Formula One - British Grand Prix - Nico Hulkenberg takes the headlines regardless of a McLaren 1-2

Stormy Silverstone throws chaos amongst the pack as a 239 race legend finally takes his first podium!

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

QUALIFYING

Qualifying one, as normal, began smoothly with drivers setting benchmark times to get a safe lap on the board. At the middle stage of qualifying one Oscar Piastri was leading the way ahead of Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and George Russell. With eight minutes to go Franco Colapinto had an off at the final corner which spewed gravel all over the track and caused the first red flag of the qualifying sessions.

Out in Q1: Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll, Hulkenberg, Colapinto

Early in qualifying two Verstappen and Piastri set identical lap times to lead the field before Norris bested both of them to get to the top of the timing board. At the midway stage it was still Norris fastest ahead of Verstappen, Piastri, Alonso and Carlos Sainz.

Out in Q2: Sainz, Tsunoda, Hadjar, Albon, Ocon

The track was now undoubtedly completely dry as qualifying three began and with the rubber laid from qualifying one and two, the track was in a very good condition for the pole shootout. At the midway point Piastri led the way ahead of teammate Norris as the first lap times in the one minute and twenty-four second range were achieved. At the end of the final qualifying session Verstappen managed to beat the field by a tenth of a second to take pole position on a lap that he later admitted he had not been pushing all the way through as he had seen his delta and knew he was on pole already.

Top 10: Verstappen, Piastri, Norris, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Antonelli, Bearman, Alonso, Gasly

Photo: Clive Rose

RACE

Before the race began there had been hours of rain at Silverstone and the race was expected to start in wet conditions. The entire grid had intermediate tyres on for the start of the formation lap although, as the grid wound around Silverstone to start the race it was noticeably drying around the majority of the track. Some drivers and teams made the call to come into the pitlane at the end of the formation lap, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Isack Hadjar, Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto all came into the pitlane to put on an array of dry tyres, however, rain was expected by lap fifteen.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

As the race got under way Verstappen held his lead for the first lap, in the midfield there was an off-track moment for Liam Lawson on the exit of the loop, contact with Esteban Ocon who had Yuki Tsunoda on his inside forced the Racing Bulls driver off track and into an early retirement. Colapinto was also an early retirement, the Argentine’s Alpine never came back out of the pitlane when the race got started after suffering a mechanical failure. 

On lap two Andrea Kimi Antonelli boxed for hard tires, an interesting call considering the slick conditions, surely softs would have been a better call. Gabriel Bortoleto spun and hit the wall in turn two, the rookie driver on slick tires simply unable to keep the car on track, he suffered major rear wing damage but got the car moving again before having to pull over on the exit of Copse to retire. On lap seven the virtual safety car for Bortoleto’s retirement ended and the rain was palpably close, a shot over the track into the distance showed a wall of rain moving in. 

On lap eight Russell went fastest in sector two and into Stowe corner Piastri finally got past Verstappen for the lead of the race. On the next lap Piastri had gapped Verstappen by three seconds already, showing insane pace from the Australian who was seeking to widen his lead in the World Drivers Championship. At the end of this lap Nico Hulkenberg and Antonelli both pitted for new intermediate tyres, sensing that the rain was imminent. 

DRS was disabled alongside low grip conditions being confirmed by the FIA on lap eleven and suddenly, coming down the Wellington Straight towards Brooklands the heavens had opened, and opened heavily. The rain was so hard it was shortening the visibility without any spray from the tires. Later in the lap Verstappen went off track at Chapel which allowed Norris to get ahead of him for second on track. The pitlane came to life at the end of lap eleven, with the top three all making their way down a soaked pitlane for new intermediate tyres, a slow stop for Norris saw him come out behind Verstappen after his earlier overtake.

