Lewis Hamilton sent Silverstone wild by securing pole position for Saturday's sprint race at the British Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver rose brilliantly to the occasion in front of his adoring home crowd to see off Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011 seconds.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen will line up from third for Saturday's 17-lap dash to the checkered flag, one place ahead of Hamilton's teammate, Charles Leclerc.
George Russell finished a disappointing fifth in the other Mercedes on Friday.
Hamilton insists he is not thinking about winning a record eighth world crown, but his performance here will do little to dampen a growing feeling that he is in the hunt for this year's title.
After Antonelli laid down a benchmark, the pressure was on Hamilton to deliver. But as he has done so often before, particularly at the British Grand Prix where no other driver can match his record nine wins, he pulled out a magic lap with his one stab at glory.
"I love this place and I love this crowd," said Hamilton, 46 points behind Antonelli in the title race.
"We are showing up every weekend with something and everyone has pushed to the max, and I am really grateful I got that pole. It was very close to these guys."
Russell, 40 points off the title pace, had hoped to carry his winning momentum over from Austria.
But just five days after a victory that breathed fresh life into his campaign, the title contender was alarmingly out of sorts at a track which usually favors his driving style. He finished 0.357 seconds back.
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The 16,000 fans crammed into the "Landostand" named after the world champion held their breath between Q2 and Q3 as Norris' mechanics worked frantically on the front end of his McLaren.
Norris had only just scraped into the final phase of qualifying after he finished 10th in Q2. Norris' car was fit to take part in the concluding running, but the Englishman was off the pace in sixth, a place ahead of Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren.
Haas, Cadillac and Aston Martin failed to make it out of Q1 to leave Oliver Bearman a disappointing 17th at his home event.
A bleeped-out expletive followed from Bearman's cockpit upon hearing his day was run. Aston Martin's £200million headquarters is located across the road, but home advantage did nothing to improve its dreadful campaign, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll due to prop up the grid.
Two-time world champion Alonso finished 3.6 seconds off the leading pace and the best part of a second off the next-slowest driver.
Despite high hope for 2026, Williams is another team in the mire and Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were a disappointing 15th and 16th, respectively.
