Ferrari star Charles Leclerc on his Silverstone victory: “Hard work pays off”

“At last! This victory feels particularly good, even though I would have preferred a more straightforward finish. Hard work pays off,” said Charles Leclerc via radio after the eventful British Grand Prix, in which two stars on the starting grid – championship leader Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen – both had to swallow a bitter pill. The former was hampered by technical issues, whilst the latter crashed into the gravel at Turn 15.

At the other end of the spectrum was the Monegasque driver from the Ferrari team, who was able to celebrate his first Grand Prix victory of the year. “It feels incredible; unfortunately, it wasn’t the ending I’d dreamed of. But after the past two weekends, which were particularly difficult, it’s especially nice to secure the win. I felt that between the sprint and the Grand Prix qualifying, we’d found something that improved our performance. But we still had to confirm that in the race, and I’m incredibly glad it went so well.”

Leclerc also admitted: “It would have been very close with Kimi; he was incredibly fast, and it would have been difficult to keep him at bay. When his problem cropped up, I was able to build up a good lead. But then the safety car came onto the track and I was very sceptical about the restart. It was certainly disappointing for the spectators to see the race end that way, but to be honest, I was relieved there wasn’t a restart and I was able to hold on to the win.”

How the race unfolded:

On Sunday morning, the GP stars were greeted by a cloudy sky, but before the race even started, the sun came out over the Silverstone Circuit and the GP stars set about their work with track temperatures of just under 40 degrees and an air temperature of 25 degrees. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli didn’t get to enjoy the advantage of pole position for long; the Mercedes star immediately fell back behind the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Alex Albon fared even worse, having an unwelcome collision with Ollie Bearman at Turn 6 and being forced to head for the pits. Things got even worse for the Williams driver, as he was handed a 10-second time penalty for the collision. Oscar Piastri also had a tough time of it, damaging his front wing in the chaos of the start and having to head for the pits. Both switched to the hard tyres, whilst everyone else was still on the medium tyres, on which all the GP stars had started the race.

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Even before the start, Hamilton made a costly mistake. The seven-time world champion was handed a 5-second time penalty for a false start. Shortly after the penalty was confirmed, the record-holding Grand Prix winner was also overtaken by Kimi Antonelli, dropping him back to third place. Before the start lights went out, Fernando Alonso encountered problems of his own. The Aston Martin star came to a brief halt on the warm-up lap.

Lewis Hamilton complains over the radio

On lap 17, Verstappen attacked Russell, who was ahead of him, before pulling into the pits, which saw him drop back to seventh place. The Dutchman had to wait 2.6 seconds before he was allowed to continue on fresh hard tyres. Shortly afterwards, Hadjar also pitted for fresh tyres; his stop took significantly longer at 4.3 seconds, causing him to drop back to 10th place behind Gabriel Bortoleto. The Frenchman overtook the Brazilian shortly afterwards, moving up to ninth.

The field was slowed down on lap 22 by a virtual safety car because a parasol had ended up in the run-off area. It was quickly removed, and the yellow flag period was correspondingly brief. Nevertheless, some drivers took the opportunity to change tyres with minimal loss of time.

Hamilton, who had already complained of graining on his left front tyre on lap nine, radioed the Ferrari pit that his car was suffering from severe understeer. One lap later, he headed for the pits to pick up fresh tyres. Russell followed suit, and the pair rejoined the track in reverse order after switching to hard tyres.

Bitter end for Nico Hülkenberg

As their rivals pitted, Norris and Verstappen moved up to third and fourth place. At the end of lap 25, Leclerc pitted and was served in 2.4 minutes. Antonelli thus took the lead. On lap 27, Antonelli instructed over the radio: “Don’t let any of the other drivers get ahead by making an early stop.”

On lap 25, Norris pulled into the pits; six laps later, Hamilton and Russell were locked in an entertaining duel. At this point, race leader Antonelli was the only driver who had not yet made a tyre change. Further back, his team-mate Russell was chasing Verstappen, who was running in third place. The Briton made an unsuccessful attack, after which he was told over the radio that he had a slow puncture on his rear right tyre.

On lap 35, the Brit pulled into the pits and was served in 2.3 seconds. One lap later, Antonelli was also fitted with fresh tyres, putting Leclerc back in the lead. After that, events unfolded in rapid succession: first, Nico Hülkenberg pulled his Audi over to the side of the track, triggering a virtual safety car period, which Verstappen and Norris used to make a pit stop. The former was served in 3 seconds, whilst Norris had to wait 3.5 seconds. Meanwhile, Stroll received a 5-second penalty for repeatedly breaching the track limits. Shortly afterwards, the Canadian experienced a sense of déjà vu when he was handed a further 5 penalty seconds for the same reason.

Drama for Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen

On lap 42, Antonelli suddenly found himself driving at a snail’s pace. “Something’s not right,” the teenager radioed desperately, and the team called him into the pits, where he was fitted with a new front wing. But even that didn’t help; Antonelli suspected suspension damage, whilst the team identified a broken wheel deflector as the cause of his problems. Antonelli headed for the pits once more, where the mechanics removed the part.

But even that didn’t help, and Antonelli was asked to park his GP racer in the pits. Antonelli, who was now in 10th place, wanted to salvage the final point and drove off the track several times, which earned him a 5-second time penalty. “This is a joke, I didn’t do it on purpose,” radioed the 19-year-old.

Antonelli remained on the track and was still out there when the race came to an end for Verstappen on lap 48. The Red Bull Racing star skidded into the gravel at Turn 15 and had to retire. The safety car period triggered another series of pit stops. Things didn’t go to plan for Hamilton either. The seven-time world champion came under scrutiny from the stewards because he was suspected of failing to pay sufficient attention to the yellow flags.

The field crossed the finish line behind the safety car, making Leclerc the winner, with Russell, Hamilton, Norris, Hadjar, Lawson, Lindblad, Bortoleto, Antonelli and Colapinto following in the remaining top-10 positions. Gasly, Piastri, Sainz, Bearman, Ocon, Pérez, Bottas, Alonso and Stroll also crossed the finish line in the remaining positions, but came away empty-handed.