Ferrari issues warning to rivals after Lewis Hamilton’s Sprint performance at Silverstone. British GP Sprint: Lewis Hamilton takes P2 as Ferrari targets another qualifying surprise.

Lewis Hamilton finished second in the Sprint race at the 2026 British Grand Prix after an intense battle with Kimi Antonelli. Although the Ferrari driver was unable to hold onto the lead until the finish, his pace throughout the race offered plenty of encouragement. Hamilton also reflected on the decisive overtake, while comments attributed to Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur have fuelled optimism ahead of qualifying.

Ferrari has taken another step forward thanks to the work carried out on its power unit, combined with the improved overall efficiency of the SF-26. The Italian car is now reportedly benefiting from an additional 15 kW of performance, although the team chose to limit its use in Austria to safeguard reliability.

The high altitude of the Red Bull Ring had exposed one of Ferrari’s main weaknesses, as the team’s smaller turbocharger struggled to perform efficiently in those conditions. At Silverstone, however, those limitations are far less significant, allowing Ferrari to fight much more closely with Mercedes while using a more aggressive hybrid deployment strategy. Although Lewis Hamilton started from pole position before eventually finishing behind Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari’s race pace suggests the Scuderia could be a genuine contender once again.

Lewis Hamilton: “As soon as he got within one second, I knew…”

“It was a tough race trying to keep the Mercedes behind me. I already said yesterday that this could become a real possibility and, obviously, with the amount of wind we had today, especially the strong headwind on the back straight, he simply flew past me. I pushed as hard as I possibly could. I gave absolutely everything I had.”

After successfully defending his lead into the opening corner, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion tried to maintain a gap of more than one second over the Mercedes behind. However, on lap eight, Antonelli completed a relatively straightforward overtake as Hamilton’s battery no longer had enough available energy to defend effectively.

“Well done to Kimi, but we’ve got work to do if we want to close the gap and match their pace. As soon as he got below the one-second mark, I knew the overtake was coming. I had to manage the battery by using a lot of energy through Turn 6, which is an area where they are incredibly fast. As a result, by the time I reached Turn 15, I simply didn’t have enough energy left to defend again.”

Qualifying is scheduled to begin at 17:00 local time, where Ferrari will aim to repeat the impressive performance it delivered during Sprint Qualifying. Mercedes and the other front-runners are expected to arrive better prepared in terms of car setup and energy deployment strategy, but the fight for pole position remains wide open.

According to reports from Canal+, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is feeling optimistic about the team’s prospects. “After speaking with Fred Vasseur immediately afterwards, he believes they can achieve something special in qualifying this afternoon. So we’ll have to wait and see, but there is definitely reason to be hopeful.”