Carlos Sainz was the most shocked man at Silverstone as he finally secured pole position for a Formula 1 race for the first time.
The likes of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were all considered favourites to go fastest in qualifying, but all were upstaged by the Spaniard in a rain-soaked session. Sainz put in the fastest lap late on in Q3, while Leclerc and Verstappen couldn't improve as the Ferrari man had a spin and the championship leader was forced to ease off for the yellow flag.
So Sainz will start the British Grand Prix from the very front of the grid, though he will have Verstappen breathing down his neck right from the off while Leclerc shares the second row with Sergio Perez. And even he couldn't believe it when he was told that he had set the fastest time of the session.
"It was a good lap, but I was struggling a lot with the standing water on the intermediate," he said immediately after qualifying as he struggled to hide his smile. "There was a lot more standing water, even on the racing line, and it was very easy to get snaps and lose the lap.
"It was also more difficult to get temperature into this intermediate for this condition. In the end I put together a lap that I didn't think was that special, just to be on the board and it was pole position, which came as a bit of a surprise."
Having secured pole position for the first time, Sainz will now be hoping for another personal best when it comes to Sunday's race. He is still waiting for his maiden victory in F1, and starting from pole for his 150th race in the sport seems like an ideal opportunity to change that.
When asked if he feels like he can win at Silverstone, he replied: "I think so. The pace has been there all weekend, except for FP3 where we had some issues that we think we have corrected for qualifying, but if I base myself on my FP2 pace then we should be in a good position to try and hold on to it. I'm sure Max and Charles will put a lot of pressure on, but I will try my best of course."
If either Ferrari driver was favourite for pole, it would have been Leclerc. He has been supremely quick on Saturdays all year, but could not put together a lap on this occasion. "I spun in that last lap, I knew it was the lap where I had to put everything together and I didn't as a driver, so I didn't deserve to be on pole," admitted the Monegasque.
"But P3 is still a good position to start tomorrow's race. And hopefully, putting everything together, we can come back. It will be interesting to see whoever is going for one stop or two stops, but hopefully we will make the right choice and we can come back to where we want to be."
