Race Report: Hamilton wins thrilling British GP

Lewis Hamilton took his ninth Formula 1 British Grand Prix win in a thrilling race against Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Mercedes and Lewis played all their cards perfectly to seize the lead of the race and hold off a charging Max Verstappen to win Lewis’s first race of the season.

Win

A huge win for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton taking the fight to McLaren and Red Bull with perfect strategy and terrific driving from Lewis to secure the win. Lewis needed this race as doubt can fester over time and his wet-weather skill, race craft and tenacity shown through to deliver a message that he’s not done with F1 yet. Also, a massive win for the team who have worked tirelessly to get back to form and they did so at Silverstone with a perfect strategy call for Lewis undercutting Lando Norris for the lead and win.

A win for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who looked set to finish off the podium. Max Was drifting for the first two thirds of the race but once the sun came out in the final third, his new Hard compounds turned him into the hunter he is and he narrowly challenged Lewis for the race win. Brilliant calls from the team to get Max in the best position possible and in the hands of the champ, they managed to finish in P2.

It’s a win for Nico Hulkenberg who finished in P6 for an amazing result for Haas F1. Nico qualified incredibly well and has been driving sublimely for the team in the last few weeks. Silverstone was his second P6 finish this season and the points haul is desperately needed. The team should be very proud of what they’ve achieved this year with limited budgets and their chassis.

A win for Aston Martin who have looked adrift of late. They brought both cars home in P7 and P8 for Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso respectively. The team put on a good showing for their home grand prix.

A win for Williams with Alex Albon surviving a damaged wing to bring his car home in P9 and a couple of points for their home race. To be fair, Logan Sergeant was in P11 so a very good showing from Williams and they have a lot to be proud of.

A lone point for Yuki is a win as he’s been in the shadow of Daniel Ricciardo of late so a point was a good result for the Japanese driver.

Fall

It’s hard to say it but it’s a fail for McLaren who kept Lando out a lap too long and then put the Soft tires on for his last stint while they had a fresh set of Mediums available which would have been the preferred tire. They also left Oscar Piastri out a lap too long and that hobbled his race but he fought back on fresh Mediums to P4 just behind Lando Norris. Oscar’s pace on Mediums should have been an indicator to fit Lando with Mediums but the team or Lando felt Softs was a better gamble…it wasn’t. McLaren may have had a 1, 2 or a 1,3 had they got the calls correct. A bitter pill to swallow at their home race.

A fail for Mercedes and George Russell as George was in the mix and it’s difficult to know where he may have finished. In the dry, his car seemed to have the pace and had he not suffered a DNF with a mechanical issue, he may have also given Lewis a run for his money toward the end.

A fail for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz in P5 and Charles Leclerc checking out of the race with the wrong tire at the wrong time and a poor qualifying. Ferrari seem to be sinking like a stone of late and they have clearly been surpassed by Mercedes in the development battle.

WTH

Wonder what happened to Pierre Gasly and I’m a little surprised the gearbox issue only revealed itself on the formation lap. Very odd. Esteban fared marginally better but well off the pace and that ashen’t been their trajectory in the last two races.

A big WTH for Charles Leclerc…what is going on with Ferrari and Charles?

Pirelli Report:

For Pirelli, this was a very colourful Grand Prix, a four colour one to be precise, as four tyre compounds with their distinctive colour bands were brought into play – red for the Soft, yellow for the Medium, white for the Hard and green for the Intermediate and all four did in fact play an important role in a race where the track switched from dry to wet and back again and with temperatures that varied by around ten degrees depending on what the weather was doing.

The first part featured the Medium, used by 17 drivers on the grid, the exceptions being Ocon and Zhou, who opted for the Soft while, starting from pitlane, Perez went with the Hard. The C2 worked well, because the drivers were able to push even when carrying a full fuel load, while it also enabled them to manage the tricky conditions when the rain started to fall. Furthermore, the Medium ensured greater flexibility as to when to make the first pit stop, given that the threat of rain had made itself felt even before the start.

Then it was the turn of the Intermediate to take centre stage, when the crossover point arrived. Leclerc and Perez had chosen to switch to this tyre early and now found themselves with a set of worn tyres just when the track conditions were most suited to them and they had to come in for a second set. In fact, there was never as much water on track as there had been yesterday in FP3 and that meant this type of tyre was obviously going to wear much more quickly as the track had then dried out. The final part saw all three dry weather compounds compete on equal terms and it was interesting to observe how, especially among the leaders, the various car-driver packages were comfortable with different compounds: Hamilton took the win for Mercedes with the Soft, Verstappen and his Red Bull was quickest on the Hard, while Piastri demonstrated that the Medium could be very competitive on the McLaren.

British Grand Prix Results: