On 13 May 1950, Silverstone hosted the first ever race in the then newly introduced Formula 1 World Championship, and it has again been the venue for this year’s British Grand Prix and the Sprint event. In front of a record-breaking crowd, the largest ever for a Formula 1 round, it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who emerged on top after the thrilling main encounter, with Mercedes’ young Kimi Antonelli having won the previous day’s Sprint race.

Unlike Monaco or even Austria a week ago, Silverstone is a fast, high-speed circuit with limited heavy braking opportunities to charge up the cars’ onboard batteries, creating a challenge for drivers in the 2026 cars and forcing them to brake at times in places where they normally wouldn’t just to generate electricity. It’s not F1 at its best, but it is what it is until the new regulations are further improved, and the best drivers will still rise to the top despite the artificiality of some of what they currently have to do.

With it being a Sprint weekend, there was only a single practice session on Friday, and Mercedes’ Drivers’ Championship leader, the teenage Antonelli, topped the timing screens for much of the hour before Lewis Hamilton thrilled the predominantly British crowd by usurping the Italian who is less than half his age. Leclerc and George Russell were the best of the rest, showing that Ferrari and Mercedes were clearly the fastest teams and the ones the rest had to try to catch and beat.

It’s great to be quickest in practice, but it all became far more important when the qualifying hour for Saturday’s 17-lap Sprint race followed later on Friday afternoon. The SQ1 element simply provided further embarrassment for the nearby-based Aston Martin outfit, its team principal and managing technical partner, Adrian Newey, and its power unit supplier, Honda, as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were, as in Austria, the slowest two cars on the circuit and eliminated, circulating noticeably slower than even Cadillac. At the other end of the grid Hamilton edged out Antonelli by a mere 0.011s to claim pole position, with Red Bull’s Verstappen and Ferrari’s Leclerc just to their rear and Russell only fifth, almost half a second slower than his Mercedes teammate.

An immaculately presented, sunny Silverstone with a capacity crowd was a perfect setting for the Sprint and there was plenty of action throughout the field as the race progressed. By lap three Hamilton and Antonelli were edging clear of the other 20 drivers, and the gap gradually increased as the duo fought for the lead. The key moment of the encounter occurred on the eighth tour when Antonelli swept past Hamilton on Hangar Straight and then remained comfortably ahead until the chequered flag, with McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had started sixth, taking a well-earned third-place finish. Such was the entertainment provided by the Sprint that it bode well for the following day’s Grand Prix.

Qualifying for the main event followed later on Saturday, and Antonelli, who so reminds me of a young Ayrton Senna, produced the goods yet again as he dominantly claimed pole position, with Leclerc set to join him on the front row ahead of Hamilton and Russell. So, Antonelli again easily outpaced his Mercedes teammate, and again the pair of Aston Martins were predictably the slowest of all. The lack of a British driver on the front row muted the home crowd a little, but at least there was widespread appreciation of the sheer quality of what had just been seen, and thankfully there was no booing of foreign drivers, which we have sadly on occasions witnessed from some British fans in previous years at the home of British motorsport.

The sun doesn’t always shine on Grand Prix day at Silverstone, as I well know from personal experience over the years, but it certainly did this time round, and the atmosphere was highly expectant as the three pm start time neared. The RAF’s Red Arrows display team usually puts on a superb display shortly before the race starts, but on this occasion they were absent, performing across the Atlantic on a tour of the United States.

When those famous red lights went out to signal the beginning of the Grand Prix, poleman Antonelli suffered from excessive wheelspin, and this enabled Leclerc and Hamilton to quickly get the better of him. Soon this trio was edging clear of the rest of the field, and the news came through that Hamilton had made a false start, moving slightly forwards before the red lights had gone out and earning himself a five-second penalty. As the race settled, Antonelli swept past Hamilton at Copse to take second place behind Leclerc, who was enjoying a four-second lead.

As the opening pit stops started, Mercedes kept Antonelli on the track, and the decision left him in the lead, yet to stop. To the rear of Antonelli and Leclerc, we witnessed some brilliant duelling between Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton before Russell was forced to pit again due to a slow rear puncture. Antonelli then made his delayed stop on lap 36 and rejoined the circuit seven seconds behind the leading Leclerc, but on fresher tyres. However, this gap soon started to be reduced by the Italian teenager, and a second victory of the weekend looked highly likely until disaster struck on lap 41 as he was forced to slow and pit again due to a damaged wheel shield caused by hitting the kerbs at Copse.

This left Leclerc and Hamilton out front for Ferrari ahead of Verstappen, but there was more drama when the latter flew off the track into the Stowe gravel trap and out of the race. A Safety Car deployment was required while the stricken Red Bull was removed to a safe place, and Ferrari opted to pit both of its drivers again for fresh rubber, whereas Mercedes chose to leave Russell out, and this strategy moved him ahead of Hamilton into second position. There was a hope to go racing for at least one final lap, but, to the crowd’s clear frustration, this proved not to be possible due to a software error, and so the Grand Prix ended behind the Safety Car, with Leclerc, Russell and Hamilton occupying the podium positions. However, it had become apparent before the chequered flag that Hamilton was to face a post-race investigation, this time for a possible yellow flag infringement, but he survived it and was merely given a reprimand by the stewards rather than any time penalty, which would have dropped him significantly down the finishing order due to the field being so tightly spaced behind the Safety Car.

A frustrated Antonelli left Silverstone still leading the Drivers’ Championship rankings but with a reduced advantage over Russell, and on the constructors' front, Mercedes still maintained a healthy advantage. Next on this year’s Formula 1 calendar comes the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit, where the Belgian Grand Prix will take place in a fortnight’s time. Like Silverstone, it’s one of my favourite F1 venues, and the drivers all love the challenges it presents, just as they also so enjoyed high-speed Silverstone this weekend.



2026 Formula 1 British Grand Prix
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1hr27m11.335s
2 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.427s
3 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.772s
4 Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.149s
5 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.598s
6 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +2.023s
7 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +2.214s
8 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +2.413s
9 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +3.229s
10 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +3.445s
11 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +4.014s
12 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +4.391s
13 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +5.245s
14 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +5.512s
15 Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) +7.403s
16 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +8.005s
17 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +8.162s
18 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) Lapped
19 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Lapped
20 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) Retired
21 Alex Albon (Williams) Retired
22 Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) Retired

2026 Formula 1 British Sprint Race
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 26m12.129s
2 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +2.745s
3 Lando Norris (McLaren) +9.783s
4 George Russell (Mercedes) +10.639s
5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +12.620s
6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +16.550s
7 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +17.551s
8 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +30.233s
9 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +30.953s
10 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +35.110s
11 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +40.273s
12 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +41.026s
13 Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) +41.680s
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +42.499s
15 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +45.784s
16 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +49.810s
17 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +50.379s
18 Alex Albon (Williams) +50.757s
19 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +1m15.117s
20 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1m31.872s
21 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Lapped
22 Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) Lapped



2026 Drivers’ Championship
1 Kimi Antonelli 179
2 George Russell 154
3 Lewis Hamilton 147

2026 Constructors’ Championship
1 Mercedes 333
2 Ferrari 255
3 McLaren 179