Lando Norris missed out on pole position by 0.241 seconds to Max Verstappen in the dying moments of the top 10 shootout. He will start from second place ahead of rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri, who leads the second row of the grid.
Meanwhile, Mercedes managed a 6-7 result. George Russell pipped his seven-time champion stablemate Hamilton by 0.056s but the pair ended up over 0.4s adrift of the pace-setting RB19.
Hamilton revealed that he was not surprised by the result from McLaren, which has used the Silverstone weekend to introduce the second part of a three-stage upgrade package that team principal Andrea Stella reckons will change almost every aerodynamic part on the MCL60.
Asked for his reaction to the McLaren showing, Hamilton said: “Not surprised. I mean, if you look at the car, it makes sense. I'm really happy for them.
“They've had such a bad run for so long, so to be back up there is really, really great to see.”
When pushed to elaborate on why he thought it was logical for McLaren to run Red Bull so close, Hamilton said the two cars had similar-looking sidepods.
He continued: “If you just put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very, very similar down the sides. It's working. It is great.
Source: Autosport