Kimi Antonelli showed that he is the driver to beat this weekend as he takes victory in the British Grand Prix sprint race.
Antonelli had a good launch off the line as the race started, looking to challenge Hamilton for the lead as the pair headed towards turn 1, but Hamilton was able to keep it pinned around the outside and was able to stay ahead.
Two drivers who did not get a good start were Verstappen and Leclerc, who together occupied the second row of the grid, and together fell down the order as their cars bogged down off the line.
Antonelli looked to be under pressure following Luffield corner on the first lap, as the McLaren of Lando Norris was able to overtake him up to second place along the old pit straight, and then Piastri briefly looked to be putting pressure on him following Copse. However, it seemed that Antonelli was managing his battery, as he would quickly retake second place following Maggotts & Becketts.
As the first lap was coming to a close, Russell was on his way to try and gain some positions for himself, first overtaking Piastri around the outside of Stowe, before then taking 3rd from Norris just one corner later.
Norris would go on to retake Russell just one lap later, doing so at the same place he had briefly overtaken Antonelli, but this time he was safe from being immediately re-overtaken.
Russell would then fall back further heading towards the start of lap 3, as Verstappen looked to recover from his poor start and climb back into 4th. Russell would then briefly drop to 6th place after being overtaken by Piastri, but would regain 5th by the end of the lap, the extreme level of battery management causing some yo-yo racing.
Antonelli had been biding his time behind Hamilton, ensuring that the Ferrari wasn’t getting too far away, but wasn’t close enough to overtake in the opening laps.
This would change on lap 8, as Antonelli would force Hamilton into a defensive use of his battery heading down the Wellington Straight, where the Brit was initially able to stay ahead, but the Mercedes driver behind was able to save more battery as the pair headed into the Hangar Straight, and Antonelli was able to take the lead with very little resistance.
The Mercedes’ advantage in battery management was in full display once again on lap 9, as Russell was able to fly past Verstappen in a very similar move to Antonelli’s just one lap prior, taking himself up to 4th place.
Hamilton had been able to initially stay within one second of Antonelli to see if he could try anything to regain the lead, but Antonelli proved to be too fast as he created a gap of more than 2 seconds by the end of the race, with it never feeling in doubt as to who would win after the 19-year-old took the lead.
