SILVERSTONE, Great Britain — Charles Leclerc emerged as the victor in a hugely eventful British Grand Prix Sunday at Silverstone, the Ferrari driver taking the win while Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli fell backward following an issue on his car.
Leclerc made a lightning start, the Monegasque and teammate Lewis Hamilton getting ahead of Antonelli off the line. While Antonelli eventually caught Hamilton for second, Leclerc remained steady ahead, only losing the lead when he made his pit stop.
That handed the lead to Antonelli, who stretched out his stint before eventually pitting on Lap 36. The Italian promptly went on the chase of Leclerc – but this came undone when he experienced an issue with his car on Lap 41, which the team suggested was a left-front wheel shield failure.
After two further pit stops, Antonelli managed to continue but had dropped to 10th, as well as receiving a five-second time penalty for track limits. Further drama then followed when Max Verstappen spun off into the gravel trap on Lap 48, resulting in the Safety Car being deployed.
With the race then ending under the Safety Car, Leclerc crossed the line to claim his ninth career win ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell – who, in staying out on track while others pitted during the Safety Car phase, managed to leapfrog Hamilton.
The final spot on the podium went to Hamilton – though it was confirmed that the seven-time champion will be investigated after the race for a yellow flag infringement – while fellow home favorite Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren.
“It feels incredible. Unfortunately, the end was maybe not the one I will have dreamt of, but to win after the last few weekends that have been particularly difficult, all the work that we put into trying to get the feeling back in the car,” said Leclerc “I felt like I had found something yesterday between the Sprint and qualifying but I had to confirm that today. And today, the feeling was back where it needs to be. I’m so incredibly happy.”
