Hamilton makes Leclerc admission as teammate wins the British Grand Prix
Leclerc thinks things with Hamilton are being overanalysed (Photo: Race Pictures)
Kieran is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs and feature content across the F1 calendar. An NQJ-qualified journalist with more than a decade of experience, he has previously written for publications including MailOnline, the Manchester Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press.
Lewis Hamilton admitted that he lacked the pace of his teammate Charles Leclerc after the Monegasque driver won the British Grand Prix.
Leclerc took his first win since the 2024 United States Grand Prix after taking the lead at the start of the race. It looked as though he would lose his lead to Kimi Antonelli who was on much fresher tyres towards the end of the race, only for the Italian to suffer damage to his Mercedes which demoted him to 16th after a pitstop and a five-second penalty for track limits.
Hamilton could have finished second but pitted behind a late safety car which was brought out when Max Verstappen span out of the race. George Russell stayed out and finished ahead as the race finished behind the safety car.
The seven-time world champion could still be demoted from a podium finish for a yellow infringement in which he is set to see the stewards.
Hamilton: "Leclerc had the pace on me"
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Speaking after the race, Hamilton congratulated Leclerc for taking his first win of the season and the second for Ferrari in 2026, after the Brit previously won in Barcelona.
Hamilton admitted that Leclerc had the pace over him after he was set to finish around 20 seconds behind before the late safety car.His day was not helped by a five second penalty for jumping the start
"Firstly I have to say congratulations to Charles. Winning this Grand Prix is a great experience and this is a great result for our team. So congratulations to our team. I just didn't have it today. I jumped the start, got a five second penalty, but Charles had the pace on me today. I struggled with the balance of the car but I gave it everything and I'm grateful to be up here."
When asked if Ferrari can take the fight to Mercedes, he added: "It looks like it. I'm not really sure what happened to Kimi. The team is doing a phenomenal job. We have some work still to do to really close the gap on pure performance but look at these results. Two wins for the team this year, this is fantastic."
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