Kimi Antonelli started Sunday’s British Grand Prix from pole position at Silverstone, arriving off his first career Sprint win with the whole grid chasing him into Lights Out. But Charke LeClerc and Lewis Hamilton passed Antonelli moments after the start.
Antonelli cut into the Ferrari’s lead, however, taking to to 3.3 seconds by lap 22 and the cars faced the prospect of a pit stop.
Hamilton took a pit stop in lap 24 when he was assessed a five-second penalty for jumping the lights at the start of the race.
An umbrella flew onto the track from the stands in lap 22, leading to a brief appearance by a safety car.
“Leclerc leads from Antonelli and Norris. Those three have yet to pit. Verstappen is next ahead of Russell and Hamilton. Lawso is ahead of Hadjar, Racing Bulls have yet to pit either car,” the official F1 report stated after lap 26.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri suffered some kind of damage going around the first turn in lap 6 and dropped to the Botton of the leaderboard. Even his team was not sure how Piastri damaged the front wing of his vehicle. At the same time, Hamilton held second place but was hit with a five second penalty for moving before the lights.
This article will update with live leaderboard changes, pit stop strategy and full results as the 52-lap race unfolds at one of Formula 1’s fastest and most historic circuits.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap | Stops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Leader | â |
| 2 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +3.259 | â |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +10.156 | 1 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | +15.014 | 1 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +22.589 | â |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | +29.283 | 1 |
| 7 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +40.341 | â |
| 8 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | +44.246 | â |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull Racing | +43.228 | 1 |
| 10 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | +47.008 | â |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +53.399 | â |
| 12 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | +75.568 | 1 |
| 13 | Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | +74.430 | â |
| 14 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | +78.734 | 1 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | +80.095 | 1 |
| 16 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +85.395 | 1 |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | +88.399 | â |
| 18 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | +94.474 | 1 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | +1 Lap | 1 |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +1 Lap | 1 |
| 21 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +1 Lap | 1 |
| 22 | Alexander Albon | Williams | +1 Lap | 2 |
Kimi Antonelli’s Path to Pole at Silverstone
Antonelli’s weekend began with a statement. He claimed his maiden Sprint victory Saturday, chasing down Lewis Hamilton for lap after lap before finally surging past on the Hangar Straight and pulling clear for good. Hamilton crossed the line 2.745 seconds behind, with Lando Norris rounding out the Sprint podium ahead of a hard-charging George Russell.
He backed it up hours later in qualifying, going quickest across every session and eventually landing his fifth pole of the season, beating Leclerc by just over a tenth of a second. Russell crashed early in Q1 at Luffield, clawed his way back out of the gravel trap for a new front wing, and still ended up shuffled to fourth by both Ferraris.
“A bit stressed because I never like going first for the last run,” Antonelli said of his nerve-wracking final qualifying lap, as quoted by Sky Sports’ James Galloway. “It was very tricky with the wind because it was very gusty and unpredictable. But we built our way through qualifying.”
Sky Sports pundit Jenson Button struggled to explain the rookie’s composure under pressure.
“It feels like nothing fazes him. That’s what I don’t understand,” Button said, crediting Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and race engineer Peter Bonnington for Antonelli’s steady development this season.
Elsewhere in the Sprint, Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg both faced stewards’ scrutiny for separate late incidents, while Sergio Perez picked up a time penalty after collecting Fernando Alonso and triggering a brief caution period.
Championship Stakes and Weather Ahead of the British Grand Prix
Antonelli’s points lead now sits 43 clear of second-place George Russell, his own Mercedes teammate, with Hamilton and Lando Norris still mathematically alive but fading in the title picture. A Silverstone victory would only widen that gap heading into the summer stretch of the calendar.
Ferrari has other ideas. Leclerc and Hamilton line up second and third on the grid, and both drivers signaled Saturday that teamwork, not lone-wolf pace, may be their best shot at unseating the Mercedes rookie. Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull split the Silver Arrows in fifth, ahead of Norris and Oscar Piastri’s struggling McLarens, while Arvid Lindblad qualified ninth on his home Grand Prix debut for Racing Bulls.
Race day brings dry, sunny conditions across Silverstone, with temperatures reaching the mid-20s Celsius, track surface temperatures pushing into the low 40s and gusty winds expected to complicate the high-speed Maggotts and Becketts sequence. There is no rain in the forecast, removing the wildcard that produced a chaotic, podium-shuffling race here a year ago.
With tire management and clean starts likely to decide the outcome on a hot, dry track, the 52-lap British Grand Prix begins at 3 p.m. local time. Follow along here for live scoring, position changes and the final leaderboard as Antonelli looks to convert Saturday’s dominance into a full home-soil sweep on Sunday.
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