Charles Leclerc has claimed victory in a dramatic British Grand Prix, with Kimi Antonelli dropping backwards due to a car issue in the latter stages while a crash for Max Verstappen triggered a late-race Safety Car.
Leclerc made a lightning start, the Monegasque and team mate Lewis Hamilton getting ahead of Antonelli off the line. While Antonelli eventually caught Hamilton for P2, Leclerc remained steady ahead, only losing the lead when he made his pit stop.
That handed P1 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 on but had dropped to P10, as well as receiving a five-second time penalty for track limits. Further drama then followed when 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 World Champion will be investigated after the race for a yellow flag infringement – while fellow home favourite Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren.
Isack Hadjar took fifth for Red Bull, ahead of the Racing Bulls duo of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad. Gabriel Bortoleto scored valuable points for Audi in P8, and the Alpines of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.
Oscar Piastri missed out in P11, the McLaren driver’s day having unravelled early on after making a pit stop for damage at the end of Lap 1. Carlos Sainz also left without points in 12th, despite enjoying a good start in the Williams, while Haas’ Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon were 13th and 14th respectively.
Sergio Perez took P15 for Cadillac, and Antonelli was classified down in P16 after his five-second penalty was applied. Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the order.
Three drivers did not see the finish, with Verstappen out following his late crash while Williams’ Alex Albon retired the car – having ran in the race to collect data after an early clash with Bearman dropped him backwards – and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg pulled off track with an issue.
AS IT HAPPENED
After a busy weekend of action on the track – including everything from an eventful Sprint on Saturday to a Drivers’ Parade featuring LEGO minicars on Sunday – the attentions of the drivers and teams turned to the 52-lap British Grand Prix.
Antonelli enjoyed a particularly strong Saturday at Silverstone, the Mercedes driver taking his first Sprint victory before seizing pole position in Qualifying later on. Joining him on the front row was Leclerc, while Hamilton and Russell followed in third and fourth respectively.
It was confirmed in the build-up to Sunday’s race that two changes had been made to the starting order. Gasly had dropped from P12 to P15 after being handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding during Qualifying, while Stroll received a 10-place drop for using additional power unit elements – though as he had qualified in P21, this only demoted the Canadian to P22.
Amid a sunny and warm start to the afternoon, it was revealed prior to the race that all 22 cars would be starting on the medium compound tyre, with Pirelli expecting the event to be a one-stop for most.
After the formation lap was completed – during which there was a scare for Alonso, who briefly came to a halt before getting going again and taking a pit lane start – the five lights went out to get the British Grand Prix underway. Leclerc enjoyed a flying launch, the Ferrari driver surging into the lead while team mate Hamilton also climbed up to second, dropping Antonelli down to third.
Russell defended against Hadjar to hang onto fourth, while there seemed to be trouble for Piastri who reported that he felt he had damage, the McLaren having made contact with Lawson. Meanwhile Bearman experienced a tough start to his home event, the Haas driver going off track at Brooklands along with Albon after being tapped into a spin by the Williams.
Piastri subsequently pitted at the end of the lap, dropping him to the back of the field after the team changed his front wing, while Albon also made a pit stop following damage in his clash with Bearman. Back on track a scrap was playing out between the Red Bull pair – Verstappen moved up to fifth but could not lose his team mate, who was following closely behind along with Norris in seventh.
As the stewards confirmed that they would investigate the Turn 6 incident involving Bearman and Albon, Antonelli remained within a second of Hamilton – and the seven-time World Champion was not that far adrift of Leclerc, running around 1.1s behind by Lap 5.
There was further news from the stewards when it emerged that Hamilton had been noted for a potential false start, with an investigation subsequently following. Meanwhile Albon had been hit with a 10-second time penalty, having tagged Bearman in their earlier clash.
Another penalty came soon afterwards for Hamilton, the Briton receiving a five-second time penalty for a false start. To add to his woes, Antonelli was now only 0.5s behind on track, while Leclerc had stretched out a gap of 2.6s in the lead as Lap 9 ticked down.
Behind them Russell had dropped back a little, while Verstappen was only a little over a second adrift and Hadjar, Norris, Lawson, Lindblad and Bortoleto completed the top 10 order. Russell radioed in to query a strange feeling with his gearbox, before his team assured him that there were “no concerns”.
After biding his time, Antonelli finally made a move on Lap 11 at Copse to move up into P2 ahead of Hamilton, allowing the Italian to go on the chase of Leclerc four seconds up the road. Meanwhile Verstappen did not sound happy, the Dutchman reporting: “The downshifts are so ****.”
Despite his complaints, Verstappen was continuing to close in on Russell, with the gap coming down to just under a second by Lap 14. Elsewhere Hadjar had Norris hot on his tail, the McLaren driver running in P7 one year on from claiming his first British Grand Prix victory.
“Front left doesn’t look great. It’s graining,” Piastri reported, the Australian running the hard tyres following his early pit stop. Meanwhile Albon made a pit stop to serve his 10-second time penalty before returning to the track.
