2026 British Grand Prix – McLaren Sprint Qualifying Report

Silverstone Circuit, Friday, 3 July

Find out what happened during FP1 and Sprint Qualifying in Great Britain, and get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Drivers Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Senior Director, Racing, Randy Singh.

McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team began their home race weekend at the British Grand Prix with just a single practice session before Sprint Qualifying, using the limited track time to prepare for the fourth Sprint-format event of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

After a challenging Free Practice 1 in difficult windy conditions at the Silverstone Circuit, the reigning Constructors’ World Champions were able to unlock more of the MCL40's performance and emerge as a competitive force in Sprint Qualifying.

However, for the third consecutive race weekend in a row, less than a tenth of a second separated grid spots P3 and P7, highlighting just how closely matched the battle of performance has become this season. As a result, McLaren Mastercard emerged as the fourth-most competitive team, with Lando Norris qualifying for tomorrow’s Sprint in sixth and Oscar Piastri seventh.

Both McLaren Mastercard drivers opened Sprint Qualifying on the mandated Medium tyre, with the pair setting top 10 laps in SQ1 to comfortably secure their places in SQ2. Despite sustaining damage to his front brake duct in the opening session, Lando was still able to progress through SQ2 alongside Oscar, with the two drivers remaining on the required Medium throughout.

The gap before SQ3 gave the team enough time to repair the damage on Lando's car ahead of the final session, although some performance remained compromised due to an imbalance on the Number 1 car. Despite this, the 2025 Drivers’ World Champion produced a strong lap of 1m28.740s to secure a place on the third row for tomorrow's Sprint. Oscar, also running on the Soft tyre, followed closely with a 1m28.772s, leaving just 0.032s between the two MCL40s.

The 15-time British Grand Prix winners will now turn their attention to tomorrow's Sprint, aiming to maximise every opportunity in what promises to be another closely fought contest. The 17-lap race will also provide a valuable insight into tyre behaviour, balance and race pace, giving the team the opportunity to fine-tune both MCL40s ahead of Grand Prix Qualifying later in the day.

Ahead of track action, Lando received the prestigious Motorsport UK Hawthorn Memorial Trophy for a consecutive year. The trophy is awarded annually to the most successful British or Commonwealth driver in the previous year’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Ella Stevens was also awarded a FIA President’s Medal, recognising her as the UK’s highest placed female karting talent in 2025.

In the McLaren Driver Development Programme, Matteo De Palo impressed in FIA Formula 3 Qualifying, putting his car on the third row with a P5 lap ahead of Saturday’s Sprint. McLaren F1 Academy driver Ella Lloyd qualified P6 with McLaren Oxagon’s Ella Stevens in P11. They will return to action in the first of two races tomorrow evening.

“An unfortunate day for us in Sprint Qualifying. We had an issue in SQ1 that made the car feel completely different. The team did a great job to fix it just before SQ3, but by the time I got a true feeling for its potential on the final lap, it was too late. I felt I could have pushed way more, so it's a shame we couldn't show our true pace. We know the speed is there and we'll work to understand what we can improve for the race.

“The support from the fans in Landostand and across Silverstone has been incredible and seeing them all out there is a huge boost. We think we can be competitive with the cars around us. It will be a difficult fight, but you never know what can happen, and we'll be giving it everything to have a better day and put on a good show for the home crowd.”

“P7 is more or less what we expected. We knew coming into Sprint Qualifying that we probably weren't in the fight for the very front, and while we made some small improvements to the car after practice, it just wasn't enough to close the gap to the leaders. It’s a shame because I felt like we were on it and got everything we could out of the car, but we've just not had the fundamental pace.

“It was a tricky day, but we aren’t discouraged. We ended up close to that next group of cars, which gives us something to work with. We'll analyse everything overnight, see what we can optimise, and be ready to push hard and fight for a better result in Qualifying tomorrow before the main race on Sunday.”

Randy Singh

Senior Director, Racing

“It was another incredibly tight session today, which we're seeing more and more, where the final positions come down to milliseconds. I think the team did a good job to improve the car from where we were in the earlier practice session, and we definitely gained some performance. We know where we need to improve and we’ll keep pushing to turn that potential into results.

“On Lando's side, we were unfortunately set back by some damage to a front brake duct, but the crew did a fantastic job to get the car repaired and out for SQ3. The competitive field means there are plenty of opportunities in the Sprint, and with the chance to make further setup changes, we are focused on extracting that extra bit of performance to move ourselves up the grid for the Grand Prix.”