Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the British Grand Prix with another impressive performance to beat the Ferraris and team-mate George Russell.

The Italian, who won the sprint race at Silverstone earlier on Saturday, was faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.175 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton was third in the second Ferrari, ahead of George Russell, who was 0.370secs slower than his 19-year-old team-mate.

Isack Hadjar took fifth, beating team-Max Verstappen for only the second time all year when both finished qualifying, the Dutchman split from the Frenchman by McLaren’s Lando Norris.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri led the Racing Bulls of 18-year-old British rookie Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson to complete the top 10.

Antonelli’s pole, from a driver looking comfortable and confident around the fast sweeps of Silverstone, dealt Russell another blow in their title fight.

He had already extended his championship lead with victory in the sprint and their starting positions give Russell an uphill struggle as he seeks to take his first win at his home race.

Leaving the pits for his final lap, Antonelli complained about being the first driver to run but he need not have worried.

He beat his previous time by nearly 0.3secs to put himself well out of reach of his rivals.

“I was a bit stressed because I never really like going first for the last run but the last lap was very tidy. It came all together,” Antonelli said.

“It was very tricky with the winds because it was very gusty, unpredictable, and to build the car to pole was very satisfying.”

Leclerc’s second place was the first time he had beaten Hamilton in qualifying since the Miami Grand Prix in early May, and brings to an end a run of races in which he has been struggling for confidence in the car.

“I am pleased,” Leclerc said. “It has been a few tough races when the feeling was not quite right, struggling to put everything together. There has been so much work behind the scenes to get back that feeling. This was the first time I had it back, I have struggled to be consistent but it is a good start.”

Hamilton, who was passed by Antonelli on the Mercedes driver’s run to victory in the sprint, said: “Of course I’m not satisfied. I’m third. Both these guys did a great job today.

“Charles has been doing good improvements and we just didn’t have the pace of the Mercedes but we are slowly closing the gap and to have both of us here is good for the team.”

Russell had a difficult start to qualifying when he crashed on his first lap after locking up on the entry to the long Luffield right-hander.

Although the incident broke his front wing, he was able to return to the pits for repairs and get back out to qualify for the second session.

But he lagged behind Antonelli throughout, and although there was less than 0.1secs separating the Mercedes drivers after their first runs, the gap opened when Russell did not improve and Antonelli lopped 0.274secs off his.

Russell said: “Yesterday I was confused, but looking at the data we realised I was losing all my speed on the straight.

“Yesterday it was a couple of tenths. We thought we’d found the issue in the morning, but it turned out to be a bit of a bum read and same again today.

“Just looking at the speed traps I was about 6km/h down in the last sector, 3km/h down in the mid-sector. Not just to Kimi, to all the Mercedes-powered cars. We don’t know what’s going on. The team are working hard to find out what it is but it makes it frustrating. At the moment we don’t know what the issue is or how we’re going to resolve it.”

Verstappen said he was also suffering with a mystery straight-line speed issue.

“Two things, the whole session: Of course not a good balance but at the same time terribly slow on the straight for whatever reason, even compared to the other car,” he said.

“We couldn’t fix it from the first run to the end. When you are slow on the straight here, you are more full throttle, you burn more battery and it is just like a spiral and it gets worse and worse to the end of the lap. It’s like a double whammy. It’s very painful. It’s something we need to understand for tomorrow.”

Norris, who won this race on his way to the title last year, was 0.766secs off pole said McLaren were struggling for pace.

“It was pretty poor in terms of gap to the cars ahead,” he said. “I thought my lap was pretty good. It was my best lap by 0.5secs so thankfully I was not 1.3secs off.

“It was a good lap. I got, I think, everything out of it. We are just slow in the straight, slow in every corner, the air is not very efficient, we lack downforce and we have too much drag. We are in a bit of a pickle.”

Lindblad out-qualified team-mate Lawson for the first time since Canada in May and was pleased to have produced the strong performance he had hoped for on his British Grand Prix debut, although felt he could perhaps have gone a little faster.

“Overall, it’s good,” he said. “The team have given us a fast car, both cars in Q3.

“It wasn’t as plain sailing as I would have hoped. It wasn’t easy in Q1. I wasn’t particularly happy with the car but the engineers and everyone on my side of the garage did a really good job and we chipped away to get the car in a good window.

“Part of me is a little bit sad I did the same lap three times, because I feel like there was a little bit more in it, but realistically the top teams are too far ahead that I don’t think P8 was achievable.”

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly qualified 12th but will start from 15th after the stewards gave him a three-place grid penalty for impeding Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – 1:28.111

2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.175

3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.347

4. George Russell (Mercedes)

5. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.635

6. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.766

7. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.782

8. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.921

9. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.194

10. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.605