McLaren Go 1-2 At Home, Hulkenberg Claims Maiden F1 Podium In A Silverstone Classic

After a 17 year wait, McLaren has won its home race once again and it did it with an English driver, as was the case the last time: in 2008, first past the chequered flag was Lewis Hamilton and today it was Lando Norris’ turn. The cherry on the cake for the team was Oscar Piastri’s second place, taking McLaren’s tally of one-two finishes to 54, the fifth this season. Today’s win was Norris’ eighth in Formula 1.

In his 239th Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg finished third to finally record his very first podium finish. It’s the longest any driver has ever had to wait to get to the podium. This was Sauber’s 11th podium in the sport, leaving out the period when it was in partnership with BMW. The previous time dates back to the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, courtesy of a third place for Kamui Kobayashi.

“English Weather” – there are so many meteorological cliches about the British Isles, such as “if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes,” or “four seasons in one day” and today Silverstone delivered a perfect example of that, with intermittent drizzle, light rain, overcast skies, sunny periods, heavy rain and fluctuating temperatures. The way today’s Grand Prix panned out was very much down to the “English Weather”, with alternating wet and dry conditions creating the scenarios for four of the five types of Pirelli tyre to come into play on track, the only exception being the Extreme Wet.

All the drivers were on Intermediates for the formation lap, but before the actual start, five drivers, Leclerc, Russell, Bearman, Hadjar and Bortoleto, decided to pit for slicks: the Monegasque, the Frenchman and the Brazilian opted for Mediums and the two English drivers went with Hards. Colapinto was also meant to start from pit lane on the hardest compound, but he had to retire immediately with a power unit problem. With rain due to arrive soon, but on a drying track, Stroll (Soft), Antonelli (Hard) and Bortoleto (Medium) also switched to slicks, but the rain came earlier than expected and those who had chosen to stick with the Intermediates had the advantage, apart from Aston Martin’s Canadian driver, who made the most of the grip from the softest compound, albeit for just four laps.

The Intermediate did most of the work in the middle part of the race. The green-banded tyres worked well over very long stints, many of them well over half the race distance. Their pace was good, even when the track began to dry out, at least on the racing line. Towards the end, the conditions were right for slicks, with the Medium and Soft compounds performing best.

Lando Norris – P1

“It was hard to imagine what this would be like – but it’s everything I dreamed of, everything I’ve ever wanted to achieve. Aside from winning a Championship, I think this is as good as it gets in terms of feelings, in terms of achievement. It was an incredible race, but the support of the fans made the difference today. The last few laps, I was looking into the crowd, trying to take it all in and enjoy the moment. Shout out to my grandstand in the corner. They were amazing. They cheered me on every lap, and it was really a beautiful thing.

“As for the race itself, it was about as stressful as they can get. It’s a long 52 laps, you never knew what was going to happen, especially when it was raining earlier. But the team made good decisions, we pitted at the right times and got an amazing result. Thank you to the team for their incredible work – these are memories I’ll have forever.”

Oscar Piastri – P2

“Today didn’t end how I wanted it to for me but well done to the team on a really successful day. A 1-2 at our home Grand Prix is brilliant and it’s a great chunk of points for us. Whilst it was a frustrating one for me with the penalty, we had a rocket ship of a car, so thank you to the team for all their work which meant we could pull such a gap over the rest of the field. I’ll use the frustration of today to fuel us further at the next weekend, but for now, we can reflect on a great weekend for McLaren.”

Nico Hulkenberg – P3

“I am ecstatic — this is such a special day for the team and for me personally. That first podium feeling… I cannot put it into words. It was such an intense race with changing conditions all the time, and you always feel like you are right on the edge.

“We made the right calls today, especially stopping later for slicks — that decision was crucial and made all the difference. The battle with Lewis in the final stint was really intense. He was closing the gap, but I managed to keep him behind and even pull away a little as the tyres came in. I think if it had been a dry race, the day would have looked very different for us, but we made the most of the conditions and took every opportunity.

“Starting from last on the grid and finishing on the podium honestly feels kind of surreal. It’s going to take a few days, a few moments, to process everything and take it all in. It’s been a great team effort from start to finish, and I am really proud of what we achieved together. Now, we have two weeks to enjoy this and celebrate properly before we get back to work – and finish the first half of the season on a high.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“It’s hard to imagine a better way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Formula 1 than the weekend we have just witnessed. I reckon the half a million people who came to Silverstone over the four days had a great time, despite today’s rain not making life easy for the spectators! Yesterday’s qualifying was unpredictable and so too was today’s race. Congratulations to McLaren for the one-two and to Nico Hulkenberg for his very first Formula 1 podium. It was unexpected but totally well deserved!

“For our part, on the technical front, just as happened here last year, four of the five types of tyre available came into play. It’s a shame we didn’t see the Extreme Wet in action, because it would have been interesting to gauge its performance level compared to the Intermediate, the compound that really shone today, proving to be competitive when there was a lot of standing water on track, as well as when the track was drying in the final stages of the race. Obviously, there was graining and significant wear, both down to the track conditions, but the drivers were able to control tyre use based on how the race unfolded.

“Our work at Silverstone is not yet over. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will back on track, working with Sauber and Aston Martin in a development test session for the 2026 tyres. Gabriel Bortoleto will be behind the wheel for the Swiss team on both days, while Lance Stroll and Felipe Drugovich will share driving duties for the team based just a stone’s throw from the circuit.

FORMULA 2

Jak Crawford was on dazzling form to take the rain-affected Feature Race win. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver took the lead at the start from third on the grid, fending off Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne in the closing stages to take the victory. In third place was Luke Browning (Hitech TGR) after an amazing climb up the order from twelfth. Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport), seventh today, still leads the Drivers’ standings on 122 points, but his lead over Crawford has dropped to six. Dunne is also closing in, now third on 108 points.

FORMULA 3

Mari Boya (Campos Racing) took his maiden Formula 3 win, controlling the race from the front despite torrential rain, which meant the race had to be red flagged. The Spaniard crossed the line ahead of Théophile Nael, second for Van Amersfoort Racing, and Noel Léon, third for PREMA Racing.

The three drivers at the top of the standings all failed to score points in the Feature Race. Only Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing) added to his tally thanks to the two points for pole position. The Bulgarian is third on 91, two fewer than Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport). Rafael Camara (Trident) still leads on 120 points.