Maybe the only uncontroversial aspect to the finish of the 2026 British Grand Prix was the race’s winner, Charles Leclerc.
On lap 48 of 52, Max Verstappen spun out from third place and beached his Red Bull in Stowe corner.
During the ensuring safety car, most drivers chose to pit. George Russell elected to stay out and took second place away from Lewis Hamilton after inching ahead of his former Mercedes teammate when he was exiting the pits.
Russell was gambling on the race not restarting, while Hamilton was gambling the opposite. Which call would prevail was anyone’s guess.
Halfway through the second-to-last lap, a directive was given by race control saying the safety car would be in on that lap. But the safety car was then deployed again by race control eight seconds later.
From there, nothing changed. The safety car stayed out until the Grand Prix’s final seconds and the race didn’t restart. Leclerc won, Russell finished second and Hamilton came home third in an anticlimactic final lap.
“Unfortunately, the end was maybe not the one I’d of dreamed of,” Leclerc said after the race.
“At the end, with the safety car, it would have been great for the fans if the race had restarted,” Russell said. “But my side, my tires were kind of stone cold, so I was kind of glad to just bring it home in second.”
The FIA later issued a statement to the media clarifying what happened:
“The Safety Car period regulation, Article B5. 13.5, states that one lap must be completed following the unlapping procedure. This process was followed by Race Operations. The “Safety Car In This Lap” message was displayed erroneously due to a software error.”
Lando Norris was able to come home fourth in his first home race since winning the championship. Isack Hadjar finished fifth after a quiet day among the leaders.
Liam Lawson took the checkered flag sixth, with teammate Arvid Linblad in seventh, closing the gap Racing Bulls had to Alpine in the Constructors championship by just a point. Gabriel Bortoleto finished eighth and tripled Audi’s total points on the season.
Leclerc and Hamilton skirted past pole sitter Kimi Antonelli on the start. And although Antonelli was able to get by Hamilton to take second, he could only close up to within two-and-a-half seconds of Leclerc prior to their only scheduled pit stop.
Antonelli went long and created a 10-lap offset between himself and Leclerc tire-wise, and was gaining almost a second and a half each lap after coming out just seven seconds behind. But the championship leader ran over a curb at Copse corner on lap 42 in just a way that hurt his left wheel shield, ruining the aerodynamics and requiring a pair of pit stops before Mercedes were able to fix the issue.
Antonelli’s struggles led him off track, eliciting a five-second time penalty for breaching track limits. He was able to come out in tenth and just ahead of both Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly, then made the call to try and rally his way to tenth and a point.
The Italian was able to build a three-second gap on Colapinto when the safety car came out, ruining any chance he had to take a point on the day. He was ultimately classified in 16th, as Colapinto finished ninth and Gasly in tenth.
Oscar Piastri also had to rally during most of the race after sustaining damage on the start and having to pit on lap two. He ultimately finished 11th.
Next up on the Formula 1 calendar is a week off. The field will head to the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix on July 19.
Michael has watched NASCAR for over 25 years and has covered it on-and-off for 14.
In addition to Frontstretch he also writes sporadically for his own websites GrandPrixFocus.com and StockCarFocus.com.
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