Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton scrapped through the line on three wheels in F1 British GP with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen P2 and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc P3.
Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton started the F1 British GP well in his Mercedes as Valtteri Bottas had a look in but couldn’t make a move stick. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen briefly lost out to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc but got the place back in the next corner.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz gained places to be fifth as Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo joined him after passing McLaren’s Lando Norris in the final corner. The sole remaining Racing Point’s Lance Stroll lost out to be eighth after Nico Hulkenberg couldn’t start.
The German had issues with power unit which couldn’t be fixed as the Top 10 had Renault’s Esteban Ocon and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly hunting him. Behind them, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Alexander Albon had a tussle.
It ended up in an incident with the Dane going off after his right-rear touched with the Thai’s front-left. The safety car was deployed as a result with Albon pitting after re-start to change to the hard compound as his weekend went from bad to worse.
The F1 British GP settled in after few laps with Hamilton leading but was soon neutralised after a heavy shunt for AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat at Maggots. He ran over a kerb and spun onto the barrier hard. The Russian was fortunately safe as he blamed himself for the hit.
It opened up the pitlane mayhen but the Top 3 drivers missed the chance as apart from Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Albon, everyone else pitted. The Frenchman gambled staying out on the medium with track position as the Thai was upto 13th.
The second re-start ignited the F1 British GP as the two McLaren drivers had a supreme fight against Ricciardo. Norris was ultra-aggressive as he made a move on the Australian stick around the outside in the right-hander, who was fighting the Spaniard ahead.
Norris tried to pass Sainz as well but went wide. He did not lose any place but lost time on his teammate. Behind, Ocon passed Vettel for 10th after the German gained track position in the pit stop. The Frenchman re-started his fight against Stroll, who was struggling.
At the same time, the stewards handed Albon a five seconds penalty for causing a collision against Magnussen as his teammate Grosjean was showed a black and white flag for dangerous driving when battling against Sainz.
Grosjean was then overtaken by both Sainz and Ocon but he hung on ahead of a train of cars. However, it wasn’t long that Ricciardo and Stroll passed him but the Frenchman had another naughty move when the Australian passed him with the stewards looking at it.
They also investigated Gasly for his move on Vettel around the outside but no penalty was needed. Just ahead of them, Ocon finally got past Stroll for eighth, with the Canadian also shown a black and white flag for driving standards.
The Canadian also lost a place to Gasly then, who moved upto ninth as drama ensued at the front where Bottas suffered a puncture on front-left tyre, which dropped him outside the Top 10, as Verstappen pitted to change tyres for fastest lap.
The struggle for tyres continued as Sainz’s went away then along with racer leader Hamilton. The Brit then scrapped over the line to eventually win the F1 British GP as Verstappen ended up agonisingly 5.856s behind the winner after his late stop.
The Dutchman may have had thrown the win away there as Leclerc ended up third with Ricciardo passing Norris and taking advantage of other’s mishaps to be fourth. Teammate Ocon did well in sixth as Gasly delivered for his team in seventh.
A drama-filled race for Albon ended up in eighth after crashes and penalty with Stroll ninth and Vettel scoring the final point in 10th with Bottas unable to pass him. Russell ended up 12th with Sainz 13th from Giovinazzi, Latifi, Grosjean and Raikkonen.
DNF: Kvyat, Magnussen. DNS: Hulkenberg.
