Max V🃏erstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to win F1’s first-ever sprint qualifying race oꩵn Saturday afternoon as Silverstone hosted the debut of the world championship’s new weekend format experiment.

17 laps of flat-o🌜ut racing decided the starting grid for Sunday’s British Gra⛎nd Prix, after F1’s traditional qualifying session had taken place on Friday evening.

The format will be trialled at a further two events this year before F1 makes a decision on whether to incorporate sprint races as a regular feature of the gra꧟nd prix weekend.

“It’s a completely new concept for Formula 1 and I think one of the things we all saw today was a racing driver is 𒅌a racing driver and they’re never going to take 🍃it easy,” Brawn said.

“That first lap or so was completely nail-biting, and sensational, and then we had the little duels in the rest of the race. Fernando Alonso’s performance today was sensational, got my vote for the highlight of the race. I’d buy a ticke🅰t for that every day, soౠ we’re very pleased.

“We’ll let the dust settle on the weekend, spend som𝔉e time with the FIA and the teams, try and understand if there’s some evolutions we want but we won’t be changing the fundamental format this year.

“And I think after the three races we can sit down and see🌊 where we go from here. But so far very positive.”

What could be changed?

Brawn acknowledged that fan feedback will be “crucial” in how the format will be adopted in the future, but said the ini🔜tial response was overwhelmingly positive.

“We’re already getting massive🅠 positi💜ve feedback from the fans,” he said. “On social media, they love it.

“But there will be fans who make some comments, what they didn’t understand or appreciate and we’ll take that into accou🔯nt as well.”

While Hamilton topped qualifying on Friday, Verstappen’s victory꧋ meant that he was awarded pole position.

“Should Friday be the pole position? It’s thi🍷ngs li𝓰ke that we’ll talk about and discuss with the FIA and teams,” Brawn said.

"But I think we can’t be held back by history. We need to respect history but we must never be held bac𝕴k by history.”

Drive✅rs were given freꦓe tyre choice for the sprint race and will also not be obliged to start Sunday’s grand prix on the tyres on which they set their fastest laps on.

Alpine pair Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were two drivers that were rewarded for gambling on softs as they each made up places on the grꦓid for the British GP.

Brawn said free 𝐆tyre choice was another “appealing” element of the new format he felt worked well and could potentially be adopted for n🅺ormal races.

“There’s some very appealing parts, everyone runs the same tyre in qualifying and we st𒊎ill have variety in the race as there were two tyres we can use,” he added.

“There’s no handicap in terms of 🎃what tyres we can use, so possibly we can ෴take that forward.”