Lando Norris finally gets his dream home race win as Nico Hülkenberg  gets his first podium after 239 races! 

Pre-race 

With incoming rain and water sitting out on track, Race directors decided to start the Formation Lap under Safety Car. 

Once the Formation Lap was completed and the Safety Car returned to the pits, George Russell and Charles Leclerc were the first drivers to head to the pits for the Intermediate tyres.  

Lights-out 

As the lights went out, Max Verstappen had a strong start which saw the Dutch driver defending against Oscar Piastri as they went into Turn 1. 

However, drama occurred further down the pack as Yuki Tsunoda squeezed into the outside of Esteban Ocon while Liam Lawson had pushed into the outside of the Haas. The three went into Turn 5 which saw Ocon and Lawson collide, which ended Lawson’s race early as he spun off track, which deployed the Virtual Safety Car. 

Lawson showed his frustrations over the radio; however, he wasn’t aware of the pressure Tsunoda had put on the Haas: 

“Who the hell was that? I’m out. Who the hell was that?! Whoever the Haas was next to me, Dude, he just drove straight into me!” 

Lap 4 

Gabriel Bortoleto went through Turn 2 as he spun on track which saw him lightly colliding with the barriers.  

Bortoleto rejoined the race as he continued it before, stopping on the side of the track, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car again.  

Lap 8 

Lap 8 saw Piastri chase Verstappen for the Race Leader position, but the battle was short and sweet as Piastri made his way around Verstappen as he claimed the race lead. 

Lap 11 

The rain started to fall heavily out on track, which saw drivers and teams starting to make plans on what to do. Verstappen quick to share his opinions surrounding the rain on his radio:  

“If it really starts to hit hard, we need to box. I have really bad inters.” 

The condition of Verstappen’s inters showed as he went wide as Norris claimed P2. 

Piastri, Norris and Verstappen all pitted for new intermediate tyres, however, Norris had a slow stop which saw Verstappen claiming the P2 position back.  

Lap 13 and 14 

On Lap 13, Charles Leclerc experienced the worst of the rain as he went off track going into Turn 12 due to his issues with visibility. This saw him going over the grass and gravel before rejoining the race as he quickly shared his concerns over the radio: 

“There’s water that came into my visor, I couldn’t see anything, like a huge splash of water.” 

On Lap 14, the visibility and the rain worsened, which saw the Safety Car being deployed before the Safety Car ended on Lap 17. 

Lap 18 

Isack Hadjar experienced the worst of the rain as he hit the back of Kimi Antonelli’s car going through Turn 9 due to not being able to see the Mercedes. Hadjar spun off track as he went into the barrier which deployed the Safety Car once more.

 Hadjar quick to report about the incident on the radio: 

“I didn’t see him. I mean, he appeared out of nowhere, man. Oh my god.” 

Lap 21 

As the Safety Car ended, Piastri made a quick step on the breaks which saw Verstappen fly past the Australian:  

“Woah, Mate. ****, he suddenly just slows down!” – Verstappen 

This stunt from Piastri was quickly noted by Race Control before it was quickly put under investigation. 

Moments later however, Verstappen spun out on track going into Turn 16 which saw Verstappen dropping down to P9. The disappointment continued as Carlos Sainz quickly overtook the Red Bull to claim P9. 

The investigation for the Piastri incident was quick as the Australian was handed a ten-second time penalty for a Safety Car infringement.  

Lap 30 

As the rain started to die down, Lewis Hamilton made his move on Pierre Gasly to move up into P5. 

Lap 35 

Lance Stroll’s dream of a podium finish was cut short as Nico Hülkenberg  picked up DRS on the Canadian driver to claim P3! 

Stroll’s was faced with further disappointment as Hamilton breezed past Stroll for P4.  

In the midst of the battle, Mercedes made the call to retire Antonelli’s car due to the damage from Hadjar. George Russell was left out on track and asked what Merecedes plans were for him: 

“Depends how brave you want me to be, we’re sitting P7.” – Russell 

“Brave but not suicidal, we’ll wait and see.” 

Moments later, Russell spun out on track before he continued: 

“It’s much wetter than before.” – Russell 

Lap 44  

Lap 44 saw Piastri being brought into the pits to serve his penalty before putting on a set of fresh mediums. He rejoined the race in P2 behind Norris. 

Further down the pack, the two Haas’ went side by side into Turn 6 as they touched wheels before they spun off track in sync. They both rejoined the race and continued on. 

Lap 45  

Piastri wasn’t happy with the penalty he was given, even after serving it, his frustrations were shared over the radio: 

“I don’t think the penalty from before was fair, if you don’t think it was fair I think we should swap back.” 

Lap 52 

Lando Norris crossed the finish line to win at his home race for the first time in his Formula One career!  Norris was followed closely behind by teammate, Oscar Piastri, in P2. 

It took over 239 races, around 15 years and 14 seasons in Formula one for Nico Hülkenberg  to get onto the podium. 

Post-race 

Hülkenberg was met with celebrations, especially by his teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto, over the radio: 

“Nico, it’s Gabi, Man. You don’t know how happy I am for you. You are a f*****g legend, honestly. Absolutely insane what you did today.” – Bortoleto 

“Thank you, buddy. Thank you very much, appreciate that from you.” – Hülkenberg 

Support for the Kick Sauber F1 team was shown throughout the paddock. The team had no champagne for celebrations in their inventory, and teams were quick to send champagne their way. 

Especially Mercedes as they brought a bag filled with champagne with the message: “Congratulations on the first podium – your Mercedes team”  

Norris was given his own praise with his excitement over the win being shared in an interview: 

“Lando Norris is a winner at the British Grand Prix, does it sound good?” – Sky Sports Interviewer 

“It does, it’s been incredible. I think tomorrow morning will be the best realisation when I wake up. But this is incredible, I never knew how to picture it before, but you want to win here more than any other place in the world but then you always have to go out and do it.  It was a tough race, a lot of obstacles, you know as I said, it’s as British as you can get here in Silverstone. It’s enjoyable challenging, therefore more rewarding.” – Norris 

However, the other side of the McLaren garage was feeling disappointed: 

“Why did you ask at the end for the position back, did you want to fight in another way with your teammate?” – Sky Sports Interviewer 

“Maybe I feel like I didn’t deserve the penalty, and thought I would at least ask because I felt like I deserved to be in the lead of the race, not saying I deserved to win it but I felt like at that point I had done everything I needed to do, I asked, I wasn’t expecting much but I thought I’d at least ask.” – Piastri 

Up next: Belgian Grand Prix is up next from the 25^th of July to the 27^th! This race weekend will see the return of the Sprint Race. Until then, it is now a three-week break.