The British Are Coming And They Just Locked Out The Top 3 Spots On The Grid For The British Grand Prix

While here in the United States, we spent Thursday celebrating the time we schooled the British during the Revolutionary War, the Brits got revenge of sorts by completely flying on track Saturday at Silverstone during qualifying for Formula 1's British Grand Prix.

The guy on pole? Mercdes' George Russell. British.

In P2? Fellow Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. British.

P3? McLaren's Lando Norris. *Checks notes* Yup, also British.

That's right, at their home race British drivers swept the top three spots on the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix, which is shaping up to be a good one because it looks like this could be anyone's race.

It was a pretty wild qualifying session with the track starting off wet and rain threatening for most of the session. That made Q1 pretty tough because it turned into a game of chicken to see who would switch to slicks first.

And because Silverstone is such a big track, there was no one-size-fits-all option. Sure, even if most of the track was dry, there were still damp patches that proved to be treacherous.

Like at Copse, one of the fastest corners on the circuit, which caught out Red Bull's Sergio Perez and led to a Red Flag.

Critically, the same corner also caught out Perez's teammate and championship leader Max Verstappen. While Verstappen was able to keep his tires moving and get out of the gravel trap unlike Perez, it caused some pretty substantial damage to his car including to the floor.

That meant Verstappen didn't have the car to fight for pole, which led to the mixed-up grid.

You've got Russell coming into this race off of a win in Austria (sure it was more or less), but couple that with a front-row lockout, and the Silver Arrows are looking better than they have in quite some time.

Then you've got McLaren continuing to be a threat with Norris on the second row in P3 (lining up next to Verstappen; those two crashed while fighting for the lead last weekend in Austria) and his teammate Oscar Piastri behind him in P4.

Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hailton locked out the front row for Sunday's British Grand Prix with countryman Lando Norris of McLaren behind them leading the second row.(Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)

But do you know what else there is? There's rain in the forecast.

This could get wild.

Personally, I like Norris for the win. I think the McLaren is better on Sundays than the Mercedes has been. He'll just need to get a good jump off the line (he's on the clean side of the grid, so that should help unless rain comes along). That was a problem in Austria and put him on the back foot for the rest of the race until he retired after that battle with Verstappen.

But, whatever happens, Silverstone usually delivers the goods, and this race already has a lot of potential to be a classic.