Charles Leclerc wins brilliant British Grand Prix from Russell and Hamilton as Antonelli suffers issue

Credit: FORMULA 1. Charles Leclerc celebrated his ninth career win. 

Charles Leclerc has taken victory at Silverstone in a brilliant British Grand Prix from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton as Kimi Antonelli suffered an issue which threw the championship leader out of contention.

Leclerc emerged the hero of Silverstone in a perfect return to form after a tricky set of races. The Monegasque and Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton beat Antonelli off the line from which Leclerc lead comfortably.

Antonelli would eventually pass Hamilton for P2 and was only promoted to the lead once Leclerc made his pit stop. Antonelli drove a long first stint and started to carve his way through Leclerc’s lead after his stop before running over the curb at Copse corner, which the team said gave him a left front wheel shield failure.

The championship leader proceeded to make two stops in an attempt to fix the issue to no avail and picked up a time penalty for track limits as he wrestled the car to finish the race.

Hamilton, George Russell and Max Verstappen jostled for the podium positions with mixed fortunes - Hamilton was handed a five second penalty for a starting infringement and a slow puncture for Russell forced the Briton to make an early stop.

Hamilton passed Verstappen before the four-time champion brought out a late safety car after he spun off into the gravel at Stowe in a bizarre incident in a visual replica of the Dutchman’s crash last week in Austria.

Ferrari pitted home hero Hamilton for fresh tyres to optimise the prospect of a last-lap shootout but the chequered flag was flown anticlimactically under safety car conditions where second place was inherited by Russell.

Lando Norris finished fourth in a good result for his and McLaren’s home race while Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar finished fifth ahead of the Racing Bulls pair of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad who took their second double points finish in as many races.

Gabriel Bortoleto provided Audi with some much-needed points with P8, as the Alpine duo of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten points scorers.

Oscar Piastri missed out on points in eleventh having pitted with front wing damage at the end of the first lap.

The two Haas cars of Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon finished twelfth and thirteenth respectively, ahead of Cadillac’s Sergio Perez in P14.

Antonelli was classified in fifteenth after his penalty was applied despite being in contention for one point in tenth.

Valterri Bottas finished sixteenth for Cadillac ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz who was handed a one lap penalty after his team wrongly instructed him to unlap himself under the safety car.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll rounded out the finishers.

Alex Albon failed to finish the race despite using the Grand Prix as another test session following a collision with Bearman on the opening lap.

Nico Hulkenberg pulled over mid-race to retire with an issue for Audi.