WATCH: The incredible difference between Hamilton’s 2020 Silverstone pole and his 2013 one

In qualifying for the 2019 British Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas set a new Silverstone track record. It’s a measure of the amount of progress Mercedes have made in the 12 months since then that Lewis Hamilton was able to knock 0.7s off that marker with a stunning lap in Saturday’s qualifying session for the British Grand Prix.

And if you think that’s impressive, just look at the difference between Hamilton’s pole lap from 2013 – in a normally-aspirated V8 Mercedes – compared to his lap this year in his V6 turbo-hybrid Silver Arrow.

1m 29.607s was enough to claim pole seven years ago – compared to 1m 24.303s this year. A 5.3s improvement - no wonder Hamilton was left to once again marvel at the speed of the latest generation of F1 cars once again after qualifying…

READ MORE: Hamilton explains how mental ‘reset’ after Q2 spin enabled him to take record-breaking pole