It’s not surprising to see rainy weather in England during the summer! It sure didn't work out in favour for many of the drivers. Here’s a recap of what happened during the British Grand Prix!
Hometown Hero, Lando Norris, wins today! It’s his first ever win here at Silverstone, as he drove smoothly across the flooded track. His teammate, Oscar Piastri, began in P2 with Max Verstappen sitting comfortably in pole position. Does the starting grid sound familiar to anyone? Well, it’s the same two front rowers as it was in Jeddah! If anyone watched that race, then you will know how it went down. If you didn’t, I’ll leave a link to my Jeddah debrief at the end of the post! Luckily this time around, we didn’t have as much trouble! Now, the formation lap was accompanied by the safety car, with 5 drivers pitting for slicks with the judgement of the track drying up from the previous torrential race during F3. This allowed for some empty gaps at the starting line.
🚥 Lights out, and away they went:
As the lights went out, it was a nerve-racking start for me, as off the bat, drivers were passing each other with low vision due to the water spray taking over! Our two front rowers, Oscar and Max, were committing talented overtakes, ensuring to leave each other enough room. Clearly they learnt their lesson! They swapped positions a couple of times, and in the end, Oscar held off Max and led the Grand Prix! All seemed to be going well, right? Well, as I mentioned in the intro, the rain was a large disadvantage for many of the drivers, which brought out plenty of safety cars. On lap 21, a safety car had ended, which I will get into the reasoning on why it was released later on, amongst the many more incidents that occurred. Piastri was leading the pack, with Verstappen following closely behind. Just as we expected the race to resume, suddenly, Piastri slammed on the brakes, causing Verstappen to overtake him. This was noted by race control, which resulted in a 10-second time penalty due to a safety car infringement! What do you think about this penalty, as many see it as quite harsh?
All right, so with the penalty we expect Max to be back on, leading the race? Well, not so much.. He ended up spinning on the still wet tarmac and went all the way down to P9! After a weekend full of complaining about the car, hopes were high after qualifying for him, just for them to lower again. Oscar pits on lap 43 to complete his penalty along with a change of tyres, which allows Lando to be in the lead! Piastri had continuous pace during the race, being 10 - 15 seconds ahead of the person behind him. If Oscar hadn’t received the penalty, could he have won the race due to the slim chances of Lando catching up to him? Oscar had initially suggested that they should swap Lando with him if they thought the penalty was unfair. This would allow Oscar to be back in the lead, which wouldn’t be fair for Lando due to it not being his racing error! Well, it seemed like an eventful drive for our top three race starters. Did it play out better or worse for the rest of the grid?
💥 Rookie trouble:
Oliver Bearman, the lucky rookie of the race! He was the only rookie to finish the race, despite his eventful FP3 in which he crashed at the pit entry. He was given a 10-place grid penalty, along with 4 penalty points for a red flag infringement! Is it just me, or are the penalties seeming more harsher than usual? Despite this, he finished P11, with the original starting place of P18. He also had a collision with Yuki Tsunoda, which resulted in Bearman spinning off onto the grass as he made his way back onto the track. This incident was noted by race control, with Yuki receiving a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Now onto what happened to the other 5 rookies today and their reasonings for DNF’ing.
Double DNF for the Racing Bulls, with Liam Lawson causing the release of the first VSC on lap 1 as he went onto the gravel at Aintree (turn 5). It’s said to have occurred due to Esteban Ocon clipping Liam’s rear left tyre as he tried to escape Yuki Tsunoda, who was on his left. This incident was noted, yet no penalty was given due to Ocon having no room to flee from the pending accident. Isack Hadjar sustained a crazy crash on lap 18, approaching Copse (turn 9), as he ended up in the barriers. This caused the release of a safety car that ended on lap 21. Hadjar had hit the back of Antonelli as he couldn’t see him amongst all the rain. Due to this, Kimi Antonelli had sustained damage to his diffuser, causing him to run less downforce than usual. This eventually led to his retirement from the race too. Kimi already had a 3-place grid penalty from Austria due to locking up and crashing into Max Verstappen, along with 2 penalty points! The FIA are out here handing penalties left and right!
Next was Franco Colapinto! He came straight into the pits on lap 2, stalled and got stuck in second gear. He already had to start 20th due to a new power unit installed in his car. On lap 4, Gabriel Bortolleto spun out down at Farm (turn 2) due to the slick tyres he had on. He managed to get out of the gravel, attempting to limp back into the pits when he eventually had to stop due to his rear wing flapping around, releasing carbon fibre pieces. Another VSC was released.
👑 King of the track:
Reigning king of Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton, ends his historic podium runs with 12. He had one brilliant race, finishing P4, as he began an overtaking streak! He didn’t think twice when he saw a gap, just took the opportunity. There were some times where he ran wide or complained about the car being “hard to drive, snappy like crazy”, yet other than that, all seemed to be going great! Charles Leclerc on the other hand, well, it just wasn’t his race today. He started P5 and finished P14! It seems like the gamble on slicks after the formation lap didn’t entirely work out in his favour. The slower you go, the more temperature you lose and that’s what Charles was doing due to the tarmac being a slip and slide for him. He also had some spins as he reported to have “water in his visor”. Should’ve sung “Rain rain go away” to manifest some sun and dry weather!
Another driver who gambled with the slicks was George Russell! Rain had just finished as he pitted for some fresh tyres on lap 39, despite the track level being intermediate tyres! He had a small spin off on lap 40, luckily for him, there were plenty of runoff areas otherwise, he may have joined his teammate back in the garage.
🏎️ Surprising drive:
Aston Martin was shining through today! Lance Stroll had held P3 for some laps before eventually being overtaken by drivers on fresher tyres. Still, he pulled out an impressive race, as we know he isn’t the luckiest sometimes. Fernando Alonso on the other hand, wasn’t too impressed with the strategy going on. Alonso began in P7, and ran in P10 for some time just after one pit stop! With his teammate starting P17 and running in P3 after two pit stops! The frustration is understandable, however, racing is just like that sometimes. In the end, Stroll finished 7th and Alonso 9th.
🍾 HULKKKKENBERG:
Hulkenberg smashed it out of the park today, finishing P3 after starting in P19! After 239 Grand Prix starts, he finally manages to stand loud and proud on the podium! He also won Driver of the Day, very well deserved! I hope to see him on the podium more now, hoping this gives him a confidence boost to pull out even more amazing races! I just know every F1 fan was happy to see him third!
It seemed like I was watching a rally race half the time! Thank you for reading my post! I tried out a new layout, along with some different features so I hope it helped with your reading experience. Let me know if you have any suggestions or improvements for me! What else would you like to see me write about? See you next time for the Belgian Grand Prix!
🏁 Other posts: 🏁
