A sun-soaked Silverstone brought its classic action-packed moments as Charles Leclerc survived a dramatic close to proceedings and claimed his first Grand Prix victory since 2024.
The Ferrari driver kept his nose clean whilst others in the chasing pack suffered problems which left the race finishing under a controversial circumstance behind the safety car.
The race start was a great advert for the rest of proceedings as a slow start from pole sitter Kimi Antonelli allowed the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to get the jump off the start.
It didn’t take long for Antonelli to retake P2 from Hamilton but Leclerc was able to keep the fiery Italian at arms length for the opening stint of the grand prix.
Antonelli and Mercedes went against the mold and extended his stint to lap 36 giving the championship leader a huge tyre offset for the closing laps.
Teammate Russell was locked into a hectic three way scrap with Hamilton and Verstappen before the Mercedes driver had to peel into the pits for a slow puncture.
Antonelli began to hunt down Leclerc for P1, until the Italian ran into trouble after suffering damage and having to make an extra two stops dropping him to P10 and recieving a time penalty for track limits.
The drama didn’t end there though, with 48 laps completed Max Verstappen’s red bull suffered a snap heading into Stowe and the Dutchman was left beached in the gravel.
The safety car was deployed and a raft of drivers swamped the pitlane, most notably Lewis Hamilton who boxed for fresh rubber but lost track position to George Russell who stayed out.
The drama would reach boiling point when the penultimate lap saw the lapped cars unlap themselves and the safety car ending message displayed, except Bert Mylander stayed on track causing the race to finish under the safety car conditions.
Without a return to racing, the chequered flag gifted Russell P2 and left Lewis Hamilton P3 with Leclerc cruising to his win. Further back Brits Lando Norris finished P4 whilst Arvid Linblad finished a fantastic P7.
British Grand Prix Results-
- Charles Leclerc
2. George Russell
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Lando Norris
5. Isack Hadjar
6. Liam Lawson
7. Arvid Linblad
8. Gabriel Bortoleto
9. Franco Colapinto
10. Pierre Gasly
11. Oscar Piastri
12. Carlos Sainz
13. Oliver Bearman
14. Esteban Ocon
15. Sergio Perez
16. Kimi Antonelli
17. Valterri Bottas
18. Fernando Alonso
19. Lance Stroll
20.Max Verstappen DNF
21.Alex Albon DNF
22.Nico Hulkenberg DNF
