ROUND

9

British Grand Prix

2026-07-05·52 laps

Charles Leclerc claimed his first win in well over a year in a bizarre British Grand Prix that ended with an aborted Safety Car restart, beating George Russell by just 0.427 seconds in one of the closest finishes of the season — the top ten covered by only 3.445 seconds. Kimi Antonelli had taken pole thanks to a revived Mercedes engine mode that caught even customer team McLaren by surprise, but a 5-second track-limits penalty dropped him to 15th despite setting the fastest lap of the race. Max Verstappen retired after 46 laps, one of three DNFs alongside Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg. Carlos Sainz served a one-lap penalty for overtaking the Safety Car, finishing 17th.

Race Winner

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

Fastest Lap

1:31.777

Kimi Antonelli

Conditions

☀ Dry

Circuit Profile

Silverstone Circuit

Lap length

5.891 km

Race distance

52 laps · 306.3 km

Tyre allocation

H C1 · M C2 · S C3

Pit-lane loss (model)

≈ 21.5 s

Tyre degradation

High

Overtaking

Easier

Pit-lane loss, degradation and overtaking are PITWALL simulator inputs for this circuit, not official figures.

Silverstone Circuit circuit guide →Run this circuit in the simulator →

Qualifying

POS	Driver	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	Kimi Antonelli	1:29.719	1:28.493	1:28.111	1
2	Charles Leclerc	1:29.534	1:28.626	1:28.286	2
3	Lewis Hamilton	1:29.644	1:28.864	1:28.458	3
4	George Russell	1:29.985	1:28.920	1:28.481	4
5	Isack Hadjar	1:29.276	1:29.069	1:28.746	5
6	Lando Norris	1:30.186	1:29.383	1:28.877	6
7	Max Verstappen	1:29.549	1:29.113	1:28.893	7
8	Oscar Piastri	1:29.971	1:29.218	1:29.032	8
9	Arvid Lindblad	1:29.661	1:29.324	1:29.305	9
10	Liam Lawson	1:29.300	1:29.429	1:29.716	10
11	Gabriel Bortoleto	1:30.269	1:29.461	—	11
12	Pierre Gasly	1:30.345	1:30.063	—	15(+3 Penalty)
13	Nico Hulkenberg	1:29.539	1:30.076	—	12
14	Oliver Bearman	1:30.570	1:30.501	—	13
15	Carlos Sainz	1:30.562	1:30.623	—	14
16	Alexander Albon	1:30.638	1:31.341	—	16
17	Esteban Ocon	1:30.680	—	—	17
18	Valtteri Bottas	1:31.227	—	—	18
19	Franco Colapinto	1:31.321	—	—	19
20	Sergio Perez	1:31.451	—	—	20
21	Lance Stroll	1:32.863	—	—	22(+10 Penalty)
22	Fernando Alonso	1:33.025	—	—	21

Grid to Finish

Places gained or lost between the starting grid (after penalties) and the flag, for 19 of 19 classified drivers.

Biggest gains

Franco ColapintoP19 → P9+10

Sergio PerezP20 → P14+6

Pierre GaslyP15 → P10+5

Biggest losses

Kimi AntonelliP1 → P15-14

Oscar PiastriP8 → P11-3

Carlos SainzP14 → P17-3

Sprint Race

POS	Driver	Time	Gap	Pts
1	Kimi Antonelli	1572.129	Leader	+8
2	Lewis Hamilton	1574.874	+2.745	+7
3	Lando Norris	1581.912	+9.783	+6
4	George Russell	1582.768	+10.639	+5
5	Charles Leclerc	1584.749	+12.620	+4
6	Max Verstappen	1588.679	+16.550	+3
7	Oscar Piastri	1589.680	+17.551	+2
8	Liam Lawson	1602.362	+30.233	+1
9	Isack Hadjar	1603.082	+30.953	—
10	Arvid Lindblad	1607.239	+35.110	—
11	Pierre Gasly	1612.402	+40.273	—
12	Franco Colapinto	1613.155	+41.026	—
13	Gabriel Bortoleto	1614.628	+42.499	—
14	Oliver Bearman	1617.913	+45.784	—
15	Nico Hulkenberg	1618.809	+46.680 (incl. 5s penalty)	—
16	Esteban Ocon	1621.939	+49.810	—
17	Carlos Sainz	1622.508	+50.379	—
18	Alexander Albon	1622.886	+50.757	—
19	Valtteri Bottas	1647.246	+75.117	—
20	Fernando Alonso	1664.001	+91.872	—
21	Lance Stroll	1666.001	+1 Lap	—
22	Sergio Perez	1668.001	+1 Lap (incl. 10s penalty)	—

