Qualifying duels after Silverstone | Albon disappointed but faultless

Ten qualifications for a Grand Prix have now been run in 2023, just as many times Alexander Albon managed to finish above his Williams teammate Logan Sargeant. At Silverstone too, the Thai drove an outstanding qualifying session, which even took him to eighth on the grid. Max Verstappen was able to regain a streak in his battle with Sergio Perez, just as Fernando Alonso did against Lance Stroll.

After qualifying, Albon reacted to his eighth-place finish. He said, "It’s been an amazing weekend but it’s funny when you finish in Q3, with P8 and you’re disappointed. We have to be realistic but it’s been great so far. In Qualifying, the session was going quite smoothly but, as the track dried out, corner speeds picked up and track evolution came in. We started to get quite a bit of degradation through the lap, even front deg, so we need to go away and understand that but, by the time I got to Q3, I was struggling a little bit with those combined factors. We’ve been really on top of it since the start of the weekend and I got into rhythm very quickly and adapted well to the changes, so we really hit the ground running. I think we ended up where we expected to be but I think if you told us we’d be here at the beginning of the weekend, we wouldn’t believe you."

Albon thus gets to start ahead of Sargeant for the tenth time. Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso will also start ahead of their teammates again. The trio is still the closest to Albon's performance. Oscar Piastri set the third-fastest time in qualifying, but so far Lando Norris managed to beat him. In the duel between the two McLaren drivers, it is now 9-1.

Valtteri Bottas qualified ahead of Zhou, but is dropped to behind the Chinese due to a penalty. Check out the updated standings below.

Mutual qualifying duels

Red Bull Racing
Verstappen: 8
Perez: 2

Mercedes
Hamilton: 5
Russell: 5

Ferrari
Leclerc: 7
Sainz: 3

Aston Martin
Alonso: 8
Stroll: 2

Alpine
Gasly: 5
Ocon: 5

Haas
Magnussen: 8
Hulkenberg: 2

Williams
Albon: 10
Sargeant: 0

McLaren
Norris: 9
Piastri: 1

AlphaTauri
Tsunoda: 7
De Vries: 3

Alfa Romeo
Bottas: 7
Zhou: 3