Carlos Sainz flies in the rain at Silverstone to sign his first 'pole'

• Starting grid Classification and times

• Lewis Hamilton How long will his head be elsewhere?

• Friday of hope Sainz, the fastest, with Alonso among the best

With the visor still splashed with rain and a slight tremor in his hands,

's voice had cracked with emotion and surprise.

"It can't be, it can't be! I didn't expect this. How did I get it?"

, his track engineer, exclaimed over the radio.

After 150 races in F1, the man from Madrid finally signed his first

(1:40.983), 72 thousandths ahead of

and three tenths faster than

, who had given him so many bad Saturdays so far.

This time, on the sodden asphalt of Silverstone, it was Sainz who imposed his hierarchy at Ferrari.

Now that a decade has passed since

's last

, at the 2012 German GP, ​​Sainz takes over from his spiritual master.

A moment of paramount importance for him, as was evident in the

garage , where he must compete daily with Leclerc's long shadow.

But his driving on the wet road, as he had been showing in Montreal or Imola, should not envy the talented Monegasque.

Everything good that had been pointing out since Friday was brought together by Sainz at the moment of truth.

That critical moment that so many times came to be elusive.

He wasn't even intimidated by Verstappen, hell-bent on turning every screen purple since the last free session.

Not even for the notorious progression of

and

at the controls of the Mercedes.

Alonso, who once again put everything on his side, will start seventh tomorrow.

When the possibility began to be confirmed that water would continue to fall - albeit in the form of drizzle - until the end of the session, Alpine pinned its hopes on car 14. After what was seen two weeks ago in Canada, Fernando was emerging as a great hope .

Even more so after the conclusive elimination of

, last in Q2 almost three seconds behind the Spaniard.

The false step of the Frenchman, like that of

, came to be used by

, the most exotic note of the weekend.

The Canadian, who has been ranked outside of Williams, got into the latest upgrade, joined by rookie

.

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• Lewis Hamilton

• Max Verstappen

• Fernando Alonso

• Carlos Sainz Jr.