Charles Leclerc wins his first race in under two years as Antonelli loses significant ground in the World Driver’s Championship.
It was a poor start from pole at the start of the race from Kimi Antonelli, who fell from 1st to 3rd by the time they reached turn 1, allowing both Ferrari cars to get ahead of him.
There was a bit of contact later on in lap 1 heading into Brooklands, as Alex Albon had locked up into the corner and caused Bearman to spin, though both were able to get going quickly once again so no safety car was brought out.
Oscar Piastri had seemed to pick up some front wing damage during the first lap, and would have to come into the pits to replace it, dropping him to last place.
It quickly became clear that there were 3 drivers in the running for the lead at the start of the race, with Hamilton staying within one second of Leclerc and and Antonelli within one second of Hamilton.
Leclerc would soon pull ahead of that one second gap, which would leave Hamilton vulnerable to an overtake from Antonelli, but the seven time world champion would have more immediate problems as he was given a five second penalty for moving before the race start, having had a very minor jump before the lights went out.
Antonelli was stuck behind Hamilton for longer than he had been during yesterday’s sprint, Ferrari possibly learning how better to deploy its energy, but the overtake would eventually come on lap 11 as the pair headed into Copse corner. While Hamilton was able to initially stick within that one second gap to maintain boost mode, that would only be short lived.
Despite having now gotten into the clean air, Antonelli would struggle to make any inroads on Leclerc in the lead, all the while Hamilton was still falling behind and slowly coming closer to Russell and Verstappen behind, who were battling each other.
Verstappen would eventually bring himself up to 4th place on lap 17, and while Russell would fail to re-overtake with a move around Stowe, he would regain the position quickly as Verstappen would make a pitstop at the end of the lap.
There was a bizarre Virtual Safety Car that was brought out on lap 22, as an umbrella had managed to find itself on the circuit, though it was quickly retrieved and racing could resume.
Hamilton would come in to the pits at the end of lap 23, frustrated about the fact that he thought his medium tyres were still good. Russell would follow him into the pit lane, and due to Hamilton’s 5 second penalty, he would manage to just about make the overtake, though Verstappen would be able to jump both of them and climb up to 3rd.
Following the pit stops, Russell and Hamilton were quickly gaining on Verstappen, having younger tyres than the Red Bull driver ahead. Hamilton didn’t want to be the second one passing Verstappen though, so tried to make an overtake on lap 29 heading into Copse. While he was initially successful, Russell would re-overtake on the exit of Chapel.
The battle would continue into the coming laps, with a similar situation taking place on lap 31 with Russell retaining the position after Hamilton initially made an overtake.
Russell would be hit with some misfortune though, as he was told that he had a slow puncture and had to pit, though his pace was still looking strong and almost overtook Verstappen at Stowe just before pitting.
Antonelli would eventually come into the pits on lap 35, and would be over 7 seconds behind Leclerc after coming out of the pits, an almighty gap to close even with a significant tyre offset.
Despite this, the new tyres on Antonelli were providing so much pace for the championship leader, gaining by more than a second per lap. All the while this was happening, Hamilton finally found an opportunity to attack Verstappen, and would climb back up to third after a move at Brooklands.
Another Virtual Safety Car would come out on lap 38 after Hulkenberg would have to retire on the inside of Copse. After being overtaken, this would give Verstappen a perfect opportunity to pit a second time onto new medium tyres, allowing him the opportunity to hunt for 3rd place once more towards the end of the race.
Leclerc would have a miracle befall him on lap 41, as Antonelli, who continued to gain at an almighty pace, had suddenly began to slow. He initially came into the pits, and though he had come back out, the issues were continuing, and he was losing more and more positions as he carried on.
Antonelli would pit a third time as Mercedes identified the issue as a problem with the wheel shield, and would come back out in 10th place after coming back out of the pits. The car still looked to be awful to drive, suggesting that the problems were more fundamental to the car.
While Antonelli would try to continue as he was still in the points, he would eventually be under investigation for track limits due to off the off tracks he had, gaining a 5 second penalty and effectively dropping out of the top 10.
There was another twist in this explosive conclusion to the race as Verstappen would spin and get trapped on the gravel at Stowe. This brought out a safety car and gifting Antonelli a position on track, though bunching the field together and effectively dropping him back out of the points.
Russell would bring himself up to 2nd place during the safety car, deciding to not pit while Hamilton had, gambling on the fact that the race would not resume.
That gamble would go on to pay off, though it did seem that race control initially indicated that we would get one more lap of racing, before the safety car would then continue onto the final lap.
This meant that the drivers would continue in formation onto the chequered flag, and that Charles Leclerc would win his first race since the 2024 United States Grand Prix, with Russell behind in 2nd and Hamilton 3rd.
Antonelli dropping out of the points means that the gap between him and Russell is now down to 43 points, with Hamilton 4 points further adrift in 3rd place.
The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix, which will take place in two weeks time on Sunday, July 19, in the penultimate race before the summer break.
