The lap that did it, July 4 -- The main grandstand was already on its feet when the number flashed onto the timing screens, and for a beat it did not quite register: 0.011 seconds. Lewis Hamilton had beaten Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole at his home race by roughly the time a camera shutter stays open, and Silverstone, which has watched him win here nine times, sounded like it had just watched a tenth.

28.376 delivered in the dying seconds of Friday evening's one-lap SQ3 shootout, was Hamilton's first pole of any kind since last season's China sprint and his first in Ferrari red. It did not come from nowhere. He was fastest in free practice earlier in the day, then topped both opening segments of sprint qualifying before the final run, a ...