The drivers lined up on the starting grid for the second time this weekend after the sprint race on Saturday determined the starting positions for the drivers. Max Verstappen was on pole position for the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2021, but an opening lap collision with his championship rival put him out of the race. Lewis Hamilton was able to take the race victory in front of him home crowd, despite a penalty, greatly reducing the gap in the World Drivers’ Championship.
Lewis Hamilton had a better start than Max Verstappen and was able to get alongside the Red Bull down the main straight and into the first corner. Verstappen stayed out ahead. Hamilton tried to make a move stick around the outside of the Brooklands, but wasn’t able gain the position. Hamilton made a wide entry into Luffield so that he could get the faster corner exit.
With the slipstream down the straight, Hamilton was gaining on the leading Red Bull. Verstappen moved to the right side of the corner so that he could cover off the inside of Copse. Hamilton moved even further right, positioning himself between the wall and Verstappen. Hamilton took a wide line into the fast Copse corner and the two collided. Verstappen crashed hard into the outside barrier.
The race was red flagged to clean up the shattered Red Bull and repair the tyre barrier. The incident caught the attention of the stewards, with both sides trying to make their case to support their drivers. The stewards eventually decided on a 10 second time penalty for Lewis Hamilton.
The race resumed with a standing restart with Charles Leclerc on pole position. The leading pair got away well and Leclerc was able to maintain his race lead. Lando Norris was able to get by Valtteri Bottas on the restart and Daniel Ricciardo tried to so the same, but Bottas was able to hold him off.
Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were battling side-by-side, as they had done during the sprint race yesterday afternoon. Alonso was on the outside of Vettel in Luffield. Vettel was slightly too aggressive on the throttle at the exit of the corner, spinning off the circuit and dropping to the rear of the field.
Meanwhile, at the front of the field, Leclerc had built a significant gap over Hamilton behind. On lap 15, the engine on Leclerc’s Ferrari cut out momentarily, allowing Hamilton to close within DRS range of the race leader. The Ferrari pit wall relayed some settings to Leclerc over the team radio, which seemed to rectify the problem.
Ricciardo was the first of the top 5 drivers to pit at the top of the pit window for hard tyres on lap 21. His teammate Lando Norris pitted the following lap, but his stop was slow due to some issues getting the right-rear tyre secured on the car. Mercedes responded by calling Bottas into the pit lane, hoping to benefit from McLaren’s mistake. He had a clean stop and rejoined the race narrowly ahead of Norris.
Leclerc’s engine gremlins returned and the team continued feeding him engine settings and instructions to manage the issue and prevent damage to the car.
On lap 28, Hamilton pitted for tyres, also serving his 10 second penalty. He rejoined the race behind Norris, but comfortably ahead of the cars behind. Carlos Sainz was the next to pit, suffering through a very long stop due to an issue tightening the left-front tyre. Leclerc pitted the following lap. His stop was cleaner than his teammate’s and he rejoined the race with a comfortable 7 second lead over Bottas.
Shortly after his stop, Hamilton was able to zoom past Norris and up to P3. About 10 laps after that, he found himself in the dirty air of Bottas. On lap 40, Bottas was given the team order to perform a swap in turn 15, which he complied with, giving Hamilton P2.
Hamilton began chasing down Leclerc and was able to catch up with just a few laps remaining. Similar to the first lap, he made a move on the inside of Copse. This time, it was a cleaner move and he was able to get by Leclerc and into the race lead as the Ferrari ran slightly wide.
With the race victory, Hamilton reduces Verstappen’s championship from 33 to just 8 points. The Brit could have earned 26 points in front of his home crowd, but Sergio Perez was able to secure the fastest lap of the race. Charles Leclerc scored his first podium finish since this race last season and Valtteri Bottas stood on the bottom step of the podium.
Next up on the calendar is the Hungarian Grand Prix on the weekend of August 1.
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| DNF | ||
| DNF |
