The record-breaking crowd at Silverstone may have been unhappy in being denied a grandstand finale, as the British Grand Prix ended in the anticlimax of a flag waved to declare Charles Leclerc the winner under a safety car to a chorus of booing. But worse still, the unedifying finale was not helped by confusion reigning as an expected final-lap showdown turned out to be but the ghost of an FIA software glitch.
Yet, after all of which resulted in a damp squib close to what had been an intriguing race, the result has invigorated the Formula One world championship.
Leclerc won for Ferrari, with his teammate Lewis Hamilton third and the Mercedes of George Russell second, but nothing had been straightforward before the trio crossed the line.
The title leader Kimi Antonelli had fallen from contention after a mechanical failure, his 16th‑place finish inflicting a severe blow to his championship lead. Russell has now closed the gap to his teammate to 25 points with Hamilton moving to 32 behind the Italian.
Max Verstappen was also in the wars, the four-time champion enduring an undeserved high-speed crash leaving him cursing his car while Hamilton had to come back from both a jump start and then the late pain of Ferrari strategy decisions that cost him second place, of which he too was less than enamoured.
Leclerc’s win, the Monegasque driver’s first at the British GP and his first since the US GP in 2024, was well taken but his role a mere part of a broader tapestry of incident. The end was, in terms of the spectacle, perhaps the least interesting.
It had been prompted by Verstappen coming off at high speed at Stowe bringing out the safety car with four laps to go. There was no error on his behalf, he lost the rear of the car because of an issue with the rear wing and a furious Verstappen was just a passenger as it careened across the gravel. “Fuck this car, unbelievable,” was his trenchant response.
With Leclerc leading from Hamilton and Russell, Ferrari opted to pit their drivers for new rubber expectant of racing resuming before the end. Russell stayed out, which gave him the place over Hamilton.
The Scuderia’s call looked to have been the right one when, on the penultimate lap, the FIA issued the announcement that the safety car would come in at the end of the lap, leaving a sudden-death shootout, with the two Ferraris on fresh rubber. The crowd were on tenterhooks only for the safety car to round the final corner very much still on track with lights still on, to the consternation of many and some booing.
The FIA’s messaging system changed promptly to “safety car deployed”. “The ‘Safety Car In This Lap’ message was displayed erroneously due to a software error,” the FIA subsequently said in a statement.
The safety car and its correct deployment has been under intense scrutiny ever since the controversial season finale at Abu Dhabi in 2021 when the then race director, Michael Masi, misinterpreted the rules to end the safety car period early allowing one final lap of racing, which almost certainly cost Hamilton the title.
The strict adherence to said rules has since been paramount and the FIA noted that they had done so, reiterating that the final lap could not be undertaken under racing conditions because: “one lap must be completed following the unlapping procedure”.
None of which was communicated to the viewing public at the time as Mo Farah waved the field home. There was some consensus that at least if the rules are followed, it is a level playing field for all.
“It’s a shame for any race to finish under the safety car,” said Russell, who had benefited from the decision. “But then you go back to Abu Dhabi 2021 and that is just how racing goes. Nobody can plan for somebody to have an incident, and the way F1 deal with it and FIA deal with it shouldn’t be any different at the end of the race compared to the start of the race.”
It was an opinion with which Hamilton, who was in no mood to dig over the bones of Abu Dhabi 2021 again, simply concurred with a blunt: “Same as George said. Not really much more to add.”
All of which rather overshadowed events that had preceded it, most importantly for Antonelli. Chasing down Leclerc in the final third at two seconds a lap, Leclerc believed the game was up only for Antonelli to endure a sudden mechanical problem with the wheel shield – part of the brake duct – on his front left which broke when he went over the kerbs at Copse, leaving him struggling to turn the car. It was a self‑inflicted wound then that was hugely costly. The pits followed as did a time penalty for track limit violations and the win and even a solitary point was gone.
He had been 43 points up on Russell going into the race but the British driver and Hamilton for that matter are very much back in the hunt after high drama at the old airfield.