Photo: Glenn Dunbar

Come lap thirteen, the rain was falling like I have never seen it before and on lap fourteen the safety car was called due to extremely poor visibility that was an active danger for the drivers, and this was the last thing that Piastri wanted to see as the safety car would wipe out the fifteen second gap he had built on Verstappen. When the green flag waved again the field didn’t make it to the end of sector two before the cameras cut to Hadjar backwards in the barrier at Copse Corner. The Racing Bulls rookie had run into the back of Antonelli in the extremely low visibility conditions and was forced to retire from the race with extreme damage. This collision caused another safety car, during which we saw the extreme damage to Antonelli’s diffuser which had been effectively cut in half by Hadjar’s front wing.

On the safety car restart Piastri almost caused a multi-car pileup by braking halfway down the Hangar Straight, Verstappen was straight on the radio to Red Bull who appealed to the FIA to review the incident. Unfortunately for Verstappen, and for Red Bull the defending world champion spun on the exit of Stowe corner before the race restarted which dropped him from second to tenth. On lap twenty-three Antonelli was finally forced into retirement from the race after trying to struggle through his severe damage.

Photo: Zak Mauger

On lap twenty four there was an incredible lineup in third, fourth and fifth of Stroll, Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly, possibly the least expected drivers to be occupying those positions based on previous form in this season. Also on this lap Piastri was given a ten second penalty for his braking under the safety car restart procedure, and then on lap thirty-four DRS was enabled again with slick tyres now being looked at by multiple teams but no-one thought the track was ready quite yet while Hulkenberg moved into third place.

On lap thirty-eight Russell pitted for hard tyres, again the entire F1 world collectively thought ‘why?’, with Russell immediately proving us right on lap forty when he had a 720 degree spin through the Maggots and Becketts complex due to the extreme lap of grip. Lewis Hamilton, Stroll, Verstappen, Gasly, Sainz and Bearman all pit for slicks on lap forty-one with Hulkenberg following them in on lap forty-two, he managed to come out of the pitlane with a five second gap to Hamilton with just ten laps to go.

On lap forty-three and forty-four Piastri and Norris pitted, due to Piastri’s ten second penalty Norris jumped him coming out of the pitlane and into the lead of the race. On lap forty-six Hulkenberg momentarily set the fastest lap of the race before it was taken by someone further down the order. 

Photo: Sam Bagnall

With just three laps to go Hulkenberg’s gap was 6.4 seconds to Hamilton, surely a comfortable gap for Hulkenberg to bring home the first podium of his F1 career. On the final lap Verstappen took fifth place in a decent recovery drive by the reigning champion, Norris led home Piastri for a second successive McLaren 1-2 but none of that really mattered. 

After 239 race starts, a career spanning fifteen years and counting, and a best ever finish of fourth which he achieved three times, Nico Hulkenberg finally achieved his first ever Formula One podium finish, the German driver finishing third in his Kick F1 Team Sauber and finally ending the longest ever career without a podium.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth for Ferrari with Max Verstappen in fifth, Pierre Gasly finished sixth with Lance Stroll, who at one point was staring at a podium in the face, finished seventh. Alex Albon ended Williams retirement streak with an eighth place finish, Fernando Alonso was ninth and George Russell rounded out the points in tenth.

NEXT TIME OUT IN SPA

The next round of the Formula One World Championship takes us to the luscious forests of the Belgian Ardennes region, the longest track on the calendar, the 7.1km Circuit de Spa Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix.

In the drivers championship, Lando Norris sits on 226 points, now just twelve points behind teammate Oscar Piastri. Max Verstappen’s spin and subsequent fifth place finish was still enough to gain on George Russell, the gap for third in the drivers championship now sitting at twenty-two points. In the constructors championship, Ferrari opened their lead on Mercedes to twelve points whilst Red Bull made a small gain on the silver arrows to bring their gap down to forty-two points. The battle in the midfield has changed again, fifth through ninth now covered by just thirty points, with Kick F1 Team Sauber jumping from ninth to sixth off the back of Hulkenberg's first ever Formula One podium finish.