Verstappen made his move on Russell during Lap 17, the four-time World Champion then defending robustly when the Mercedes tried to fight back later in the lap. After that scrap, Verstappen dived into the pits to bolt on the hard tyres, reemerging in P7.
By Lap 20, Leclerc was still holding a steady lead up front of four seconds from Antonelli, with Hamilton further back in third. Russell continued on in fourth – Mercedes having not reacted to Red Bull’s pit stop – while Norris was promoted to fifth after Hadjar pitted. Verstappen, Lawson, Lindblad, Bortoleto and Hadjar completed the top 10, the latter’s pit stop having been a slow one.
A Virtual Safety Car was briefly called on Lap 22 while a marshal recovered an umbrella from the side of the track, but only Ocon and Perez were able to time a pit stop for during this phase. Meanwhile, Hamilton reported that he was experiencing “so much understeer”.
Shortly afterwards the Ferrari driver was brought in for a pit stop, despite arguing that his tyres “still felt good”. After serving his five-second penalty in the process, Hamilton’s stop brought him out into P6.
Leclerc then visited the pits on Lap 26, swapping to the hard tyres before returning to the track in P2 – 17 seconds behind Antonelli, who was yet to pit. Elsewhere Hamilton received some encouragement from his race engineer that “we are fighting for the podium”.
Up at the front, Antonelli asked his team to not “let other people undercut me”, while Norris soon made his stop to come back out on track in P7. Lap 30 saw an exciting battle play out between home favourites Russell and Hamilton, the latter initially overtaking for P4 before Russell snatched the position back.
Another attempt at Brooklands one tour later saw Hamilton retake the place – only for Russell to move ahead again at Copse. Meanwhile Antonelli seemed concerned about when he would pit, with Race Engineer Pete Bonnington assuring him that they could “go round one more”.
Antonelli did still not pit at the end of that tour, however – while there was bad news for Russell, who was informed that he had a slow puncture. Despite this, the issue did not initially seem to be affecting the Briton, who went wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen again in the fight for third.
Russell ultimately had to pit on Lap 35, reemerging in P7 with more hard tyres bolted on, while Verstappen was now facing pressure from a chasing Hamilton. One tour later, Antonelli finally pitted from P1 for the hard rubber, bringing him out in second with a deficit of 7.5s to new leader Leclerc.
The stewards confirmed that a Turn 15 incident between Russell and Verstappen had been noted – just as Hamilton was fighting hard against the latter to take P3, the Briton eventually taking the position on the Wellington Straight.
Yellow flags were waved on Lap 39 as Hulkenberg pulled off track with an issue, with this then turning into a Virtual Safety Car phase. Verstappen quickly dived into the pits, as did Norris and Hadjar. Up at the front, Leclerc asked his team what they would do – with the response being that he would stay out.
It was announced that there would be no further investigation into the Russell and Verstappen incident, while Stroll received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits on five occasions.
By Lap 41, Antonelli had closed the gap to Leclerc down to 3.1s – but the championship leader then reported that something was broken, leading him to visit the pits where the team changed his front wing and tyres. This dropped him down to P6, but there seemed to be further issues for the youngster.
”We think it is the wheel shield left-hand side,” Bono informed Antonelli, who responded that “the car is not turning”. After being told that they would box the car, Antonelli initially argued that he could try to continue – but it was then decided that he would pit again, the squad removing the affected part before sending him out again.
All of this dropped the Italian down to P10 by Lap 45, while Leclerc now had a 20-second lead over Hamilton. Antonelli reported further issues with his W17 but remained out on track – while also facing the threat of a penalty after taking a black and white flag for track limits.
This subsequently proved to be the case, the Mercedes driver receiving a five-second time penalty. Elsewhere, further drama was to come on Lap 48 when Verstappen went off into the gravel at Stowe, leading to the Safety Car being deployed.
Many drivers made a pit stop, including both Ferraris – but Russell remained out on track, meaning that the Briton had overtaken Hamilton for P2 in the process. As the marshals continued to clear Verstappen’s stricken RB22, the Safety Car remained out.
The Grand Prix ultimately ended under the Safety Car and, as such, Leclerc crossed the line to seal victory – marking his ninth career win and first at Silverstone.
Russell and Hamilton completed the top three, though it was confirmed that Hamilton would be investigated after the race for a yellow flag infringement. Norris followed in fourth, while the rest of the points-paying positions went to Hadjar, Lawson, Lindblad, Bortoleto, Colapinto and Gasly.
Piastri’s difficult day ended down in P11, ahead of Sainz – who will also be investigated after the race for a Safety Car infringement – Bearman, Ocon and Perez. Antonelli’s penalty dropped the Italian back to P16 – and scoring no points means that his championship lead has been reduced to 25 points from team mate Russell.
Bottas, Alonso and Stroll were the final drivers to take the chequered flag, though the latter is another set for a post-race stewards’ investigation into exceeding track limits, while Verstappen, Albon and Hulkenberg formed the day’s retirements list.
Key quote
“It feels incredible,” said Leclerc. “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. 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.”
What’s next
After a weekend off, the 2026 F1 season will resume at the Belgian Grand Prix on July 17-19. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action from Spa-Francorchamps.
