It’s rare that I manage to find the time to do a race report these days, but the British Grand Prix was one that very much deserved a report of its own.
The suspicions of the paddock that Mercedes could find themselves closer to the sharp end on the smooth Silverstone surface looked to be confirmed through Friday, but Saturday saw the form book thrown out of the window as a bit of traditional English summer rain soaked the circuit.
Max Verstappen spent much of the session on top of the timesheets and seemed to have the most outright pace. However, he had numerous spins and off-track moments, including on his final lap, which allowed Carlos Sainz to grab his maiden pole position.
Charles Leclerc also had a moment on his final lap and Lewis Hamilton – who had been threatening to send his home crowd into raptures with an unlikely pole – was told to do a cool down lap at the wrong time and ended up down in fifth.
It was mostly blue skies come Sunday. But the festival atmosphere around Silverstone would suffer a blip immediately after the lights went out, as the crowd watched the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu fly into the barriers upside down before flipping over them and becoming wedged next to the armco.
Astonishingly – and thankfully – he was unharmed.
The incident had produced a chain reaction that saw Zhou, George Russell and Alexander Albon all unable to take the restart an hour or so later, thus ending the top-five finishing run of the Brit.
When the lights went out for a second time, Sainz defended hard to keep his position ahead of Verstappen. Slightly further back, Leclerc made an optimistic lunge on Sergio Pérez which saw them both sustain wing damage.
The Mexican proved to have more of an issue and was forced to pit, allowing the other two Brits – Lando Norris and Hamilton – through.
Norris had jumped his more experienced compatriot on the first lap, but Hamilton soon found his way back past and set about hunting down the top three.
A mistake from Sainz through the infamous Maggots-Becketts-Chapel complex allowed Verstappen into the lead, but just two laps later, the Red Bull was losing speed and Verstappen pitted with what he suspected to be a puncture.
His suspicions would prove to be wrong, though, damage to his floor done by a stray piece of AlphaTauri bodywork meaning he was in for a long afternoon of damage limitation.
Despite his front wing damage, Leclerc closed in on his teammate and gave Ferrari a difficult decision to make. Hamilton was the fastest man on the track behind them and Leclerc wanted to be released.
Ferrari chose to solve the situation by pitting Sainz slightly early. Leclerc’s pace did improve but Hamilton continued to close in and the second prancing horse was brought in soon after.
Hamilton remained out, continued to set impressive times whilst extending his stint and gave even the most pessimistic of his loyal fans a little hope of ending the joint-longest winless streak of his career.
Once again, the two red cars had met on the track, and this time, with Sainz unable to produced the requested lap times, he was asked to move aside by the team.
After pitting on lap 33, Hamilton began closing in with a considerable tyre advantage, but – yet again – a Safety Car was to be unkind to him.
It would be no kinder to the equally unfortunate Leclerc.
As Esteban Ocon ground to a halt on the former pit straight, Ferrari were given a decision to make once again.
They chose – somewhat astonishingly – to pit Sainz but leave Leclerc out. Hamilton followed suit, as did Pérez, who benefitted most from a free pit stop after having recovered to fourth.
The race got back underway with 10 laps remaining and Leclerc was left with an unenviable task of defending on worn, hard tyres against a string of fast cars equipped with brand new softs.
He survived barely a few corners before Sainz was past. Behind them, Pérez also passed Hamilton as the Mercedes took longer to heat up its tyres.
What followed was some of the best battling in years.
As Sainz scampered away into the distance, Leclerc defended for all he was worth.
He went through Stowe wheel-to-wheel with Pérez, the fight continued into the final chicane and then as they both ran wide – to quote an excitable David Croft – “through goes Hamilton!”
Pérez dived back in front of the Mercedes a couple of corners later, though, forcing Hamilton wide and also allowing Leclerc back through.
Hamilton tried around the outside of Luffield but had to get off the power and nearly allowed fifth-placed Fernando Alonso a chance to get involved.
Two laps later, car number 44 tried the same move at Luffield, this time getting ahead.
Leclerc wasn’t done, though, stayed in the slipstream and pulled off a quite astonishing move around the outside of Copse, despite his worn tyres.
Hamilton did ultimately claim the place later in the lap, but Leclerc would at least manage to hold onto fourth ahead of the chasing Alonso and Norris.
Out front, there were no such worries for his teammate. Sainz took the chequered flag to become the first driver to claim his maiden pole and win on the same weekend in over a decade.
The win came at the 150th attempt.
Pérez followed him home in second, perhaps fortunate to escape without a penalty for either forcing Hamilton off the road or cutting the chicane during his battle with Leclerc.
Hamilton may not have made it a record-breaking nine wins at one circuit, but he did break a similar record thanks to a 13th podium around Silverstone.
Leclerc’s fourth place saw him slightly close the gap to Verstappen in the standings, but it remains at 43 points, with the championship leader hanging onto seventh after some sturdy defence against Mick Schumacher in the final laps. Nonetheless, finally some points for the young German.
Civil war at Ferrari?
Reportedly, some of the Ferrari team members – seemingly those on Leclerc’s side of the garage – refused to join in the team celebrations for Sainz’s maiden victory.
Whilst this is never a good look for a team, their frustration is somewhat understandable after yet another tough weekend for their driver.
The swing in the championship battle – if there even still is one – has been astonishing.
Since his win in Australia, things have just not stopped going wrong for Leclerc.
He made his only mistake whilst chasing down the Red Bulls in Imola, a late spin demoting him from third to sixth. But since then, he has been blameless as his campaign has fallen apart.
An engine failure from a dominant lead in Spain. A horrible strategy dropping him from the lead to fourth at his home grand prix. Another engine failure from the lead in Baku which then forced him to start from the back in Canada after taking a new power unit. And now another strategy shocker that again turned first into fourth.
Mattia Binotto has dismissed accusations that they are bottling this championship despite having at least the joint-fastest car, saying “our objective is to be competitive, not to win the championship”.
That is simply not the attitude of a winner.
Ferrari should be fighting for both titles this year, plain and simple. And if they harbour any ambitions of doing so, they must turn around their operational issues rapidly.
Especially with a Technical Directive coming into effect from France that could hurt them – along with Red Bull – and Mercedes threatening to join the fight at the front. The Silver Arrows will remember well just how good their Italian opponents are at dropping the ball in a title fight from 2017 and 2018.
Answering the Burning Questions
Whose updates will make the biggest impact? Mercedes certainly appeared to have moved forward the most, but it could have just been the specifics of the track.
Can Ferrari and Charles Leclerc do something to reignite the title battle? Nearly…
Will Mercedes be more competitive on a track which should suit them? Very much so.
