British Grand Prix – Lewis Hamilton has won the race at Silverstone, ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas. Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton has won the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas. Charles Leclerc finished P3 for Ferrari.
Click here for the complete results from Silverstone.
It was a thrilling race from start to finish, with the two Mercedes drivers slugging it out in the early stages. Valtteri Bottas resisted Hamilton off the line but couldn’t shake his teammate. The pair fought hard, with Hamilton frequently getting alongside Bottas into the braking zones and even managed to get ahead through Brooklands at one point, only to have Bottas get back ahead through the next corner.
While Bottas eventually managed to steady the ship and lead by around 1.5 seconds, the battle behind between the two Ferraris and Red Bulls was intense. With Charles Leclerc leading Max Verstappen, the two kept trading places in a stern but fair display of immense racing with Leclerc somehow managing to keep the Dutch driver behind him.
Behind them, it was the same story with Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly. While Vettel managed to get ahead of Gasly at the race start, the French driver recovered to pass Vettel again on track before immediately pitting.
His pitstop set off the trigger for the stops to begin. With Gasly swapping to the Hard tyre with the intention of a single stop, Verstappen and Leclerc followed suit the following lap. Swapping to the Hard tyre, the pair left the pits side by side with the Red Bull edging ahead. Metres later, Leclerc managed to push his way alongside Verstappen and retook the position, to Max’s chagrin.
Up front, Hamilton had elected not to pit, with Sebastian Vettel following suit. Hamilton led Vettel by around ten seconds but the pair would benefit from a mid-race Safety Car intervention.
Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi slid off the track and got beached, leading to the Safety Car being deployed. Hamilton and Vettel both pitted, meaning the order afterwards was Hamilton from Bottas, Vettel from Gasly,Leclerc and Verstappen.
Leclerc and Verstappen immediately got stuck into their battle again, with Verstappen finally managing to break free of the Ferrari and close up on Gasly who obviously didn’t raise too much of a fight. The Dutch driver set off after Sebastian Vettel and managed to get past the Ferrari driver.
However, Vettel misjudged his braking into the next corner and collided with the rear of the Red Bull – both cars ending up going off backwards into the gravel with damage. Vettel needed to come in and take a new front wing and was given a ten second time penalty by the stewards for the incident, while Verstappen was able to keep going down in P5.
Leclerc was the beneficiary of this, catching and passing Gasly to take the final podium spot, while Gasly settled for P4 and Verstappen coaxed his Red Bull home to P5.
Vettel’s disappearance from the top six meant that Carlos Sainz finished P6 for McLaren, another man to benefit from the timing of the Safety Car. Daniel Ricciardo was P7 for Renault, with Kimi Raikkonen P8 for Alfa Romeo. Daniil Kvyat was P9 for Toro Rosso with Nico Hulkenberg finishing P10 for Renault.
Lando Norris finished P11, as he lost out as a result of the Safety Car, with Alex Albon finishing P12 in the Toro Rosso. Lance Stroll was P13, ahead of George Russell’s Williams.
Robert Kubica finished P15, ahead of Vettel after his calamitous race. Sergio Perez finished P17, having picked up damage upon the restart after the Safety Car. He had attempted to pass Nico Hulkenberg but misjudged it and slid into the Renault, picking up front wing damage that ruined his race.
Along with Giovinazzi’s self-imposed error, the two Haas drivers were the only other retirements. Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen made light contact on the first lap, which ended up being severe enough to force both of them to retire with damage. Magnussen retired on Lap 3, with Grosjean out on Lap 9.
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