Iconic Silverstone, the very home of the motorsport and F1, was the next stop for the F1 caravan. All drivers love Silverstone, which has a lot of high speed corners, and actually 82 % of the lap is driven with full throttle. Home hero Hamilton has claimed eight victories on his home soil, which has led to the start finish straight to be named as Hamilton Straight.
On Saturday drivers woke up to typical British weather - a rainy day. In Q1 everyone came out on the intermediates and stayed out throughout the entire session, as the track conditions improved lap by lap. From the beginning it was obvious, that Verstappen mastered the tricky conditions. Both Leclerc's and Sainz's performance was impressive as well. Mercedes alongside many other teams had brought an update package to their car this weekend, and especially Hamilton seemed to be able to extract more performance out of his W12. The biggest surprise in the first session was the pecking order of the Williams teammates. Albon was the first driver to be knocked out of Q2, whilst teammate Latifi made his way through to the second session.
Drivers continued on the intermediates, as Q2 got underway. Verstappen continued, where he had left off in the first session. He went fastest by a second margin to his teammate Perez. McLaren came alive in the hands of Norris, who was also driving in front of his home crowd, and the young Briton went second fastest. With five minutes remaining Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc and Sainz were the top four drivers in the timesheets. However, the rain intensified towards the end of the session, and no improvements on lap times were made. This brought out quite many surprises and in terms of some teams made one teammate stand out of the other. Alfa Romeo's Zhou made it within the top ten, whilst teammate Bottas was eliminated from the last session. Norris was 6th fastest, whilst teammate Ricciardo under-performed, not making it higher than P14. Alonso made it P7, whilst Ocon missed out on Q3 (P15). Williams' Latifi made it among the top ten for the first time in his F1 career.
In Q3 the intermediates were still the tyre choice. After mastering the conditions in the first and second session, Verstappen now showed signs of inconsistency. On his first run, after setting the screens purple in sector one, the Dutchman had a full 360-degree spin but showed outstanding handling of the car and didn't lose anything but time. On his second run he went wide at the chicane but still made it second, only 0.043s off Leclerc's benchmark. The track kept improving towards the end of the session, and with three minutes in the clock, Verstappen was topping the timesheets with Hamilton second, Russell third and Norris fourth. Although Verstappen had the fastest time of all sectors under his name, Sainz put together an amazing lap, which entitled the Spaniard to the top spot. Verstappen proved unable to improve in the end, so 72 thousandths of a second separated the flying Dutchman from pole position. Leclerc qualified third, with Perez fourth in the sister Red Bull. The third row was locked down by the Britons, as Hamilton qualified in P5 and Norris in P6. Alonso claimed P7 for Alpine and Russell P8 for Mercedes. Alfa Romeo's Zhou and Williams' Latifi rounded out the top ten. It took 150 GP weekends for Carlos to score the maiden pole, but finally it came!
Weather update had predicted rain before the race start, but the English weather showed its better side, and the conditions stayed dry. Tyre wise Verstappen stood out of the grid, as he was the only top driver to start to the race on soft Pirellis, whilst his teammate and both Ferrari drivers had opted for the medium compound. Mercedes' Russell in P8, on the other hand, was on the hard compound. Verstappen took a dream start on his soft tyres and stormed into the lead past Sainz. Hamilton in his W12 took a splendid start from P5, moving up to P3. Although the top ten got through the first corners smoothly, there was huge drama in the midfield. Russell in his Mercedes hit AlphaTauri's Gasly, which came with horrific consequences for Zhou in his Alfa Romeo. The Chinese's Alfa Romeo flipped upside down, with sparks flying, as the car slided into the tyre wall. But Zhou's car didn't stop after crashing into the tyre wall but got airborne, hit the metallic fence and dropped sideways between the fence and the tyre wall. Williams' Albon and AlphaTauri's Tsunoda were also involved in the first-lap crash, as well as Alpine's Ocon, who had a puncture. The race was red-flagged right away.
The suspension took almost an hour. I feared, that Zhou had got seriously hurt, as there was no footage of the crash for a long time. Against all odds, Zhou was reported to be conscious and having no fractures. He had been taken to the medical center together with Albon, who was also reported to be okay. Once again the Halo proved its significance as a life-saving device.
Because the race had been red-flagged on the opening lap already, the standing restart was to be taken in the restored order, which meant P2 for Verstappen and P5 for Hamilton. Pole-setter Sainz didn't let Verstappen surprise him twice, but the Spaniard held on to the lead. During the suspension Verstappen had switched to the medium compound. Leclerc had an intense battle with Red Bull's Perez, and contact wasn't avoided. A big piece of Perez's front wing flew off on the straight, and Charles' car got damage as well. There was another hot battle with the Britons, where Norris in his McLaren got the upper hand on Hamilton, depriving the 7-time world champion of the 5th place.
