I love this crowd, and I can’t express how big a dream it is,” he said.
Standings leader Kimi Antonelli was second fastest, with Max Verstappen third for Red Bull ahead of Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc.
George Russell was only fifth after winning last week's Austrian Grand Prix, while McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were sixth and seventh in a throwback green-and-white livery.
The battery challenge
Setting fast times at Silverstone is very different this year because of how the cars struggle to recharge their batteries around the high-speed circuit. Having only a single practice session on Saturday, topped by Hamilton, made it crucial to adapt quickly.
With nine wins there, the most of any F1 driver at a single track, Hamilton knows his home circuit inside out.
Ahead of this weekend's race, he outlined how the 2026-specification F1 cars will struggle with Silverstone's long straights and fast corners.
The Ferrari star predicts cars running at reduced speed with empty batteries, because they need heavy braking zones to recharge the electrical power that's crucial to how they operate.
“This is going to be the most unprecedented weekend in terms of the power deployment," he said Thursday. “All of us drivers have been talking on the drivers’ chat just how poor the power is going to be through this track. We run out of battery power.”
The fastest way around Silverstone now involves easing off the power to recharge in what would normally be some of the most exciting corners, Hamilton predicted, adding it could be a setback for him and Ferrari.
“Normally the engine’s screaming as you’re going into Copse, and you’re holding on for dear life as you go through there flat out. This year, the engine will be coasting down,” he said. “Maggotts and Becketts is just not going to feel the same because I think you have to lift and coast or something through there for a period of time. It’s just a completely different track.”
Even before practice, drivers spent plenty of time practising for Silverstone on advanced simulators that mimic the cars' behaviour. Hamilton's comments line up with predictions by Verstappen, who said he “just started laughing” when he tried it out.
Lawson said the battery was "definitely tough".
"It wasn't super warm today, so you actually need the energy to put the temperature in the tyres, but you can't obviously spend too much of it, because you don't have enough to start your lap.
"As we're getting faster, we're just running out of energy, so it's been very different here, for sure, compared to some of the tracks previously."
Despite this, he still felt the team was "in a good place".
Despite the changes, Norris, who won a thrilling British Grand Prix on his way to the title last year, says F1 can still put on a good show.
“I think Sunday will be exciting. On the outside, I think it’ll be great," he said. "Certainly there’s going to be less challenges on the track itself comparing to what you’ve seen in the past few years.”
Home race curse
Racing at home has been bad luck in F1 recently. No driver has scored a point in his home race since Antonelli's ninth place at the Italian Grand Prix in September.
So far this year, Piastri failed to make the start in Australia, and Leclerc crashed out in Monaco, leaving 12th for Carlos Sainz, Jr the best by any driver on home soil.
Where better for that streak to end than Britain? Besides Hamilton's nine wins, Norris is the defending champion, and Russell is coming off the victory in Austria last week.
To top it off, those three combined for the first all-British podium since 1968 at last month's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
- Additional reporting by AP
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