Kimi Antonelli returned to winning ways on Saturday by denying Lewis Hamilton a crowd-pleasing home victory in the sprint race ahead of the British Grand Prix. Hamilton started on pole and held off Antonelli until lap eight of 17, when the Italian swept past with the help of electrical power. “Let´s go! Let´s go!” Antonelli told the team over the radio after taking the win.
“It was a very fun first 10 laps with Lewis, we were both pushing very hard,” Antonelli added later. “Obviously the momentum is there and we are doing a great job together with the team.” Hamilton was back fighting for a win again after a breakthrough victory last month at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, his first since moving to Ferrari last year.
“I was pushing as hard as I could, I gave it absolutely everything,” Hamilton said. “We´ve got a bit of work to do to try and close that gap.” Lando Norris took third in McLaren´s white-and-green throwback livery after briefly running second at the start and then winning a thrilling back-and-forth battle with George Russell and Max Verstappen for third.
Antonelli’s first win since last month’s Monaco Grand Prix stretched his Formula 1 standings lead to 43 points over teammate Russell, who was fourth after starting fifth. Russell had been complaining of a “strange” lack of pace in qualifying the day before, a setback after his win at the Austrian Grand Prix last week had boosted the British driver’s title chances. Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari, Verstappen sixth for Red Bull, with McLaren´s Oscar Piastri seventh and Liam Lawson eighth for Racing Bulls after edging out Verstappen´s teammate Isack Hadjar. Qualifying is later Saturday for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.