The seven-time world champion delighted a raucous 86,000-strong Silverstone crowd by pipping main rival Max Verstappen to the fastest time in a thrillꩲing Friday evening qualifying session on F1’s new-format weekend.

Hamilton edged out Verstappen by just 💜0.075s to top qualifying for the first time since May’s Spanish Grand Prix and secure first place on the grid for Saturday’s first-ever F1 sprint race.

With just one practice session on Friday to prepare for qualifying, Hamilton said he took advantage of having the “morning💙 free” to sneak in some extra work on the simulator at Mercedes’ factory, which is siꦐtuated not far from Silverstone.

“I was in the sim this morning, just using it as a practice session because it’s the first time we’ve e💦ver had a morning free,” Hamilton said.

“Just putti🉐ng in the time, trying to give absolutely everything and 🐭leave no stone unturned.

"That firstꦺ lap was great, the second one was looking even better but just lost the back-end in that last corner so my heart was in my mouth as I crossed the line.

“But I could see the crowd - it was really reminiscent of my first pole here in 2007 and a🔯s I said, I couldn’t have done it without these guys here, so a big, big thank you.”

Hamilton, who has previously admitted to rarely ever using a simulator in F1, explain🐓ed why he took the unpr𓂃ecedented step.

“I was in the factory on the sim ღon Tuesday and we had this morning free, and I was like ‘look, let’s not sit around and waste time, let’s ꦛget to it’,” he said.

“So we did a pra𝐆ctice session this morning in there and just trying to develop it, trying to give the guys as much information as possible as we’re developing the car.

“We’re squeezing absolutel💙y every ounce of performance from this thing and it was holding together ꧃today, so I’m over the moon.”

While Ha♛milton was thrilled to have ended a streak of qualifying defeats to Red Bull, he warned there is still plenty of work to do in the sprint race, which will d🀅etermine the grid for Sunday’s British GP.

“It🌊’s been such a long time, it feels like such a long time since we’ve been able to get anywhere near,” he added.

“So it’s incredibly special and obviously t🦩o do it on your home turf, there’s no greater feeling.

“But that’s only one step forward. We’ve got that race tomorrow which is going to be incredibly tough, but I think I’ve got the 🅰car in a good place. That’s whe🎃n the work gets done over these next two days.”