Showing posts with label British GP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British GP. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 July 2026
Monday, 6 July 2026
POINTS AT THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX 🇬🇧*
Charles Leclerc wins at Silverstone for the first time in his career, ending a victory drought that dated back to the 2024 US Grand Prix! George Russell secured his first home podium, joined by Lewis Hamilton in third after the pair battled throughout the race. Max Verstappen retired after a late trip into the gravel, while championship leader Kimi Antonelli limped home with car issues 🤯
📊 Here’s the race report: https://f1.com/GB26-RaceWA
-F1
Saturday, 4 July 2026
F1 BRITISH GP: KIMI ANTONELLI TAKES FIRST SPRINT WIN WITH PASS ON LEWIS HAMILTON
Championship leader Antonelli makes half-distance overtake on sprint polesitter Hamilton to claim first blood at Silverstone
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| Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images |
Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli beat Lewis Hamilton to win a frantic British Grand Prix sprint race at Silverstone for his first Saturday victory of the 2026 campaign.
The Mercedes driver crossed the line 2.7 seconds ahead of the seven-time world champion in a race where Antonelli and Hamilton had proven dominant over the rest of the field.
McLaren's Lando Norris completed the podium, but was seven seconds behind the Ferrari driver as two separate front-running groups quickly emerged during the 17-lap sprint contest.
This was evident right from the start as pole man Hamilton and Antonelli bolted clear at lights out and built a four-second buffer across the opening three laps, with a scrappy battle behind emerging over third place.
That was a five-way tussle between Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc, who all continuously traded places in the return of yo-yo racing at the high-energy Silverstone.
Drivers were running with different levels of energy through the lap and this led to overtakes at various parts of Silverstone, whether it be Verstappen's move on Russell at Abbey, or Leclerc on Piastri at Brooklands.
The battle for third started to die down come the halfway mark and, ultimately, it was Norris who emerged victorious, but as he locked down his podium, the battle for the lead finally heated up.
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| Getty |
That came after Hamilton had built a steady one-second advantage over Antonelli, who closed in come lap eight and made his first attack on the home favourite down into Brooklands.
Hamilton held firm but not for too long, as the 19-year-old eventually moved by into the lead on Hangar Straight before soon boasting too much pace for the Ferrari to keep up.
It was around this point on lap 10 when the fight behind Norris intensified once more, as Verstappen dropped into sixth behind Russell and Leclerc before a steady final seven laps.
Russell therefore took fourth behind Norris, finished a second behind the McLaren, ahead of fifth-placed Leclerc and Verstappen in sixth, with Piastri taking two points for coming seventh.
The final points position went to the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson, who moved into the top eight Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar fell out of the points-paying positions at the start. Lawson defended the point from his former team-mate late, on but in contentious circumstances as he squeezed his former team-mate under braking at Stowe.
This all leaves Antonelli with a 43-point championship advantage over second-placed Russell ahead of Sunday’s grand prix, with third-placed Hamilton now four behind his fellow Briton.
- Ed Hardy
Friday, 3 July 2026
Sunday, 6 July 2025
LANDO NORRIS BENEFITS FROM OSCAR PIASTRI PENALTY TO CLAIM BRITISH GP VICTORY
Norris leads McLaren one-two finish at Silverstone after Aussie hit with 10-second penalty
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| McLaren's Lando Norris celebrates after winning the British GP at Silverstone. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images |
Lando Norris took advantage of Oscar Piastri’s penalty to win the British Grand Prix, his home race, for the first time in his career.
During a wild, wet and chaotic race at Silverstone, Piastri was dealt a 10-second penalty by the stewards after he slammed on his brakes at 130mph ahead of a safety car restart, forcing Max Verstappen to take evasive action.
The penalty cost Piastri the win, with Norris crossing the line 6.8 seconds clear of his McLaren team-mate. Norris’ fourth victory of the season saw him reduce the gap to the Australian in the drivers’ championship standings from 15 points to eight.
Nico Hulkenberg landed his first podium in Formula One after 239 starts while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth.
Verstappen spun from second and crossed the line in fifth following a late pass on Lance Stroll. George Russell started fourth but two premature changes to slick tyres destroyed his afternoon. He took the chequered flag in 10th.
Piastri had navigated the early chaos around him – with Liam Lawson and Gabriel Borteleto both crashing out in the slippery conditions – before the McLaren man nailed pole-sitter Verstappen on lap seven to take the lead.
Piastri was flying and was more than a second clear of Verstappen after only a handful of corners. Further joy for McLaren followed on lap 11 when Verstappen ran off the road and Norris was up to second place.
In came the leaders for a fresh set of intermediate tyres, but Norris lost out through a slow front-left tyre and Verstappen was back ahead.
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| McLaren technical director Peter Prodromou, with Oscar Piastri (second), Lando Norris (first) and Nico Hulkenberg (third). Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA |
With Verstappen and Norris duelling for second, Piastri was as many as 11 seconds clear when the safety car came out on lap 14 with the rain intensifying.
It pulled in four laps later, but it was required again almost immediately after rookie Isack Hadjar ran into the back of Kimi Antonelli and crashed out at Copse.
Piastri was controlling the field ahead of the restart but slammed on the brakes, forcing Verstappen to dive to his right to avoid the Australian.
Verstappen, holding both hands up in disgust, was straight on the radio. “Whoa, mate, f***, he just suddenly slows down again.”
When the race restarted, Verstappen spun and fell back to 10th, with Piastri now under investigation. The stewards hit him with a 10-second penalty and with Norris three seconds behind it was now his to lose.
Further back, and Hamilton was on the move. Heading into Sunday’s race he had finished on the podium at every British Grand Prix since 2014 and on lap 27 he was up to sixth as he slung shot his Ferrari clear of Russell’s Mercedes.
