Charles Leclerc paints Silverstone red, delivers 250th victory for Ferrari

Charles Leclerc took victory in the British Grand Prix, which finished under Safety Car conditions. Behind the Ferrari driver, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton came home in second and third respectively. For Leclerc, it marks his first win of the season, while for Scuderia Ferrari it is victory number 250.

The initial strategy planned by most teams was a one-stop, but two neutralisations in the closing stages forced all drivers to make at least two pit stops. The entire grid started on C2 before switching to the Hard compound.

Most of the front-runners opted to fit the Soft for the final stint. Russell, however, had already switched from Hard to Medium during his second stop and therefore chose to prioritise track position, bringing the race to a close on the yellow-marked tyre.

As the race ended behind the Safety Car, the drivers who had chosen the C3 were unable to fully exploit its performance potential.

Kimi Antonelli completed the highest number of laps on the Medium, covering 35 laps on the C2, while Oscar Piastri recorded the longest stint on the Hard with 34 laps. The greatest number of laps on the Soft, 12, was completed by Alexander Albon.

Despite finishing outside the points, Antonelli retains the lead in the Drivers’ Championship with 179 points. The Italian is ahead of his team-mate, now on 154, while Lewis Hamilton occupies third place with 147 points.

Charles Leclerc – P1

“I’m really proud of the work we have done as a team to get back on the top step of the podium. Coming to Silverstone, we didn’t expect to be this competitive. We were much faster and closer to our competitors than we thought, and just as we analyse our data on challenging weekends, we also have to analyse our data on a strong weekend like this, to understand what really made that difference.

We made some changes on my car between Saturday morning to the afternoon, and I got back the feeling I had been missing. This was confirmed in the race today and it just feels really good to take this win home for the team, after a tough few weekends. Thank you to the whole team at the track and back home in Italy for their hard work and dedication. Let’s try to stay on this path to keep bringing home results like this together.”

George Russell – P2

“It’s always special to stand on the podium at Silverstone, and after a few years where luck hasn’t really been on my side at my home race, it’s nice to finally get a result to celebrate in front of these fans. It is always one of the most special races on the calendar for me. The support here is incredible, the fans are so passionate, and racing in front of a home crowd is something I’ll never take for granted. I’m grateful for all their support and delighted we could at least give them a podium to celebrate.

It was a race with a whole range of emotions today. At times we were unlucky, and in the end, we got a little bit lucky as well. The Safety Car played in our favour because everyone behind me had fitted fresh tyres. Had we gone racing again, I probably would have lost at least one position, so I’m glad it finished under the Safety Car and allowed us to bring home P2.

It wasn’t a particularly strong weekend from our side. I’ve been trying to understand for a while why I’m struggling, and although today felt slightly better, there are still a lot of things we can improve. I could feel the slow puncture developing during the race and lost around five or six PSI over a lap and a half, which made the car feel increasingly unbalanced. Putting that aside though, there’s still work for us to do to understand where we’re missing performance. We will analyse all the data before we head to Spa so we can come back stronger.”

Lewis Hamilton – P3

“Congratulations to the team, and congratulations to Charles, who did a fantastic job today. Of course, I wish we’d been able to secure a one-two finish for the team, but it’s still a really positive result and another important step in the right direction. We’ll take the positives from this weekend and keep pushing hard in the races to come.”

Dario Marrafuschi – Pirelli Motorsport Director

All teams converged today on a single strategy, the same one our simulations had identified as the quickest. Up until the first Virtual Safety Car, therefore, the Grand Prix did not show significant variation from this perspective, aside from the timing of the switch from Medium to Hard.

The early pit stops by some drivers were also influenced by the level of tyre degradation, which in the opening phase of the race proved higher than observed in previous days, partly due to the higher temperatures recorded on Sunday.

With the first neutralisation, some attempted to take advantage of increased grip by fitting a new set of C2. However, it was the final Safety Car that not only introduced the widespread use of the softest compound, the C3, but also determined the order of the podium finishers.

George Russell was able to secure second place having already made his second pit stop due to debris, while the two Ferrari drivers stopped to fit Soft tyres, anticipating a restart that ultimately did not take place.

Pirelli’s commitment at Silverstone does not end today. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will return to the track, with the support of Mercedes and Williams, for two further days of development testing aimed at defining the construction of next season’s slick tyres.

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Written by

Jarrod Partridge

Jarrod Partridge is the Co-Founder of F1 Chronicle and an FIA accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following Formula 1. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered F1 races at circuits around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every race report, driver profile, and technical analysis he writes.

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