Lewis Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix this afternoon after a late move on Charles Leclerc.
The young Ferrari driver led every lap from the restart only to lose out to the Mercedes on Lap 50.
Leclerc crossed the line in second, followed by the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in third.
Further afield at the chequered flag was the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in fourth and fifth, followed by the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in sixth.
Closing out the top ten this afternoon was the Alpine of Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine, and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda from P7-10 respectively.
Highlights
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen crashed at Copse on the first Lap summoning a red flag. The Dutchman and Hamilton collided, sending the Red Bull into the barriers at fierce speed.
Verstappen waved to fans as he got out of the car, and headed to the hospital for checks after reportedly being severely winded, battered and bruised by the 50G impact.
In the midst of the incident, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc managed to take the lead meaning he would be in P1 when racing resumed this afternoon.
At 3:42 pm drivers returned to the track with Leclerc in first, Hamilton in second, followed by his teammate Bottas in third with the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo next down the order.
After the standing start, Charles Leclerc got away well and safely led the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel then spun off the track, after battling Fernando Alonso and losing control of his Aston Martin – dropping him down to 6th.
The Ferrari was leading by 1.6s on lap 6 of 52, meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was handed a hefty 10s penalty for the Lap 1 collision with Max Verstappen.
Meanwhile, the hopes of points for the Red Bull team were now in the hands of Sergio Perez who by Lap 10 was back in 12th on hard tyres 20s off the pace of the leading Ferrari, who was still successful holding off Hamilton.
Lap 15 saw the gap between Leclerc in first and Hamilton in second be minimised by around half a second after the Ferrari had a brief engine issue – the Mercedes was now just 1.1s behind.
By the end of Lap 20, Raikkonen, Russell, Vettel, Ocon, and Latifi had all pitted, opting for the hard Pirellis, as Leclerc clocked the fastest lap and was 1.4s in the clear ahead of Hamilton.
Hamilton was yet to pit and serve his 10s penalty on Lap 25, with the gap between his W12 and the lead up to 2.5s, meanwhile, Carlos Sainz was in third followed by Bottas in fourth and Norris in 5th.
Hamilton opted to finally pit on Lap 28 from second, and after serving his penalty the world champion returned on hard Pirellis back in 5th – losing positions to Bottas and Norris.
Leclerc and Tsunoda were the only drivers left to pit while the Ferrari’s lead remained at 26.2s ahead of Bottas – he pitted on Lap 30, and after a 2.6s stop for a set of hard tyres, he returned 6.9s in the lead.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was gaining ground behind Lando Norris, and managed to land the overtake at Copse on Lap 31 – demoting the McLaren to 4th and out of the podium places.
Lewis Hamilton was getting closer to Valtteri Bottas, whose lead over him for second place was down under three seconds with 15 laps to go.
Sergio Perez had been stuck in a DRS train for a lot of today’s race and was behind Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in a battle for seventh. However, after pitting on Lap 39 he fell all the way down in 17th for a fresh set of medium tyres.
With 11 Laps to go, Hamilton complained to his team that he was being affected by dirty air, and so Bottas was ordered to allow his teammate by at Turn 15 for second place.
Lap 42 then saw the Aston Martin team retire Sebastian Vettel’s car – he was well out of the points at this stage as a result of an earlier spin – but this marked his first DNF since 2013.
With just six laps to go in today’s Grand Prix Charles Leclerc was leading Lewis Hamilton by 3.1 seconds, with the Mercedes getting closer to nabbing the victory from the Monegasque driver.
On Lap 50, Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes into the lead and held this position to cross the line with 3.8s to spare ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in second and Valtteri Bottas closing out the podium places.
After leading the race from the restart, Leclerc lost the top spot to Hamilton when he made his move at Copse on Lap 50 after fighting back from 5th following a 10-second penalty this afternoon.
Joining the British driver on the podium will be Charles Leclerc in second, and Valtteri Bottas taking the final step.
Further afield at the chequered flag was the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in fourth and fifth, followed by the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in sixth.
Closing out the top ten this afternoon was the Alpine of Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine, and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda from P7-10 respectively.