On lap 29, he moved clear of Pierre Gasly for fifth, and then with 17 laps to go he was ahead of Lance Stroll for fourth. Suddenly, a podium looked on with Sauber’s Hulkenberg occupying third place.
Hamilton dived in for slick rubber on lap 42 but he ran off the track on his out lap costing him valuable time. When Hulkenberg stopped, Hamilton was eight seconds behind with as many laps to go but he could not lay a glove on the veteran 37-year-old German.
On lap 43, Piastri switched to dries, and served his punishment to allow Norris to come in on the following lap for his change to slick tyres and take the lead. Norris emerged from the pit lane in the lead and with a six-second advantage.
Piastri called on the McLaren pit wall to swap positions with Norris, and allow a straight fight to the flag. But McLaren rebuffed his desperate plea and an emotional Norris took the win.
In Formula Two, Irish driver Alex Dunne recovered from a difficult sprint race to finish second in Sunday’s feature race.
An early collision during Saturday’s sprint saw the Offaly 19-year-old, racing for Rodin Motorsport, drop back to fourth in the drivers’ championship standings. However, his second-place finish on Sunday earned him 18 points to put him back into third.
The 19-year-old may yet see his feature result improve to first as race winner Jak Crawford is under investigation by the stewards over his pit entry before a Virtual Safety Car was called late in the race.
As things stand, Dunne is now 14 points adrift of championship leader Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) on 122, and eight off Crawford (Dams Lucas Oil).
Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Monday, 8 July 2024
HAMILTON WINS BRITISH GP FOR NINTH TIME
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| Peter Cziborra/Reuters |
Lewis Hamilton won a race-long fight with Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at a gripping, wet-dry British Grand Prix to take his first victory since December 2021.
Hamilton had just enough to hold off a late charge from Verstappen’s Red Bull to take his 104th career win, and his ninth at home to become the record-holder for victories at a single circuit.
Verstappen, who had struggled for pace through much of a race that was hit by two separate periods of rain, came alive in the closing laps to take second place from Norris, who grabbed the final position on the podium.
Hamilton, who was driving in his last British GP for Mercedes before his move to Ferrari next year, appeared to be in tears in the car as he told his team: "This means so much to me," as they congratulated him over the radio.
“This one means a lot to us all,” his engineer Peter Bonnington said. “I love you, Bono,” Hamilton replied.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff described the win as “a fairytale” for them and Hamilton.
Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri, who was also in the lead fight for the first half of the race, took fourth place ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Classic race for Hamilton's comeback win
In front of a crowd of 164,000 people cheering the British drivers - and especially Hamilton - to the rafters despite the inclement weather, the top drivers and three leading teams put on a superb show throughout.
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton led the early laps after locking out the front row of the grid for the team, while Verstappen passed Norris around the outside of Turn Four on the opening lap to run third.
But the Red Bull did not initially show its usually formidable race pace and Norris was able to reclaim third place on lap 15 with a pass into Stowe corner.
Piastri followed the Briton through two laps later just as the first shower of rain started, bringing the McLarens, who had chosen a higher-downforce set-up than Mercedes and Red Bull, into their own.
Hamilton made the first move, though, passing Russell into Stowe on lap 18.
A few corners later, both Mercedes drivers slid off the track at Turn Two at the start of lap 19 as they wrestled for grip on the slippery track and Norris pounced, passing Russell at Turn Four before closing on Hamilton and passing him at Turn One on lap 20.
Piastri moved up into second behind him and the McLarens ran one-two for five laps as the track began to dry.
Decisive pit stop tyres choices
The lead cars all stayed out on slick tyres through the first period of rain, but the teams knew more rain was coming and as it came down more heavily Verstappen benefited from an early stop for intermediates on lap 26.
Norris, Hamilton and Russell followed him in a lap later, Piastri suffering badly for staying out a further lap on the slicks and losing 10 seconds to the lead pack.
The stop timing vaulted Verstappen up to third behind Norris and Hamilton, with Russell fourth.
But four laps later Russell was out of the running when he was told to retire his Mercedes because of a water system problem.
By lap 38, with 14 to go, the track was almost dry, and Verstappen again jumped early for a tyre change.
He and Hamilton stopped together, Mercedes choosing soft tyres and Verstappen hard, while Norris stayed out a lap later before taking softs.
The earlier stop vaulted Hamilton ahead of Norris into the lead,.
It set up a grandstand finish, with the three cars in a single camera shot on the Hangar Straight for the entire climactic period of the race.
Hamilton always looked to have Norris under control, but the it was soon clear that Verstappen was now the major threat, the Red Bull transformed by the decision to switch to hard tyres.
Verstappen swept by Norris on lap 48 down the Hangar Straight, and went into the final four laps 3.2 seconds behind Hamilton and closing in.
But Hamilton had enough to hold him off, crossing the line 1.4secs adrift, before Hamilton fought back tears after climbing out of the car.
Meanwhile, Norris and Piastri were left to rue some dubious McLaren pit calls - both Norris’ stops were a lap too late, while Piastri was undone by the decision not to double-stack him behind Norris when they changed to inters.
And Piastri’s pace on the medium tyres at the end of the race - he was the fastest car on the track by a quite some margin - suggested that Norris, too, should have gone on to them when he made his final stop.
Behind Sainz, Hulkenberg impressed in a Haas heavily upgraded for this race in sixth place, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso took seventh and eighth as Williams’ Alex Albon and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda completed the points positions in the top 10.
- Andrew Benson, F1 Correspondent at Silverstone
Friday, 7 July 2023
Monday, 3 July 2023
Friday, 23 July 2021
Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Monday, 19 July 2021
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