Max Verstappen will start the British Grand Prix from pole position.

While all the signs pointed to a McLaren-Ferrari battle, the four times world champion delivered a stunning performance on his final timed lap in Q3 to snatch pole away from Oscar Piastri. These two were the only drivers to get under the 1'25" barrier: 1'24"892 for the Red Bull driver, 1'24"995 for McLaren's Australian.

This is Verstappen's 44th pole position which puts him level with Sebastian Vettel as the most successful Red Bull Racing driver in this discipline. For the Milton Keynes team it is pole number 107, its sixth at this track and the third at Silverstone for Max, following on from those in 2021 and 2023. The second row is an all-Brit affair, with Lando Norris (1'25"010) ahead of George Russell (1'25"029) while the third row will be all-red, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton (1'25"095) ahead of Charles Leclerc (1'25"121).

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Verstappen by José Mourinho, one of the most successful and influential trainers in the current age of football. After a short career as a player, Mourinho made his name as a manager, taking three national and international titles with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan - with whom he won the Triple, taking the championship, the Coppa Italia and the Champions League - as well as with Real Madrid, Manchester United and Roma. "The Special One" as he is known, became the first trainer to win all the major UEFA competitions and now manages the Turkish Fenerbahce side.

In Free Practice 3, all the teams focused on preparations for qualifying. The two Red Bull Racing drivers each used a set of Hards, thus joining their colleagues from Aston Martin, Williams and Haas in the group of teams who will only have one set of the C2 for tomorrow. As always, the Aston Martin pair performed a scrubbing-in lap on their second sets of Hard. Alonso and Stroll also used a second set of Mediums this morning, as did Ocon and Bearman for Haas and the Williams duo of Albon and Sainz. All the other drivers ran the Soft in FP3.

Mario Isola: "Silverstone always delivers a great show, on the track and in the grandstands and today was no exception. The outcome of qualifying was only decided in the final moments, with Verstappen delivering a masterful performance to beat really strong opponents. Therefore, all the signs point to an equally closely contested race tomorrow, with at least six drivers in the hunt for victory and the other podium places.

"Neither is strategy clear cut. In fact, the difference between simulations for a one or a two-stop race is very small, of the order of two to three seconds. Therefore, the choice will be mainly down to each car's performance and their relative tyre degradation. The fastest choice is to run Medium-Hard, with a pit stop between laps 19 and 25. Those opting to pit twice, again running the C2 and C3, should come in the first time between laps 12 and 18 and the second between lap 32 and 38.

"This is a very demanding track, because of the high lateral forces generated through the many high speed corners, and the actual wear of the tyre tread is also a factor. Therefore, in the race, tyre wear will have to be monitored closely, as indeed will graining, which we expect to see, given that temperatures will be similar to today's, around ten degrees centigrade cooler than in free practice.

"All three compounds have shown themselves to be viable for the race. Obviously, the Hard and Medium offer more consistent performance over a long stint, but the Soft could come into play both at the start, for those looking to make up places off the line, and in the final stages. It should be noted that four teams, Aston Martin, Williams, Haas and Racing Bulls, have opted to have just one set of Hard and one of Medium for the race. This would suggest they are leaning towards a one-stop strategy. However, if degradation turns out to be higher than they expected, or if opportunities such as a Safety Car present themselves, the Soft could become the obvious choice for these eight drivers.

"The C4 demonstrated that on this type of track, it is capable of delivering its full potential on the first attempt. It's true that the lap times set after one or two cool-down laps were decent enough, but the advantage of a new tyre over a used one was significant."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Silverstone here.