With the track neither completely dry nor completely wet, it meant that the grid was divided between the use of the soft tyres or the intermediate tyres for the opening runs of the session.
Ferrari sent both their drivers out on intermediate tyres, but both pulled into the pitlane at the end of the lap to fit the soft tyres as they felt it was the best tyre for the conditions on the track.
Lewis Hamilton was hoping to put on a show for the British crowd, but went into the gravel at Stowe, with Logan Sargeant coming on the team radio to say that it was starting to rain with both Ferrari drivers and Hamilton still to get a lap time out of the drivers you would expect to see easily progress.
Fernando Alonso went fastest in his Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll helping to secure a 1-2 at the top of the leaderboard momentarily before Max Verstappen took his Red Bull to second.
Cheers could be heard around the grandstands as George Russell went fastest in his Mercedes before Alosno took the car developed just across the road to the top once more.
With just over three minutes left, the red flag was out as Kevin Magnussen stopped on track and was out of qualifying with him both stepping out of the car but also down in P16 and in the drop zone. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Alex Albon (Williams) were the drivers at risk of being dumped out of qualifying.
As drivers raced for the end of the pitlane to take the restart, Verstappen collided with the pit wall and destroyed his front wing.
With lap times improving, Williams momentarily went 1-2, much to the delight of the Silverstone crowd. Norris was next to go fastest, with Russell and Hamilton creating a British top three before Leclerc moved into second.
As the checkered flag was flown at the end of Q1, Sergio Perez was once again out of qualifying after being the first driver out of the pits after the restart. Bottas also stopped on track at the end of the session to bring out a yellow flag and brought his qualifying to an end, despite being safely into Q2.
With reports of rain coming into the second part of qualifying, there was a rush to exit the pit lane and set a lap time on the soft tyres. However, the track continued to dry as rain stayed away with Alonso leading Albon with six minutes remaining.
Verstappen went fastest before Oscar Piastri book his McLaren to the top of the leaderboard by 0.003 seconds. Hamilton however had other plans as he set the fastest time overall. This wouldn’t last long however as Norris went fastest in the session by over half a second.
At the end of the final runs, it was Verstappen who went fastest overall, ahead of Piastri and Norris, with Albon and Sainz completing the top five.
Sargeant, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) all joined Bottas in being eliminated from qualifying at the second hurdle.
With Verstappen clear at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the opening runs of the third and final part of qualifying, all eyes were on the battle for second, which was occupied by Hamilton with four minutes reaming of the session. Behind was Piastri, who impressed in his upgraded McLaren, with his team-mate down in 10th place.
The Silverstone crowd went crazy at the end of qualifying as Lando Norris went fastest before Max Verstappen broke British hearts to take pole position for the British Grand Prix. McLaren was delighted with their front row, with Piastri taking third to mark an incredible weekend so far for the team.
The Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Sainz took fourth and fifth, with Russell beating Hamilton to sixth place, with Albon, Alonso and Gasly rounding out the top ten.
A few hours after qualifying was confirmed, Bottas was disqualified from the session due the FIA not being able to take a fuel sample. The reason for him stopping on track was due to his car running out of fuel.