British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton on McLaren’s stunning Silverstone speed: ‘It’s a wake-up call for us’

McLaren introduced an upgrade on Lando Norris’s car at last week’s Austrian GP that sparked a huge upturn in performance, and it carried over to qualifying for the team’s home race.

Norris looked quick throughout and took provisional pole late in Q3, only to be denied by the final effort of Max Verstappen, who will line up first for the fifth race in a row.

In what was a mammoth day for McLaren, Oscar Piastri also turned in a brilliant performance to take third for the Woking outfit and set up a mouth-watering grid for Sunday’s GP.

But while Norris and McLaren gave the home crowd given plenty to cheer about, Hamilton and team-mate George Russell were left to rue another disappointing session behind the wheel of the temperamental Mercedes W14.

Hopes of a first race win of 2023 were dashed as Russell and Hamilton laboured to sixth and seventh respectively, with the seven-time world champion critical of the team’s lack of progress in the aftermath.

“It’s not a blow. It’s just a wake-up call for us. Others are overtaking us and we need to do more,” Hamilton said.

He added: “I’m not surprised, if you look at the car, it makes sense. If you just put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very, very similar down the side and it’s working.

“And I’m really happy for them, you know, they’ve had such a bad run for so long. So to be back up there is really, really great to see.”

As well as Verstappen and the McLarens, Russell and Hamilton have the Ferraris between themselves and an unlikely victory, while the threat of Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin will be lurking behind.

All is not lost for the eight-time world champions, however. Silverstone is a good circuit for overtaking and Hamilton, in particular, displayed strong race pace throughout practice compared to the Ferraris and McLarens.

But despite that, Hamilton admitted he was expecting it to be a “tough race” in front of his adoring home support.

“I will try to be optimistic and do our best, but realistically, I’m not sure,” Hamilton said. “We’ll find out on Ferrari. It was difficult to get past the two Ferraris and then the two McLarens now there, it’s going to be a tough race.”