Charles Leclerc has won at Silverstone. It ends a wait of almost two years since his last Ferrari victory. Still, he did it from second on the grid, and the race behind him turned into one of the wildest of the season.
Kimi Antonelli took pole position for Sunday’s race, his fifth of the season. He also won Saturday’s Sprint, beating Lewis Hamilton off the line at Silverstone. So this weekend gave Mercedes two very different outcomes. Leclerc lined up alongside Antonelli on the front row, with Hamilton and George Russell just behind.
Off the start, Leclerc got the jump on pole man Antonelli. Hamilton also passed the Mercedes driver, moving up to second. Then stewards flagged Hamilton for moving before the lights went out, and a five-second penalty followed. Antonelli responded on track, retaking second from Hamilton into Turn 9.
Oscar Piastri’s race went wrong early. He picked up front wing damage, so he pitted for repairs, and it wrecked his afternoon. Alex Albon collided with Oliver Bearman on the opening lap and picked up a ten-second penalty for it. Neither driver troubled the points battle after that.
Max Verstappen made the first move among the front runners, pitting after passing Russell for fourth. Hadjar followed him in a few laps later, but Red Bull held him in the pit box for over four seconds. A virtual safety car then came out for a stray umbrella on the circuit, and Red Bull breathed a sigh of relief once marshals cleared it.
On lap 23, Hamilton and Russell both pitted. He served his five-second penalty in the pits and lost the place to his former team-mate as a result. Leclerc pitted two laps later, still leading. Now Antonelli stayed out longer than the rest, warning his team over the radio not to let anyone undercut him.
Hamilton and Russell then fought wheel to wheel as they chased down Verstappen, who had jumped ahead through his early stop. Still, Russell’s charge ended when a slow puncture forced him back into the pits. Antonelli finally came in on lap 35, the last of the leaders to stop, and emerged 7.5 seconds behind Leclerc.
A second virtual safety car appeared when Nico Hulkenberg pulled over with a mechanical issue. So both Red Bulls and Norris used the moment for a cheap stop. Once racing resumed, Antonelli went straight back on the attack, closing down the gap to Leclerc lap after lap.
That charge did not last. Then Antonelli’s Mercedes suffered a sudden wheel shield failure as he closed in on Leclerc. He ran off track twice trying to keep the car together, and stewards handed him a five-second penalty on top. So the penalty ended any hope of points and hit his championship lead hard.
At the same time, Verstappen’s race unraveled at the worst possible moment. He crashed out at Stowe with only a handful of laps left, and race control threw the safety car straight away. Officials briefly planned to send the cars around for one final lap of racing. They reversed that plan, so the Grand Prix finished behind the safety car instead.
Hamilton’s decision to pit under the safety car cost him track position. So Russell chose to stay out instead, and that gamble paid off. He moved ahead of Hamilton and inherited second place at the flag. Leclerc crossed the line first. Now Russell held on for second. Hamilton completed the provisional podium in third, right in front of his home fans.
That podium isn’t final yet, though. Still, stewards are investigating Hamilton for an alleged yellow flag infringement linked to the Verstappen crash. If a penalty follows, he could drop out of the points completely. Piastri sits just outside the top ten in eleventh, ready to benefit if that happens.
Norris finished fourth, with Hadjar fifth as the only Red Bull left in the race after Verstappen’s retirement. Next, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad gave Racing Bulls a double points finish in sixth and seventh. Gabriel Bortoleto took eighth for Audi, and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.
Antonelli arrived at Silverstone as the championship leader and leaves with his smallest cushion of the season. Beyond that, Russell picked up ground simply by finishing, and Leclerc has closed in too.
