LONDON, United Kingdom, Jul 4 – Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli caught and passed Lewis Hamilton to win an action-packed sprint race at the British Grand Prix.
While McLaren’s Lando Norris, Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen staged a frantic place-swapping scrap in the opening laps at Silverstone, Antonelli bided his time before homing in on Hamilton at the front.
After Hamilton rebuffed a brief Antonelli attack at the start, the 19-year-old Italian let the race settle down before blasting past the Ferrari on the Hangar Straight on lap eight after strategically saving his battery charge.
Hamilton hung on bravely but could do nothing to stop Antonelli extending his championship lead still further to 43 points over Russell.
“It was a very fun first 10 laps with Lewis,” Antonelli said. “We were both pushing very hard. When I got into overtake (mode), I knew my chance was coming.
“I got a good run out of (Turn) Four. He went a bit wide and I think he used boost to defend and I just waited and then used it out of (Turn) 13, everything I had, and made the move.”
Hamilton said: “Tough race to keep the Mercedes behind, as I said it might be. And with it being so windy today, big headwind down the back straight, he came flying past. I didn’t have anything left.
“I was pushing as hard as I could to keep the gap to more than one second, but in my tow he was just closing, and once he got the overtake mode, I couldn’t get rid of him. He came flying past on the straight to Stowe.”
Hamilton nevertheless said he had been happily surprised by how close Ferrari were to Mercedes at Silverstone.
“The guys were talking about it being a 0.6-0.7secs deficit on the straights. Last race we were losing 0.4secs on the straight. I imagine it was something similar here today. It was less yesterday, but in the race it increases with deployment.”
Behind them, Norris drove an excellent race to blast up from sixth on the grid to third on the first lap, and briefly got past Antonelli for second before the Italian retook the position.
There were a few hectic laps as Norris, Russell and Verstappen swapped places before Norris managed to consolidate third place and move clear of the battle behind him.
“It was a very good race,” the world champion said. “I’m very, very happy, good start, good first lap, not the pace to go with these guys but had a good battle with George. Pleasantly surprised.
“I was fighting the car everywhere to be honest. It wasn’t a straightforward race and I knew George would be catching, like he was towards the end of the race. We’re not on a similar level to these guys (Mercedes and Ferrari) on car performance. “
Russell had briefly got up to third from fifth on the grid on the first lap, passing Verstappen around the outside of Turn Four, losing out to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the Wellington Straight and then getting both McLarens before the end of the lap.
But he then lost two places on the next two laps as first Norris and then Verstappen went past.
He said: “Lap one was great, did two great overtakes in two corners. Then I got a bit left vulnerable on the next straight and got overtaken by the McLaren. So I need to sort of understand how I managed to pull the moves off but then I lost the positions again anyway.
“P3 is where I probably should have finished. Finished up P4, one point less. Not ideal.”
Russell managed to re-pass Verstappen on lap nine before the four-time champion fell back into the clutches of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who moved past the Red Bull a lap later.
Verstappen dropped back but managed to hold off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to take sixth.
Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson held off an attack from Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in the closing laps to take the final points position.
Qualifying for Sunday’s main grand prix is at 16:00 BST on Saturday.