On lap 5 Perez had no choice but to pit for a new nose, as his front wing had been so severely damaged. The extra pit stop dropped the Mexican at the back of the pack. A lap later Hamilton saw his chance and attacked his fellow countryman Norris, claiming P4. In terms of the race leader Sainz, there was drama on lap 10. Sainz momentarily lost the rear of his SF75, which made the Spaniard go wide. Verstappen took advantage of Sainz's mistake right away and took the lead. A lot was happening on the track, as a couple of laps later the AlphaTauri teammates collided with each other battling for positions. Gasly's car took damage, which led into the Frenchman's retirement some laps later. Tsunoda, on the other hand, was later given a 5-second time penalty for causing the collision.
Verstappen's joy of the robbed lead was short term. On lap 13 the Dutchman reported on the team radio, that he had hit some debris on the track and suspected he had a puncture. Max had to pit for new tyres, while Sainz and Leclerc were now in the double lead. Verstappen came back out in P6 behind Alpine's Alonso. Soon after his pit stop Max reported on the team radio, that his car was broken. The team confirmed, that there was damage in the chassis but safety wise it wasn't critical.
Things got heated between the Ferrari teammates. Charles insisted on the team radio, that the team would let him move ahead of Carlos, as Charles was possibly facing a front wing change on his pot stop. While the Ferrari duo was busy talking on the team radio, Hamilton chased down the red-suited drivers banging fastest lap times one after another.
Carlos pitted from the lead on lap 20, switching to the hard compound and rejoining the track in P3. Meanwhile Hamilton kept intensively hunting down Charles, and the gap was under two seconds already. Verstappen made his second pit stop and opted for hard Pirellis as well. The pit stop cost the Dutchman two positions, and he rejoined the track in P8. Race leader Charles pitted on lap 25, and Hamilton took over the lead in front of his cheering home crowd.
Ferrari's team radio got heated again. Carlos was given a target lap time, which he should reach, otherwise the team would tell him to swap positions. The Spaniard proved unable to match the target lap time, so he was told to let Charles past. On lap 31 Charles moved ahead of his teammate. Hamilton pitted not until on lap 34. Like expected, the Briton switched to the hard Pirellis. Unfortunately his pit stop didn't go perfectly to the plan, and Hamilton came back out behind the Ferrari drivers in P3. By this time, Red Bull's Perez had made his way up to P5 already.
Lap 39 saw a new dramatic turn in the race. Ocon faced a fuel pump issue, and the Frenchman's Alpine came to a halt on the old main straight. Safety car was deployed. Race leader Charles stayed out on his worn hard Pirellis, whilst almost everyone else pitted for a fresh set of soft tyres. This call meant serious trouble for the Monegasque in terms of the restart!
With ten laps to go, the British GP saw a hair-raising restart. Sainz attacked his teammate, robbing the lead. Perez made an aggressive move on Hamilton, moving up to P3. Next the Mexican had his eyes on Leclerc, who fought bravely on his used hard tyres. Hamilton took advantage of Perez's and Leclerc's dual and dived past both drivers, taking P2. However, Perez made another move on Hamilton, who dropped back down to P4. Wow, what amazing true racing it was!
A couple of laps later Hamilton was seriously challenging Leclerc for P3. The Briton executed an overtaking move on Charles, but the Ferrari ace bounced back by taking his position back. In the end, Hamilton took the upper hand in the thrilling dual, claiming P3 on his home soil.
Impressive Sainz took the chequered flag as the race winner for the first time in his F1 career! Converting pole into a maiden win was a remarkable achievement for Carlos, whose beginning of the season hasn't been flawless. Perez finished stunningly the runner-up, and home hero Hamilton completed the podium. Bitter Charles was left in P4 due to the failed strategic call during the safety car. Alonso crossed the finish line in P5 and Norris in P6. Verstappen made it P7 in spite of his damaged car, which was damage limitation for the championship leader. Haas' Schumacher scored his very first points by finishing 8th ahead of Aston Martin's Vettel and Haas teammate Magnussen.
The current situation in the drivers' championship standings is the following: Verstappen 181 points, Perez 147 points, Leclerc 138 points and Sainz 127 points. In the constructors' standings Red Bull have 328 points to Ferrari's 265 and Mercedes' 204. Back-to-back weekend means, that the battle continues in Austria this week already! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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