A sight not long seen, two Mercedeses on the front row, made an interesting promise for the race, with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez having to come through the field. The latter opted to start from the pit lane after spinning out of yesterday’s qualifying. Pierre Gasly’s is over before it has started, as he was called into the pits at the end of the formation lap with a gearbox issue.
When the lights go out it is a great start by the top five. Lando Norris to overtake Lewis Hamilton around the outside in Village, but this means he sacrifies his exit. This gives Max Verstappen the opportunity to pass Norris around the outside in The Loop. Leclerc immediately shot to eighth place, whereas both Nico Hülkenberg and Alexander Albon lost some places.
As the race settles Verstappen drops out of DRS range of Hamilton, who in turn tries to stay close to Russell. Further back Logan Sargeant notices that the car of teammate Albon has lost a significant piece of bodywork. Replay shows the Thai hit Fernando Alonso at the start, which also explains his loss of places.
Leclerc tries to make up some of his poor qualifying, and attacks Lance Stroll for seventh in Stowe, but fails to make the move stick. This in turn means that Hülkenberg can quite easily follow the squabbling duo.
Further back it is Daniel Ricciardo who overtakes Zhou Guanyu on Wellington Straight, as behind them Kevin Magnussen overtakes Esteban Ocon. Both overtakees are trying to keep the soft tyres alive until the predicted rain comes, but until now it seems not the best strategy, as especially Zhou is tumbling down the order.
At the front of the field it is the Mercedes duo that is controlling the race, with Hamilton keeping a little gap to Russell, but both slowly increasing the gap to Verstappen and the McLarens. Behind them Carlos Sainz and Stroll have to let the front-runners go.
Zhou’s tactic on the soft tyres does not work at all, as he stops for mediums in lap 13, meaning he will probably have one pit stop more than the rest, as the rain comes later on. At the end of the lap Leclerc finally passes Stroll into Stowe, putting him in seventh.
Norris in the meantime is closing the gap to Verstappen, as the first raindrops are seen on the lenses of the camera’s. At the end of Hangar Straight Norris reinstates the All-British top 3, passing Verstappen on the inside.
Magnussen is working on his resumé as he passes Ricciardo around the outside in Luffield, as Verstappen comes under threat from Oscar Piastri. The Dutchman complains about understeer and at again is passed into Stowe.
The rain now has arrived, and immediately Hamilton is all over his teammate. He shows why he is a seven-time World Champion as he passes Russell into Stowe. Both leave the track at the first turn, giving Norris the possibility to pass Russell, as Piastri also leaves track. DRS is disabled, and everyone is tip-toeing through the first sector as well as though Maggots & Becketts.
Norris catches up with Hamilton and overtakes him into Abbey. Piastri overtakes Russell in the loop, as both Leclerc and Pérez pit for inters. Norris goes off at Maggot, but keeps the lead. Piastri goes over the grass on Hangar Straight to overtake Hamilton, as both Verstappen and Sainz catch up a bit to the leaders again.
Once the rain has stopped, Verstappen immediately loses time again to the front-runners, but isn’t under immediate threat from former teammate Sainz. Magnussen overtakes Sargeant for twelfth, as Pérez is lapped on his inters, which are clearly the wrong tyre at the moment. Leclerc is also lapped, right as the rain is starting again.
Sainz is now on Verstappen’s gearbox, but with DRS now disabled again it is a lot harder to pass, which is amplified by the Spaniard making a tiny mistake into Brooklands.
Up front Piastri is putting the pressure on teammate Norris, as Verstappen is the first to enter the pits, together with Sainz. Both switch to the intermediates, followed by more of the drivers. Norris and both Mercedes-drivers stop, putting Piastri in first. The double-stack gives Verstappen the edge over Russell. Piastry stops a lap later, but is already almost cought by Norris, meaning he lost a whole pit stop by staying out a lap.
This means Norris leads from Hamilton and Verstappen, with Piastri having dropped back to sixth. Verstappen slowly but surely loses the connection to Hamilton, who lets his engineer know that there is no more rain, let alone it lasting for another six laps.
There is still some wet tarmac around Hangar Straight and Stowe, giving the intermediates some cooling, but it is clear that a switch back to slicks is imminent.
Suddenly Russell is told to retire the car, giving a break to Verstappen. According to the team there is a “suspected water system issue”, which is a tough pill to swallow for the pole sitter. In the meantime Magnussen demonstrates it is still wet as he almost spins coming out of Stowe, but he can keep the car on the tarmac.
Leader Norris is losing time to Hamilton, as an over three second lead is reduced to about two seconds, as everyone is holding out until it is dry enough for slicks. Behind both Brits Verstappen is currently gaining quickly, with just 15 laps to go.
A dry line is forming as Hamilton and Verstappen are the first ones of the leading pack to stop, together with Piastri. The Dutchman switches to hards, as Hamilton goes to softs and Piastri to mediums. Norris stops a lap later for softs, and with a slow stop he is overtaken by Hamilton to the delight of the British public.
With DRS being enabled again, and just ten laps to go, there is a fight for the lead coming. Verstappen is the fastest of the top 3, trying to exploit the longevity of the hard tyres over the pace of the soft tyres.
At seven laps to go Verstappen is just 1.5 seconds behind Norris, hunting down the young Briton for second place, as Hamilton slowly creeps away. Piastri shows in the meantime that the medium tyre would have been the better option for Norris, as the young Ozzy can match Verstappen’s pace.
With five laps to go the Dutchman is in the DRS-range of Norris, and at the end of the lap Verstappen breezes past the McLaren driver. The gap to Hamilton is 3.3 seconds, meaning the reigning champion needs about a second per lap to reel in his former nemesis.
Some backmarkers are in the way, but the gap is still just 2.8 seconds with two laps to go. Sainz pits for an attempt for the fastest lap, as with one lap to go the gap is over 2.5 seconds between Hamilton and Verstappen.
But as Brian May waves the chequered flag it is Sir Lewis Hamilton who grabs a record-breaking ninth win in Silverstone! Verstappen comes home second after a relentless stint, from the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri and Carlos Sainz. Hülkenberg grabs some good points for Haas in sixth place, as Stroll again beats Alonso from Albon and Tsunoda.
