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.
Kimi Antonelli was never going to win at Silverstone – that honour belonged to Charles Leclerc – 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 and George 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 in the car,’ he exclaimed, in the 41st of 52 laps.
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 again in a final and futile attempt to mend the injury, then thought to be a wheel shield out of joint or, as Antonelli feared, a wrecked suspension. He was weaving off track and so attracting a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc celebrated his first British Grand Prix triumph on Sunday afternoon
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 point 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. But Max Verstappen, then running third, a place ahead of him, lost control at Stowe and ended up facing the wrong way in front of the Landostand, the 16,000-seater haven of Norris’s fans decked out in fluorescent yellow shirts.
The Dutchman cursed his car as the gravel flew around him.
Hamilton pitted and Russell moved up to second as the late safety car came out.
Would the green light be waved and a final lap contested? It seemed it would, the screens flashing that the safety car would be withdrawn. Inexplicably, it wasn’t. What a damp squib. It was as if the driver forgot to turn in? More likely, the message didn’t reach him.
The upshot was that Russell finished second and climbed from 43 points back at the start of the afternoon to only 25 points off the top as Sir Mo Farah waved the chequered flag; Hamilton finished third and went from 47 to 32 down.
A farcical end, as boos rained down from a record 175,000 crowd, but a happier one for the home drivers than could have been imagined during a pretty dull first two-thirds of the race.
Norris took fourth for McLaren, way ahead of Antonelli, cursed on the day and now with something to think about. With his penalty 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.
George Russell benefitted from a late safety car to pip Lewis Hamilton to second place
Hamilton, however, faces a post-race investigation for a possible yellow flag infringement.
As for Leclerc, it was his first win since the American Grand Prix of 2024, 624 days before. How will his win swing moods and minds at Maranello, where Hamilton’s win 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 a wheel-spinning getaway by Antonelli. 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. Other than for his overeagerness he might have finished runner-up and not third.
There were a few highlights earlier, most notably when Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton were nose-to-tail just after the mid-point of the race. All kept it clean. Russell, who was on his way to his first podium at Silverstone, passed Verstappen for third place but then had to pull in to have a slow puncture dealt with.
This was before the late drama unfolded and Antonelli’s bad luck struck.
