Silverstone is one of the most iconic tracks on the F1 calendar, hosting the first-ever Formula One World Championship race in 1950. There was plenty for the home crowd to cheer about, as this year’s British GP featured five British drivers, for the first time since 1996.
The British pack was led by nine-time winner at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton, last year’s British GP winner and defending world champion, Lando Norris, as well as George Russell, starting the weekend second in the drivers championship, all hoping for a home victory.
In Saturday’s sprint race, Hamilton delighted his home crowd by keeping the lead from pole position. However, championship leader Kimi Antonelli had the pace to close in on him, ultimately overtaking him on lap 8. Antonelli followed up his sprint victory by qualifying in pole position for the Grand Prix, ahead of Charles Leclerc in P2 and Hamilton in P3.
At the start of Sunday’s Grand Prix, both Ferrari drivers passed Antonelli after a slow start, allowing Leclerc to build a strong lead. As in Saturday’s sprint, Antonelli again overtook Hamilton, this time on lap 11 to move into P2. The Mercedes driver delayed his pit stop, opting to stay out in clear air, before using fresher tyres to challenge Leclerc’s lead in the closing stages. He emerged 7.5 seconds behind Leclerc, closing the gap to 2.8 seconds within five laps.
However, Antonelli suffered an unfortunate failure with the front-left wheel shield becoming loose. The championship leader desperately tried to finish the race within the points, however a penalty for breaching track limits while struggling with the damage aided in dropping him down the order. With only five laps to go, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen unexpectedly spun out and crashed, citing a rear-wing failure, becoming the third race this season that Verstappen has failed to finish, after a coolant leak in China and an early engine failure in Monaco. The safety car was brought out with Leclerc leading, Hamilton in second, and Russell recovering to third after a slow puncture. With uncertainty over whether or not the race would resume before the chequered flag, both Ferraris boxed for fresher tyres, while Russell and Mercedes opted to stay out for track position, overtaking Hamilton in the process.
Confusion erupted at the end of the race, as it appeared the safety car would pull in at the end of lap 51, setting up what looked to be a thrilling battle in the final lap. This came after an instruction from race control for lapped cars to unlap themselves. The broadcast graphic then said “safety car ending.” However, this was later revealed to be a software error, with the Grand Prix instead ending anticlimatically under the safety car.
Norris finished in P4 by making the most of a difficult McLaren, while teammate Oscar Piastri didn’t score points due to contact on lap one with Liam Lawson, dropping him to the back of the field. Isack Hadjar appears increasingly comfortable in the Red Bull, with his P5 finish continuing his strong recent form. Elsewhere, Racing Bulls impressed with their fourth double points finish in a row, as Liam Lawson finished P6 ahead of Brit Arvid Lindblad in P7. Gabriel Bortoleto finished in P8 for Audi, while Alpine also scored double points with Colapinto and Gasly in P9 and P10.
This was Leclerc’s first Grand Prix win since Austin 2024, and came after a difficult run for the Monegasque driver, having scored only four points in the last three races.
With Ferrari now winning two out of the last three races, they have closed the gap in the constructors championship to Mercedes. Antonelli’s misfortune allowed Russell to reduce the drivers championship gap to a mere 25 points, with Hamilton just seven points behind him. Leclerc’s victory moves him up in the standings from P6 to P4. Only nine races have been completed so far, and with over half the season still remaining, the title fight is far from settled.
“2014 British GP – Sunday 6th July” by CaterhamF1 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
