Lando Norris took his maiden British Grand Prix win after a dramatic and incident-packed race at Silverstone in treacherous wet and dry conditions, including a somewhat controversial penalty for his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who had led for most of the race and finished in second.
Nico Hülkenberg took third for Sauber, a historic moment for the German, his first podium after 239 races in the sport.
Lewis Hamilton made a feisty drive to take fourth, while Max Verstappen took another severe blow to his chances of retaining his world title, finishing fifth after he spun during a safety car restart. Pierre Gasly was sixth for Alpine and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished seventh.
As rain came and went throughout, the two McLarens had looked to be in control once they had both passed Verstappen for the lead, but Piastri took a huge setback when he was given a 10-second penalty for driving erratically, hitting the breaks on the restart following a safety car.
RM Block
He was left furious at the decision which proved decisive, with Norris closing out the victory at his home race to follow his first-place finish last time out in Austria. The wins have allowed him to narrow Piastri’s lead in the drivers’ championship to just eight points.
With rain having hit the circuit all morning, the race opened on a wet track as Verstappen held his lead from the off but with Hamilton swiftly hounding Norris in third. A sudden deluge set off the chain of events leading to the crucial moment after Piastri had taken the lead from Verstappen.
Following a crash from Isack Hadjar, Piastri was investigated for driving erratically under the safety car, Verstappen believing he had slowed too drastically before the restart, and the Australian was dealt a 10-second penalty.
Verstappen, struggling on cold tyres and using a low-downforce set-up, then spun, dropping to 10th place.
Piastri and Norris now led from Stroll, who had made up a hatful of places with an early opportunistic stint on slick tyres, and Hülkenberg in fourth having also went for an early stop for new intermediates.
In the final set of stops, the drivers switching to slicks, Piastri pitted on lap 44 and served his penalty. Norris followed a lap later and emerged leading the race.
Piastri had been rapid as his tyres came up to temperature but then had an off, the Australian telling his team he was furious with the stewards’ decision, adding he believed he should be given the lead back, a request summarily rejected by McLaren.
Norris likely would have ignored any orders and, now in control, held it together to close out the final laps with assurance for a striking victory, while Hülkenberg hung on for his finest finish.
In Formula Two, Irish driver Alex Dunne recovered from a difficult sprint race to finish second in Sunday’s feature race.
An early collision during Saturday’s sprint saw the Offaly driver, racing for Rodin Motorsport, drop back to fourth in the drivers’ championship standings. However, his second-place finish on Sunday earned him 18 points to put him back into third.
As things stand, Dunne is now 14 points adrift of championship leader Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) on 122, and eight off Sunday’s race winner Jak Crawford (Dams Lucas Oil). – Guardian
