The Mercedes pair headed Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the end of qualifying in what was a messy session for Red Bull.

Sergio Perez spun out of Qualifying 1 to be a high-profile early elimination while Verstappen also bounced through the gravel to damage his car in slippery conditions.

The weather had eased since final practice, which took place in the wet, with the sun breaking through ahead of the qualifying hour.

The circuit remained wet and saw drivers head out on intermediate rubber, though there was a dry line appearing in some areas.

Hangar Straight and Stowe were almost dry, through spray trailed Lewis Hamilton around Club as he recorded one of the first timed laps of the session.

The Mercedes driver logged a 1:37.759s that left him fastest until Max Verstappen went two-tenths quicker.

Neither Haas driver completed a lap in the early minutes, Kevin Magnussen the first of the pair to emerge with 10 minutes remaining but on intermediate rubber as others were making the switch to slicks.

Charles Leclerc was the first to make the change, followed by the two Sauber drivers as those on inters began to struggle with overheating.

With seven and a half minutes left in Qualifying 1, the red flag was thrown for Sergio Perez.

The Mexican buried the Red Bull Racing in the gravel at Copse after correcting a slide and ending up in the slippery, and wet, runoff that deposited him in the kitty litter.

He sat 10th at the time, his qualifying session over regardless of whether his 1:38.348s would be good enough to progress to Qualifying 2 or not.

In the bottom five were Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo, and Nico Hulkenberg, the latter without a time to his name. Esteban Ocon sat on the bubble with a 1:39.078s.

They were at risk of elimination as the weather closed in, threatening to douse the track ahead of a restart as race control disabled DRS.

The racing line remained dry, meaning even with DRS disabled drivers were able to take chunks out of the time they set earlier.

Bottas demonstrated that by moving to the top of the timesheets with a 1:32.431s. Naturally it quickly fell as all 19 remaining runners were on track on slick tyres.

Red Bull’s bumpy session continued with Verstappen off the road at Copse, skating across the gravel to rejoin, as he sat only 12th.

He was slowly bumped down the order as others improved, pushing the championship leader to 15th.

The Dutchman was able to improve despite rain beginning to fall, moving up to third with a 1:31.832s.

Conditions then began to improve once more; the chequered flag waving with seemingly nobody safe, including Norris in 10th who was in the pit lane.

In the final wash up, the bottom five consisted of Bottas, Magnussen, Ocon, Perez, and Gasly.

Verstappen escaped in 11th with Norris 13th, while a late lap from Ricciardo saw him easily through in 10th as Oscar Piastri eased his way through in fifth.

As Qualifying 2 began, race control announced “normal grip conditions”, essentially meaning the track was now dry and DRS had been enabled once more.

Early laps were some two seconds faster than they’d been in Qualifying 1 just minutes earlier, Norris the fastest after the initial runs with a 1:27.432s.

Verstappen was only sixth best, behind Hulkenberg’s Haas, while Carlos Sainz sat second and Piastri third.

The Australian went fastest with a 1:26.945s midway through the segment as he ran slightly out of sequence with the bulk of the pack.

A minute later, Hulkenberg went fastest of anyone through the first split, with a personal best through the second. He ended the last fastest with a 1:26.847s.

Russell started the final flurry as he went fastest with two minutes remaining, Hamilton second best with a time 0.004s slower than his Mercedes team-mate.

They topped the timesheets until Norris logged a 1:26.559s to move 0.2s clear of the pack.

With the chquered flag waving, Piastri moved up to second, which became third as Fernando Alonso split the two McLarens.

Verstappen extracted himself from the bottom fine to progress in sixth, while Leclerc missed out.

The Ferrari driver was one of the five eliminated, joined by Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, and Ricciardo.

Verstappen was battling damage, a legacy of his off during Qualifying, appearing to break strakes on the floor as he bounced through the gravel.

Having done what it could in the break, Red Bull Racing sent the Dutchman into Qualifying 3 as it began, taking to the track with a set of used soft tyres to record a 1:26.350s.

Both Piastri and Norris went faster, the latter on provisional pole before Russell went 0,.006s quicker than the McLaren driver.

Verstappen fell to fifth after the initial Qualifying 3 laps, with Hulkenberg an impressive sixth ahead of the Sainz in the Ferrari.

The final flying laps saw Hamilton move ahead of his team-mate to take provisional pole to the jubilation of the parochial crowd.

It stood only for seconds as Russell went faster still, securing top spot as Norris boxed.

Verstappen snagged fourth with Piastri fifth, sharing the third row with Hulkenberg.

Sainz was followed by Stroll with Alex Albon ninth ahead of Alonso.

The result marked the first time since 1968 that British drivers had locked out the top three places on the grid; on that occasion, it was Jim Clark from Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart.

Tomorrow, it will be Russell from Hamilton and Norris with three manufacturers represented in the top four places.