It was a promise flashed up on the screens at Silverstone and TV boxes all around the world. ‘Safety car in at the end of this lap.’
That pledge guaranteed a final 3.66-mile fling around the old airfield before Sir Mo Farah waved the chequered flag on proceedings.
Or so we wrongly thought.
Instead, the safety car remained out all the way to the finish as the race ended in an anaesthetised procession. Hats off to Charles Leclerc, the deserving winner, no doubt, but boos rumbled out from thousands of larynxes among the record crowd of 175,000. There was to be no bread and circuses for the masses.
The first thing to note, as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished second and third when late luck helped them immeasurably in events unrelated to the safety shenanigans, is that this was a massive anti-climax.
All the more so when the official word from the FIA message was that racing would resume. A spokesman for the governing body blamed a ‘software’ issue, saying their ‘automated system’ displayed the information ‘erroneously’.
In fact, keeping the safety car out was correct according to the sporting regulations. The obstruction, in this case Max Verstappen’s Red Bull that ran through the gravel at Stowe 41 laps into the day’s 52, had to be cleared.
Then, as procedure dictates, a message goes out that lapped cars can unlap themselves, essentially going through the leading pack. The safety car stays out for one more lap. Only now can racing restart.
Charles Leclerc won a dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone as Kimi Antonelli struggled
Antonelli lost second place – and the points that come with it – after pitting twice
The rule was observed meticulously, albeit confused by the message that curiously hit the screens.
This belts and braces approach was tightened after the debacle of Abu Dhabi in 2021, when Hamilton missed out on an eighth world title after the safety car was withdrawn early by then race director Michael Masi.
Hamilton was asked about yesterday’s controversy. He batted the query away. He could hardly complain, despite being shod on fresh soft tyres for the possibility of a restart and the potential it would offer to overtake. He had been jumped by Verstappen on new rubber in the desert on that night of infamy, and he was trying the trick in reverse this time. Talk of the boot being on the other foot.
So, he did not criticise officialdom here – how could he? – even if a last circumnavigation of the track might have yielded runners-up place rather than the bottom step of the podium.
He need not be too downcast, though, given the events of a few laps earlier.
For just as it looked like a day to forget for the Brits, a high-pitched squeal of panic broke on the radio of the world championship leader.
George Russell benefitted from a late safety car to pip Lewis Hamilton to second place
Kimi Antonelli was never going to win here but he was handily set in second spot and accumulating more points than his title rivals.
Of his only two relevant pursuers, Hamilton was a place below him at this stage and Russell two further back. The mathematics made pleasant reading for the Italian.
But he had just run over the kerb on the exit of Stowe and, it seemed, damaged his Mercedes as he bumped along. He was suddenly slow. ‘Something is broken ,’ he exclaimed, 11 laps from the end.
His race engineer Peter Bonnington asked for more info. ‘I don’t know,’ replied Antonelli. He was called in and fitted a new front wing. Out he went again. More SOS messages came from the cockpit.
He pitted once more in a final and futile attempt to mend his debilitating machinery, then thought to be a wheel shield out of joint, or, as Antonelli feared, a wrecked suspension. He was weaving off the road and so attracted a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
All this was delight for Hamilton and Russell. They were running third and fourth at the time. Antonelli was second and applying his foot to their jugular, extending his points advantage by stealth. Not now.
A further twist really fell Russell’s way. He had not been in the contest, never a match for his Silver Arrows team-mate Antonelli. This was when Verstappen, ended up facing the wrong way in front of the Landostand, the 16,000-seater haven of Lando Norris’s fans decked out in fluorescent yellow shirts.
Cue the contentious safety car.
Hamilton pitted for his fresh tyres – a Ferrari mistake as it turned out, surrendering track position to Russell, who rose to second.
The upshot was that Russell climbed from 43 points adrift at the start of the afternoon to only 25 points off the top at the conclusion. Hamilton trimmed his deficit from 47 to 32.
Norris took fourth for McLaren, way ahead of Antonelli, cursed on the day and now with something to think about. With his punishment applied, the 19-year-old finished 16th. He has failed to score in two of the last three races. His lead once stood at 66.
Hamilton, meanwhile, survived a stewards’ inquiry into a yellow-flag transgression for failing to slow after Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi pulled up. A reprimand sufficed.
As for Leclerc, it was his first win since the US Grand Prix of 2024. How will his victory swing moods and minds at Maranello, where Hamilton’s triumph in Barcelona last month went down well, his ‘new’ team warming to him.
The Monegasque was impeccable, very cleanly away from second on the grid, capitalising on Antonelli’s wheelspin. Hamilton also passed the Mercedes from third, but he had jumped the start. His wheels turned a quarter of their circumference as he dropped the clutch a fraction early. He paused. But he was still hit with a five-second penalty.
The race was a slow-burner but not without a few highlights, notably when Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton went nose-to-tail. All kept it clean. Russell, on his way to his first podium at his home track, passed Verstappen for third place before pulling in with a slow puncture.
This was before the late drama unfolded and the jeers echoed.
