Leclerc puts Ferrari back on top with British GP victory

Charles Leclerc claimed victory at the British Grand Prix after an anti-climactic ending in which the safety car failed to return to pit lane one lap from the finish. Pole-getter and championship leader Kimi Antonelli finished outside the points with a series of disastrous car problems and a controversial post-race penalty.

Antonelli appeared set to win the race in a grandstand finish despite dropping from pole position to third off the line. What should have been his sole pit stop on lap 35 gave him a 7.7 deficit to Leclerc with 17 laps remaining, and he took a series of big bites out of that margin immediately made clear he was on a winning trajectory.

“We are not in a very good place,” Leclerc radioed, his fate apparently clear, but Antonelli suddenly began slowing with a car problem.

“Something is broken!” he radioed, and he returned to pit lane for a precautionary new front wing and a change of tires.

The problem, however, remained undiagnosed and he returned to the track with his car no easier to drive. It was only then that his team could see that his front-left wheel shield – the aerodynamic fairing on the inside wheel rim – had failed and had fixed itself to his front-left suspension.

Another stop allowed his mechanics to rip the broken fairing off his car, but still his complaints weren’t ameliorated.

“There's something fundamental, mate,” he radioed. “In the high-speed [corners] the car doesn’t turn. I can try to get the points, at least one point.”

The extra stop dropped him to 10th place, and though his pace was poor, it looked quick enough to consolidate a points finish until lap 48, when Max Verstappen spun off the road at Stowe.

An apparent car problem on entry to the high-speed right-hander spat the Red Bull Racing machine into the gravel, where it proved unrecoverable, forcing a safety car with four laps remaining.

“F*** this car,” he radioed, fuming. “Unbelievable. F*** this.”

A gaggle of drivers used the opportunity to dump their heavily worn hard or medium tires for fresh sets of softs.

Leader Leclerc came in, his margin to the field large enough to avoid losing places, but teammate Lewis Hamilton also pitted despite not being safe to George Russell behind him. He rejoined the track third behind the Mercedes but expecting a massive advantage on softer, warmer tires when the race restarted.

Race control signaled it would be a final-lap shootout after backmarkers were sent forward to unlap themselves, but bizarrely the race director almost immediately declared the safety car deployed again. With the lap count expired, the cars took the checkered flag at safety car speed, with no more racing allowed.

It was dire news for Antonelli, who was served a 5s penalty for driving off the track more than three times. The Italian protested angrily over team radio that many of those times had been because his car had forced him off the road due to technical problems, but to no avail and he dropped from ninth on the road to a scoreless 16th in the classification.

Leclerc, though, was relieved not to have to defend his lead on cold tires and claim his first British Grand Prix victory, having grabbed the lead at the start ahead of his teammate after pole-sitter Antonelli struggled with wheelspin.

“It feels incredible,” Leclerc said. “Unfortunately the end was maybe not the one I would have dreamt of, but to win after the few weekends that have been particularly difficult, all the work that we have put in to trying to get the feeling back in the car … I’m so incredibly happy.

“We managed to put everything together. I really hope I can keep that momentum going forward. A huge thank you to the team for having worked so hard.”

Russell was a fortunate second, not least because a slow puncture on lap 33 had already forced him into a costly unscheduled second pit stop that had him drop from fourth to seventh. An overtake on Isack Hadjar, problems for Antonelli and Verstappen, a second stop for Lando Norris and Hamilton’s problematic last stop promoted him to an unlikely second place and a valuable 18 points, shrinking his championship deficit to just 25 points.

“Really pleased to be standing here,” he said. “It was a very unlucky race [when] I got the puncture, but then I got very lucky at the end with the safety car.

“It would’ve been great for the fans for it to have restarted, but from my side, my tires were stone cold, so I was kind of glad to just bring it home in second. Tough weekend, but overall good to be standing here.”

Hamilton was indifferent about finishing third, having felt he lacked the pace to match his teammate in the race after losing touch with the lead battle with a 5s penalty for a false start.

“This is a great result for our team,” he said. “I just didn’t have it today. I jumped the start already got a 5s 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.”

The podium finish reduced his title deficit to 32 points provisionally, although he too faced a post-race investigation for an Al alleged yellow flag infringement.

The late-race drama moved Norris up to fourth and Hadjar to fifth.

Racing Bulls equaled its season-best finish of sixth and seventh, with Liam Lawson leading Arvid Lindblad over the line.

Gabriel Bortoleto scored his and Audi’s first points of the season in eighth ahead of surprise scorers Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly for Alpine to complete the top 10.

Oscar Piastri recovered to 11th after picking up front wing damage on the first lap, requiring an unscheduled stop at the end of lap 2 for a new nose, ruining his race.

Carlos Sainz followed in 12th ahead of Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez, the penalized Antonelli, Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg joined Verstappen on the retirement sheet.

RESULTS