Norris beats 'reckless' Piastri to win chaotic British GP, Hulkenberg's first ever podium, Verstappen falls out of title fight

As the grid lined up on inter tyres for the start, George Russell and Charles Leclerc, of the front-runners, along with Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto who pitted for mediums, chose to gamble and pit for hard tyres, which didn't pay off as well as they had hoped.

On the first lap of the race, Liam Lawson found the barriers coming out of Turn 5 which triggered a virtual safety car.

After the race was restarted, Gabriel Bortoleto spun coming out of Turn 2 which brought out the yellow flags and resulted in the Brazilian having to retire the car.

On lap 8 Oscar Piastri after hunting Verstappen down for several laps, managed to get past the Dutchman into Stowe and then after 2 laps the Aussie driver had put 4 seconds between them and Lando Norris started his hunt for Verstappen.

On lap 11 the rain started coming down, as Verstappen complained to his garage regarding the poor condition of his tyres. By then the dry tyres gamble, it was clear that they had not paid off. Throughout the Maggotts and Becketts section Verstappen slid off the track, which Norris then capitalised to take ove3r P2.

However at the pitstops, McLaren took three seconds longer on his pitstop, which gave Verstappen the chance to retake his P2 after the first round of pitstops.

The rain, on lap 13, forced race direction to neutralise the on-track action with a full safety car, thus eliminating the advantage Oscar Piastri had managed to build on his chasers.

Russell then managed to gain some positions back and placed P9 ahead of a disgruntled Fernando Alonso who fired back at his team of 'never getting it right' with him, as he lost places, whilst Lance Stroll sat pretty in P4.

The Safety Car was coming into the pits, and whilst the field was approaching Stowe corner, Piastri slammed on the brakes which caused Verstappen to overtake him momentarily, which the Dutch driver criticised on the onboard radio: "Whoa mate, ****! He just suddenly slows down!"

Coming out of Stowe, Verstappen then spun his RB21 as the field sped away. Fortunately the race did not end there for the Dutchman, who managed to come to grips with his car, mitigating his position loss to 8.

The race officials then slapped Piastri with a 10s penalty making Lando Norris, his teammate and championship rival the de facto leader of the chaotic British Grand Prix.

Then Verstappen complained regarding the speed, or lack thereof, in his RB21 on the onboard radio: "I can't even stay with them, I'm so slow." The Dutchman could not move past P10 after 10 laps. stuck behind Carlos Sainz' Williams.

Yuki Tsunoda's stint at Red Bull Racing doesn't seem to improve. The Japanese driver has been slapped with a ten-second time penalty for causing a collision with Haas driver Oliver Bearman as they both battled for position going into Luffield.

The race for Red Bull Racing, unless any other surprises come during the race, has effectively been ruined, despite the promise it showed on the eve of the start.

The pace that Hamilton has in the rain, no one doubts. The Briton made very good use of it throughout the race, taking over places from the likes of George Russell, whose Mercedes W16 proved speedy in the cold and wet conditions, and Pierre Gasly with a daring move into the Vale chicane on the Frenchman, for example,

Hamilton then set himself up in prime condition to take over P3 from Nico Hulkenberg, with a bold move up the inside of Lance Stroll as they both headed up into Turn 3.

After taking over P4 and setting himself on the hunt for P3, Hamilton saw the cross-over between intermediates and dry tyres to be by around lap 47, just five laps before the race's end.

Verstappen was then able to take a swipe at Sainz for P9, but his Red Bull still proved not quick enough to come back to the front and fight for loftier places.

On lap 38 the last round of pitstops was triggered, as Charles Leclerc stayed out and overtook Sainz for P8, with a move the Spaniard judged to be too reckless.

The cross-over was misjudged by Mercedes who put Russell on a hard compound tyre, which caused the driver to spin around as he entered the complex of Maggotts and Becketts. The race went from bad to worse for the German team as well, with the British driver down in P14 and Antonelli retired from the race due to comprehensive damage to the rear of the floor of his W16.

Hamilton was then called into the pits on lap 42 for a set of softs to try and make strides on Hulkenberg. Verstappen, Gasly, Sainz and Tsunoda also made their way into the pits. Leclerc, having stayed out weet off and cut the track and got ahead of Hamilton who was also unable to stay on the track as he caught a damp patch of track going into Turn 3. His Monegasque teammate was then called into the pits on the next lap, as was Piastri, who served his ten-second time penalty as he switch to dry rubber.

Esteban Ocon was hit by teammate Bearman as they both made their way into Luffield, with the British driver going on a damp patch on the inside of the Frenchman and understeering into his teammate and breaking Ocon's front wing.

Verstappen then complained of once again of his car's balance saying that the car was 'undrivable', with Leclerc experiencing similar issues, having to cut the track again, this time into Turn 5.

Norris having lost considerable time to his teammate, then started to assert his authority in the lead stretching out the difference from 4 seconds to 5 by the end of the 48th lap.