Charles Leclerc took his first win of 2026 at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix after a chaotic race at Silverstone ended behind the Safety Car in a bizarre turn of events.
The Ferrari driver finally ended his struggles under F1’s latest era, on Sunday. Trouble for his rivals behind meant the Monegasque was able to keep his eyes set on the chequered flag, bagging 25 points at the storied Silverstone circuit.
George Russell clawed his way back from fourth on the grid to slot in behind the Ferrari driver. Despite a tricky afternoon, with gearbox issues and a slow puncture, the Briton capitalised on his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s woes to bag his maiden podium at Silverstone.
Hamilton rounded off the top three making it a staggering 16 appearances on a British GP podium.
How the race unfolded
Antonelli suffered a sluggish start off the line, picking up wheel spin as he shifted into second gear.
This allowed Leclerc to push himself into the lead, with his team-mate Hamilton following the Monegasque past through the Mercedes driver.
The lights out melee caught Piastri unawares, who took damage to his front-wing, pitting on lap 3 to get a brand-new one bolted on.
By Lap 4, Antonelli had pulled a two seconds gap to team-mate Russell, in third, now making a strong bid to regain his lead. But first, he had the SF-26 of Hamilton to chase.
On Lap 8, however, Hamilton who had been put under investigation for a false start, was finally handed a five-second time penalty. Antonelli had also now served three consecutive laps with overtake enabled against the Ferrari driver.
Further down the pack, Verstappen had recovered against team-mate, Hadjar, now in the top five and on the tail of Russell to break the Mercedes-Ferrari hegemony.
Russell had started developing gearbox issues, nine laps into the race, with the Briton coming onto the team radio comms to complain about “odd downshifts”.
Antonelli finally made a move stick, down the inside at Copse, on Hamilton on Lap 11. But by this time, however, Leclerc had stretched his legs on the chasing pack, with a comfortable 4.2 seconds lead over the Italian and his team-mate.
Verstappen came onto his team radio to complain about his downshifts as well, much like Russell, but despite the issues, kept closing the gap down to within a second on the Mercedes driver on Lap 13, for fourth place.
Meanwhile, the sister RB22 of Hadjar was facing an onslaught from the defending F1 champion, Norris in seventh but the Briton wasn’t able to force his way through the Frenchman.
While one Mercedes overtook down the inside at Copse, the other got overtaken around the outside. Russell finally relinquished fourth place to Verstappen on Lap 17 but not for long as the Dutchman dove into the pits to shift onto the white-walled Hard tyres at the end of the lap.
Antonelli had, by this time, extended his lead over Hamilton to over four seconds, and was a further four seconds off the race-leader Leclerc.
Norris’ breakthrough came on Lap 20, as Hadjar made his pitstop. But a slow stop, and an adamant Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto meant the Red Bull driver lost any meaningful advantage he had made to keep track position after an attempted undercut on the McLaren driver.
Hamilton was called into the pits on Lap 24, despite his protests that his tyres still felt good. Russell followed his former Mercedes team-mate into the pit lane, and jumped him on the exit as the Ferrari driver served his five-second penalty. On the road, Verstappen was also able to jump his erstwhile championship contender.
Leclerc made his pit stop on the following lap, with Antonelli assuming the race lead.
Halfway through the 52-lap race, Mercedes were leading the event, with Leclerc in second, followed by Norris, who was yet to pit, Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton.
Hamilton recovers after false start gaffe
Despite the false start penalty at the start, Hamilton was informed on his team radio that he was still fighting for the podium, and fighting he was.
By Lap 30, Hamilton had rocked up to the battling duo of Russell and Verstappen. And despite a titanic scrap with Russell through Copse and Maggots, couldn’t get past the Mercedes as Russell took P4 back into Stowe.
Meanwhile Leclerc had closed the gap to Antonelli to 14 seconds by Lap 33 making a handy four second buffer for when the Italian would finally pit.
Russell was informed of a slow puncture by his race engineer, but the Briton was too engrossed in his fight with Hamilton and Verstappen to pit. he was advised to comply, and Russell finally made his way into the pit lane for a new set of tyres on Lap 35.
This put Hamilton right on the tail of Verstappen for the final podium place. And while this duo scrapped, Antonelli finally pitted, coming out P2 on the road – with a 10 lap tyre offset to Leclerc and a seven-and-a-half seconds deficit to chase to the chequered flag.
Hamilton made his move on Verstappen on Lap 38 with a tyre offset on his side, and barged into P3. Meanwhile Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi spluttered to a stop inside Copse, calling out the VSC and prompting Verstappen to turn his strategy into a two-stopper with a fresh set of Mediums.
Late-race heartbreak for championship leader Antonelli
Antonelli’s tyre offset had started paying dividends for the Italian. Five laps into his stint, Antonelli had cut his gap to the Monegasque to within five seconds. But then disaster struck for the Italian as he came onto his radio: “Something’s broken in the car!”.
And just like that, a maiden British GP win evaporated. After pitting, Antonelli realised he had a broken left-front wheel shield on Lap 43 as he slotted in behind Russell and lost further ground to Norris and Hadjar, slipping into seventh.
Antonelli was asked to pit again to eject the errant wheel shield, with the Italian now fighting for the final championship point in 10th with eigth laps to go.
The 19-year-old’s woes continued. But he insisted on the team radio to fight for the final point. But his moments off the track, wrestling with the car eventually earned him a five-second penalty for track limits on Lap 47.
Verstappen spins, as Safety Car chaos costs Antonelli hard
Another spanner in the works was thrown as Verstappen went off the track, after a snap of oversteer into Stowe, and beached his RB22, calling out the Safety Car on the following lap. The Dutchman wasn’t happy, as he ranted on the radio: “F*** this car.”
The leading Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Hamilton opted to pit for the red-walled Soft tyres, but as Leclerc retained his lead, Russell, in third, did not pit, jumping Hamilton for second.
Confusion broke out after the Safety Car was scheduled to come into the pits giving one racing lap for the fans in attendance but instead Bernd Mayländer continued to lead the pack on the final lap.
Leclerc won his first Grand Prix of 2026 behind the Safety Car, lifting him to fourth in the drivers’ standings. Russell took the chequered flag in second, closing his gap to Antonelli in the standings to 27 points. The podium was rounded off by Hamilton.
As the cars trundled onto the main straight line astern, Antonelli dropped to 15th after the five-second penalty was applied to his race time.
READ MORE – F1 2026 British Grand Prix – Race Results
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