Lewis Hamilton has won his home British Grand Prix, reinvigorating the tight affair between Mercedes and Red Bull after the Austrian team won all three races in the recent triple-header. First place at Silverstone was the 99th victory in his career and his eighth at the British circuit, moving him to only one away from a century of Formula 1 wins.
However, an incident with Max Verstappen in the opening lap almost halted the seven-time World Champion’s chances of winning the race. Hamilton regained the lead of the race with two laps to go, stealing the victory off of Charles Leclerc who had led for the whole of the race.
The Brit secured his fourth win of the season ahead of Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas, who joined him on the podium. The Mercedes driver now closes Verstappen and Red Bull’s leads in the 2021 F1 World Championship titles.
Hamilton repeats his success from last year as he claims victory in front of the British crowd, with this victory potentially being an important changer in the title battle that Red Bull seemed to be running away with.
Lando Norris followed the podium standers across the line, Daniel Ricciardo followed in fifth ahead of Carlos Sainz in sixth. Fernando Alonso led the final points scorers in seventh and the top 10 was rounded off with Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda, in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
Verstappen had to retire early from the race after touching wheels with Hamilton and got sent flying into the barrier after Copse corner. The Dutchman spun off across the gravel and into the tyre wall at the side of the track. This crash resulted in a red-flagging of the session and was investigated by the stewards quickly after. Hamilton was handed a 10-second time penalty for the incident.
Hamilton served his penalty on his pit-stop and came out in fifth-place behind the Ferrari duo, Bottas and Norris. However, just a few laps later he was able to move past Norris and up into third, following Sainz's pitstop.
Sebastian Vettel became the second retiree of the race and was called into the pits on Lap 41. Pierre Gasly suffered from a puncture and had to pit, whilst Kimi Raikkonen spun at the end of Lap 47 after making contact with Perez.
Drama at the start
Perez spun out of the Sprint yesterday, resulting in major changes to the Mexican's car and this meant that he had to start from the pitlane. The battle between Verstappen and Hamilton was on show from the get-go and the Dutchman was sent flying off the track and into the barriers after Copse corner. Verstappen was able to get out of the car. The crash resulted in a red-flagging of the session. Charles Leclerc was able to slip through past Hamilton and squeezed into the lead of the race.
Raikkonen was the biggest gainer through the half of lap one, as he gained four places up to ninth. Stroll and Leclerc gained three places. The grid got shaken up completely through the first corners of the race. George Russell lost two places and dropped to fourteenth in his home Grand Prix. Vettel, Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi all gained two places.
The race restarted 35 minutes later on Lap 3 with a standing start and saw Norris move up into third place ahead of Bottas. Vettel and Alonso were battling through the restart but the German was too heavy on the throttle and spun into the old pit lane. Alonso's happiness soon disappeared as Sainz made the overtake on his compatriot on Lap 5. Perez was able to make use of his changes to his car after spinning out yesterday and moved up six places to 13th by the end of Lap 7.
By the end of Lap 10, Leclerc held a lead of over one second to Hamilton. Norris was able to gain 1.4 seconds over Bottas in fourth, but Ricciardo was unable to hold onto the Mercedes and dropped a few seconds back, with Sainz trailing behind the Aussie. Perez was the largest gainer and made up another place into 12th.
In the pits
All drivers were called into the pitlane following the red flag caused by the Hamilton-Verstappen incident and a large number of tyre changes were made. However, no major changes were made. The majority of drivers stayed on the medium tyre choice they started with.
The first window for pit stops came around at the end of Lap 18, with Perez, Raikkonen, Russell and Vettel all following each other into the pitlane. Raikkonen, Russell and Vettel opted for hard tyres, whilst Perez switched to medium tyres. Ricciardo was the next to stop, dropping from fifth to ninth after a 2.8 second stop. His teammate was next to pit as Norris switched to hard tyres, but an issue with the right rear resulted in a six-second pit stop.
Mercedes reacted to Norris' pit stop and pitted Bottas the following lap. The Finn was able to get past the Brit after a 2.2 second stop. Stroll and Giovinazzi both pitted at the end of Lap 23. Alonso pitted a lap later and a slow stop resulted in the Spaniard coming out behind Stroll. However, the Alpine driver was able to regain his position just seconds later. Hamilton had to pit on Lap 27 and he served his 10-second penalty in the pits, resulting in a 14.2 second stop for the Mercedes driver. He rejoined the race behind Norris in fifth.
Sainz was running in second, behind Leclerc, due to various stops for other drivers but a 12.3 second stop at the end of Lap 28, halted the Spaniards forward progress. Leclerc was next to pit and a 2.6 second stop, held onto the Monegasque's lead of the race.
Perez had to pit a second time at the end of Lap 38, switching to medium tyres and the Mexican dropped down to 17th from eighth. The Red Bull driver had to pit a third time on Lap 50 in order to try and steal the fastest lap off of Hamilton.