Race Timeline

🚦LAP 1Lights out — 52 laps scheduled

🏎LAP 1Kimi Antonelli's pole position, built on a revived Mercedes engine mode that caught customer team McLaren off guard, does not translate into the lead for long as the pack compresses into an extremely tight race.

🔧LAP 2First pit stop of the race: Oscar Piastri switches to Hard

🏆LAP 25Race winner Charles Leclerc makes stop 1, fitting Hard

🏎LAP 37Antonelli sets the fastest lap of the race, but a later 5-second track-limits penalty drops him from a points position to 15th.

🏎LAP 46Max Verstappen retires from the race after 46 laps.

🏆LAP 48Race winner Charles Leclerc makes stop 2, fitting Soft

🔧LAP 48Last pit stop of the race: Carlos Sainz switches to Soft

🚗LAP 52The race ends in bizarre fashion with an aborted Safety Car restart, Leclerc holding on to beat Russell by just 0.427 seconds.

🏁LAP 52Chequered flag — Charles Leclerc wins

Tyre Strategy

Every stint for the 19 classified drivers with recorded pit data (19 classified in total). Bar lengths are to scale with the 52-lap race distance.

P1Charles Leclerc

M 25

H 23

S

P2George Russell

M 23

H 11

M 18

P3Lewis Hamilton

M 23

H 25

S

P4Lando Norris

M 28

H 10

M 10

S

P5Isack Hadjar

M 19

H 19

M 9

S

P6Liam Lawson

M 28

H 19

S

P7Arvid Lindblad

M 27

H 20

S

P8Gabriel Bortoleto

M 26

H 21

S

P9Franco Colapinto

M 22

H 25

S

P10Pierre Gasly

M 23

H 25

S

P11Oscar Piastri

M

H 34

M 11

S

P12Oliver Bearman

M 29

H 18

S

P13Esteban Ocon

M 21

H 26

S

P14Sergio Perez

M 21

H 25

S

P15Kimi Antonelli

M 35

H

M 11

P16Valtteri Bottas

M 29

H 17

S

P17Carlos Sainz

M 20

H 28

S

P18Fernando Alonso

M 20

H 26

S

P19Lance Stroll

M 18

H 28

S

LAP 1LAP 26LAP 52

One-stop

0

Two-stop

16

Three+ stops

3

Winner's strategy: Medium → Hard → Soft

Longest stint: Kimi Antonelli, 35 laps on Medium

Compound sequences used

Medium → Hard → Soft

14 driver(s) · best result P1

Medium → Hard → Medium → Soft

3 driver(s) · best result P4

Medium → Hard → Medium

2 driver(s) · best result P2

Pit Stops & Neutralisations

First stops came between lap 2 and lap 35, with a median of lap 23.

Stops made within 2 laps of a Safety Car or VSC being called. The race data records when a neutralisation started, not when it ended.

🚗 Safety Car · lap 52

No recorded stops in that window.

Actual vs PITWALL Simulation

PITWALL model output · not official data

PITWALL replayed this race 40 times from the real starting grid, with all 19 finishers on the strategies they actually used. It then kept every rival's strategy fixed and tested alternative strategies for the winner, Charles Leclerc.

Safety Car called on lap 52

Strategy	Stops	Avg finish	Win	Race time vs actual
ActualMHL25SL48	2	P3.4	20%	—
MSL29	1	P1.0	100%	−11.6 s
HSL27	1	P1.0	100%	−11.3 s
SML33	1	P1.0	100%	−10.5 s
MSL14SL38	2	P1.0	100%	−7.9 s
MSL14ML38	2	P1.0	98%	−7.5 s
MSL14HL38	2	P1.1	95%	−7.3 s

In PITWALL's model, Medium → Soft would have been 11.6 s quicker than the strategy Charles Leclerc actually used.

