liveUpdated 2m agoFollow live updates from Silverstone today, where Antonelli starts on pole position.The Athletic F1 TeamJuly 5, 2026 at 8:22 AM EDTKimi Antonelli starts on pole today. GettyLewis in the kart Getty ImagesDespite his comments on Thursday, Lewis Hamilton did take part in the LEGO parade.Christian Horner back in the paddock Sam Joseph/The AthleticFormer Red Bull boss Christian Horner has been spotted in paddock, his first appearance here since being sacked by the team after last year's British Grand Prix.Lego go-karts take center stageThere has been plenty of excitement - and frustration - amongst the drivers regarding the drivers' parade set-up today.This is different from the 22 drivers being paraded about the circuit on a giant truck, as is usually the case. Today, they are driving bespoke electric go-karts created by F1 sponsor Lego.Unlike at the 2025 Miami GP, when Lego created 10 life-size F1 cars for two drivers to sit in at each team, all 22 have their own karts this time around. Ahead of the parade, which is taking place on-track right now, most drivers were expecting a race of some description.But Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, in particular, have not been thrilled by the concept.Six weeks ago, Luke went to Lego's factory in Prague to discover how this project has come together and get an early taste of how the karts handle.Why was Piastri grateful for black underwear in qualifying? Getty ImagesOscar Piastri had a bit of a scare in the pit lane during qualifying on Saturday, when Arvid Lindblad pulled out of his Racing Bulls garage straight into the path of the McLaren, prompting Piastri to hit the brakes to avoid a collision.His race engineer, Tom Stallard, radioed Piastri to check he was OK after seeing the incident on TV, to which Piastri replied: “Yep. It’s a good thing my underwear bottoms are black today, not white.”Some classic Piastri deadpan humor there, and he smirked when he was asked about the comment in the media pen afterwards.“It was just the Racing Bull,” Piastri said. “I nearly T-boned him coming out of the garage. The car was pretty exciting to drive anyway, and I didn’t need any more in the pit lane.”Hamilton happier with how new cars perform at Silverstone Getty ImagesWhile Verstappen was despondent about the new cars, Hamilton was happier than he'd expected to be coming into the weekend, regarding how the new engines quickly run out of electrical energy at such a high-speed track.After the sprint race, Hamilton said the feeling inside his Ferrari was "not as bad as coming into the weekend" as he had feared, when he joined many drivers in predicting their cars would feel strange going through corners that with the previous F1 cars were flat-out blasts."I mean, the engine does cut off and it's still not ideal, but it still feels good going through Copse and through Maggots, Becketts," Hamilton added.Hamilton also said "I think we've all been surprised, it's really a lot better than we anticipated" when The Athletic asked how he'd enjoyed driving across the two qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday."It's still really great fun to drive this track. For me, it's my favorite circuit. I think it just is incredible with the wind, the whole set-up. "I think Silverstone's just done an exceptional job in building up this place over the years and creating a home for the British crowd. Every morning when you make your way here, you see people here so enthusiastic. It's the best energy that you see anywhere and not just supporting one driver. It's covering the whole grid. That's great to see."LEGO karts on the grid! Luke Smith/The AthleticThe grid ahead of the LEGO go-kart race!Silverstone brings ‘no enjoyment’ to Verstappen Getty ImagesMax Verstappen has been one of the harshest critics of F1’s new 2026 cars and their reliance on engine electrical energy for overall power.After finishing second for Red Bull in Austria last week, he cast a dim assessment on what Silverstone, one of F1’s most iconic high-speed circuits, would be like this year following his experience in the simulator. His findings so far have only cemented that view.“I guess the faster you are, the better it is, right?” Verstappen said. “But for me, no enjoyment, unfortunately. I mean, it's still a great track. I know how it felt before. It’s a little bit different, let's say like that.”Speaking to reporters after qualifying, he also reiterated his criticism of the back-and-forth style of racing with the new cars this year, seen again in the Silverstone sprint race on Saturday.Verstappen said people liking this “just depends how much you understand pure racing, I guess. How you define it.”Asked what keeps him motivated currently, Verstappen simply replied: “Life. Breathing.”McLaren’s all-round struggles offer dim outlook for Silverstone Getty ImagesOne year ago at Silverstone, McLaren enjoyed a perfect homecoming as Lando Norris won, serving as an important moment in his championship year.Twelve months later and the outlook is much less promising. Norris qualified sixth yesterday, while Oscar Piastri could only muster eighth as both lamented all-round struggles with the MCL40 at Silverstone.“We still don't have any pace,” Norris said. “I was seven-tenths (of a second) off pole and I thought my lap was pretty amazing. I was very happy with my lap. I improved in every single corner and I felt like I got everything out of the car.“We're just slow, we're slow in the straights, we're slow in all the corners.”Piastri echoed his teammate’s comments, saying he felt a lack of pace “everywhere” around the Silverstone lap.“The car is just very nervous,” he explained. “When you've got that in every corner, especially the high-speed corners, it's never particularly comfortable. That's been the biggest struggle — the whole circuit.”Piastri said that cooler temperatures and the windy conditions in qualifying had “exposed where we’re weak.” His lap was more than nine-tenths off pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli’s time.Home heroes struggled on Saturday Getty ImagesBehind Antonelli, things were much more difficult for the British home heroes, with Lewis Hamilton unable to replicate his sprint qualifying speed for Ferrari in the GP grid-setting session, while George Russell was (briefly) in the wall and trailing Antonelli yet again this year.At McLaren, the team that won this race in 2025, things were even worse. Lando Norris was only sixth and Oscar Piastri eighth.For the other Brits, though, things were better, with Arvid Lindblad ninth for Racing Bulls and Ollie Bearman 14th for Haas. These positions better reflect the pace of the Racing Bulls and Haas cars, down in the midfield.Here's Luke Smith to explain what's going wrong for McLaren, in particular.Antonelli unstoppable so far at Silverstone Getty ImagesKimi Antonelli was unstoppable on Saturday - winning the sprint race ahead of Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton, then topping GP qualifying in front of Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari.After taking the fifth pole of his F1 career, the Italian driver called the result one of "great teamwork" at Mercedes."I was happy with the lap, but it was not a very straightforward qualifying, because especially at the start I struggled," Antonelli said. "But to recover from that and to improve and to rebuild the momentum was very good. And that's why I was very happy that I was able to regain the confidence, build momentum, also with Bono in the session. Just worked around as well with Stefan, my performance engineer. We just worked around settings just to help to gain confidence."It's British GP race day! Getty ImagesWelcome to Silverstone and race day for the 2026 British Grand Prix.We'll be bringing you behind-the-scenes insight from the Silverstone paddock all day, with the race set to get underway at 3:00 p.m. local time (11:00 a.m. ET).In a contrast to the other three days we've been here so far (including the day mainly dedicated to media duties for the drivers on Thursday), it's been rather grey and cloudy here so far on Sunday. That could yet have an impact on the race, as slightly cooler track temperatures will mean the tires will work in a different way and the drivers will have to adapt. There's been plenty of support race action so far, including the second F1 Academy race (above), which was won by British driver Alisha Palmowski.