Celebrities descended on Silverstone today, with Keanu Reeves and Gordon Ramsey among the stars to watch Lewis Hamilton qualify in fifth for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.
Keanu was trying to keep a low profile in a battered old red cap against a smart black suit over a casual black vee-neck t-shirt to saunter to the Formula 1 VIP area where he watched Carlos Sainz take the first pole position of his career at a rain-soaked Silverstone.
The Matrix star, 57, sported his now-trademark shaggy beard and scraggily long hair increasingly inflected with dashes of grey as the Ferrari man held his nerve in tricky conditions to pip Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.072sec to start the British Grand Prix from the front.
He paid a visit to the Red Bull garage during the qualifying session with his daughter Holly and was seen chatting with technicians and engineers working on the multimillion-dollar cars.
The Queen’s first cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, was also in attendance under the Northampton rain, after announcing he is set to retire from public life.
Regardless of the weather, it was a relief that some real action was taking place after a week mired in racist slurs and bickering.
Keanu was trying to keep a low profile in a battered old red cap against a smart black suit over a casual black v-neck t-shirt
F1-mad Gordon Ramsay, donning aviator sunglasses, was also present at Silverstone, fresh from his jaunt to Saudi Arabia to watch the Formula 1 in Riyadh
Prince Michael of Kent attends for the Formula 1 qualifying sessions at Silverstone today
Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team member during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone
Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth and will be hoping for improvement in the race on Sunday
Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest on his home track, a place behind Sergio Perez of Red Bull, while Brits Lando Norris and George Russell were sixth and eighth for McLaren and Mercedes respectively.
A chaotic qualifying run saw the Ferrari man bag the special honour of leading the field on a rain-drenched Silverstone, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.072sec to start from the front.
However, speaking after qualifying Sainz said he thought his winning lap being the best of the day was surprising as he wasn’t hugely impressed with it himself.
Carlos Sainz said he was surprised at taking his first ever pole position at the British Grand Prix
Stefano Domenicali, CEO of the Formula One Group, meets Keanu Reeves today after final practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone tomorrow
Prince Michael of Kent is shown around the Mercedes Petronas garage during the qualifying sessions at Sliverstone today in which Lewis Hamilton placed fifth for tomorrow’s Grand Prix
Matrix star Keanu Reeves, 57, sported his now-trademark shaggy beard and scraggily long hair increasingly inflected with dashes of grey
‘It was a good lap, but I was struggling a lot with the standing water on the intermediate, there was a lot more standing water, even on the racing line, and it was very easy to get snaps and lose the lap,’ Sainz said.
‘It was also more difficult to get temperature into this intermediate for this condition.
Sainz now fancies his chances at recording his maiden F1 victory on Sunday, with the Ferraris pace a key factor in their success this season.
TV Chef Gordon Ramsay is seen mixing it in the Red Bull garage before qualifying
Carlos Sainz took the first pole position of his career at a rain-soaked Silverstone on Saturday
The build up to this year’s British Grand Prix has been mired in controversy, with Lewis Hamilton calling for older figures in the world of racing, such as Ecclestone and Sir Jackie Stewart, to no longer be given a platform because ‘enough is enough’ after Nelson Piquet’s racial slur.
Hamilton was responding to Piquet calling him a variant of the n-word and Ecclestone’s defence of Vladimir Putin as a ‘first-class person’. Stewart said last week that Hamilton, 37, should retire.