Carlos Sainz Emerges Triumphant From Spectacular Wet Qualifying Session at F1 Silverstone

But before talking about the qualifying session, let's have a short look at how things went in the first part of the day. Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen was the fastest driver in FP3. After a total of 18 laps, his fastest one saw him go from start to finish in 1:27.901.

The next five drivers were all within less than a second behind him, including Sergio Perez, both Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG drivers. Now and then, Mick Schumacher reignites the hope that he might still follow in his father's footsteps one day.

He was ninth overall in FP3, as his fastest lap was 1.609 seconds slower than the leader of the group. Lance Stroll managed to make the most out of this practice session as he drove a total of 26 laps. Even so, he could only secure a P16 finish, but the worst was yet to come for him.

As always, qualifying was split into three sessions. With a lap time of 1:43.430, Lance Stroll was the slowest driver on track, and he wasn't going to advance to Q2. Alexander Albon can't seem to catch a break this season, and after 11 laps, he was down in 16th place and out of the qualifying session.

Both Haas Ferrari drivers were also not fast enough to make it into Q2, but fans were most disappointed to see that Sebastian Vettel was facing the same predicament. Moving up to the next session, Valtteri Bottas was slower than expected. Last year at Silverstone, he took P3 in the qualifying session.

Only Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were faster than him at the time. But for 2022, setting a fast lap time of 1:44.232 would not allow him to advance to Q1. Both Alphatauri drivers were also out of the qualifying session.

Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon suffered the same fate, but everyone was surprised to see Nicolas Latifi progressing to Q3. While he's not a popular figure on certain F1 fan groups, this first-ever Q3 appearance might sway people to think differently of him.

Moving on to the main event of the day, we imagine it's not easy at all driving a Formula 1 car with rain pouring down on the track. Max Verstappen pulled off an incredible stunt, performing a 360 spin which is not something you'd often see in one of these events.

The fight for P1 lasted until the very end, and we can't remember the last time when excitement levels were so high during qualifying. It felt like Max Verstappen might be the fastest man of the day once again, but he had to settle for P2 overall with a lap time of 1:41.055.

Scuderia Ferrari fans were ecstatic seeing their favorite drivers finishing P1 and P3, with Carlos Sainz clinching his first-ever F1 qualifying pole position and Charles Leclerc right behind Verstappen.

Sergio Perez had a good rhythm as always, claiming P4 after a total of 26 laps in qualifying. Lewis Hamilton was over 1 second slower than Carlos Sainz, as he will be fifth on the starting grid today.

But there are two more British drivers set to start today's race from the first three rows, and they are both using Mercedes power: Lando Norris claimed P6 while George Russel had to settle for P8. It has been over 20 years since Fernando Alonso made his Formula 1 debut, but that doesn't mean he is any less determined to secure a podium finish.

Going up against drivers that are almost 20 years younger has to be challenging for him, but even so, he qualified seventh overall with a lap time of 1:42.116. You could say that both Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi had a pretty good qualifying session, finishing in P9 and P10 despite their limited F1 experience.

Sure, Latifi has been driving in the series since 2020, but his results so far have been less than memorable. On the other hand, the 23-year-old driver from China has only raced in nine F1 events before.

After finishing eighth in Canada last month, you can't help but wonder how long it will take until we see him on the podium. Today's race starts at 5 PM GMT, so if you're in New York, you can tune in starting at noon EDT.