Model check: with everyone on their real strategy, the simulated finishing positions were on average 4.9 places away from the real result, and Charles Leclerc won 20% of the simulated races.

Retired cars are left out of the replay. Safety Car and VSC periods use the simulator's default length, because the race data records only when they were called. Model replay-2, computed 2026-10-23. How the simulator works and its limits →

Why They Lost

Strategy and race factors that shaped the result for drivers who finished behind Charles Leclerc.

P4Lando NorrisMcLaren

▸Made 3 stops to the winner's 2, conceding track position on the extra in-lap and out-lap.

P5Isack HadjarRed Bull Racing

▸Made 3 stops to the winner's 2, conceding track position on the extra in-lap and out-lap.
▸Pitted 6 laps earlier than Charles Leclerc (lap 19 vs 25), exposing the next stint to more wear.

P11Oscar PiastriMcLaren

▸Made 3 stops to the winner's 2, conceding track position on the extra in-lap and out-lap.
▸Pitted 23 laps earlier than Charles Leclerc (lap 2 vs 25), exposing the next stint to more wear.

P15Kimi AntonelliMercedes

▸Pitted 10 laps later than Charles Leclerc (lap 35 vs 25), losing time on worn tyres before the stop.
▸Started P1 and finished 14 places lower.
▸Set the race's fastest lap but finished P15 — the pace was there, the result was not.

P17Carlos SainzWilliams

▸Pitted 5 laps earlier than Charles Leclerc (lap 20 vs 25), exposing the next stint to more wear.

P18Fernando AlonsoAston Martin

▸Pitted 5 laps earlier than Charles Leclerc (lap 20 vs 25), exposing the next stint to more wear.

Strategy Breakdown

Simulator replay is unavailable for this race: some drivers changed tyres more than twice, and the simulator replay link can carry at most two stops per car.

POS	Driver	Strategy	Time	Gap
1	Charles Leclerc Ferrari	M→HL25→SL48	1:27:11.335	+0.000	—
2	George Russell Mercedes	M→HL23→ML34	1:27:11.762	+0.427	—
3	Lewis Hamilton Ferrari	M→HL23→SL48	1:27:12.107	+0.772	—
4	Lando Norris McLaren	M→HL28→ML38→SL48	1:27:12.484	+1.149	—
5	Isack Hadjar Red Bull Racing	M→HL19→ML38→SL47	1:27:12.933	+1.598	—
6	Liam Lawson Racing Bulls	M→HL28→SL47	1:27:13.358	+2.023	—
7	Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls	M→HL27→SL47	1:27:13.549	+2.214	—
8	Gabriel Bortoleto Audi	M→HL26→SL47	1:27:13.748	+2.413	—
9	Franco Colapinto Alpine	M→HL22→SL47	1:27:14.564	+3.229	—
10	Pierre Gasly Alpine	M→HL23→SL48	1:27:14.780	+3.445	—
11	Oscar Piastri McLaren	M→HL2→ML36→SL47	1:27:15.349	+4.014	—
12	Oliver Bearman Haas	M→HL29→SL47	1:27:16.580	+5.245	—
13	Esteban Ocon Haas	M→HL21→SL47	1:27:16.847	+5.512	—
14	Sergio Perez Cadillac	M→HL21→SL46	1:27:18.738	+7.403	—
15	Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	M→HL35→ML41	1:27:19.340	+8.005 (incl. 5s penalty)	—
16	Valtteri Bottas Cadillac	M→HL29→SL46	1:27:19.497	+8.162	—
17	Carlos Sainz Williams	M→HL20→SL48	1:27:15.726	+1 lap (incl. 1 penalty lap)	—
18	Fernando Alonso Aston Martin	M→HL20→SL46	1:27:16.315	+1 lap	—
19	Lance Stroll Aston Martin	M→HL18→SL46	1:27:18.085	+1 lap	—
20	Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing	M→HL17→ML38	—	DNF	—
21	Alexander Albon Williams	M→HL1→ML14→SL23→SL35→SL40	—	DNF	—
22	Nico Hulkenberg Audi	M→HL17→SL34	—	DNF	—