It was Mercedes who locked the first two positions after the qualifiers, where Valtteri Bottas took the pole and Lewis Hamilton came second fastest. But at the end of the race, the leader of Drivers' Championship Hamilton took his seventh victory of this Formula One season in British Grand Prix on Sunday in front of his home fans. It was his record sixth British GP victory at Silverstone Circuit.
Since the first lap, Hamilton put pressure on Bottas. During the 4th lap, Hamilton surpassed the pole position holderBottas but within a few seconds, Bottas took over the Briton and became the race leader again.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen retired during the 8th lap due to technical issues after contact with his teammate Romain Grosjean during initial laps.
Like Austrian Grand Prix Red Bull's Max Verstappen during the 8th lap tried to overtake Ferrari's new star Charles Leclerc but couldn't make it, while in lap 12, Verstappen's teammate Pierre Gasly surpassed German driver Sebastian Vettel. However, soon after that, the French racing driver took a pit.
Even though the race was supposed to be between Bottas and Hamilton as they were chasing each other, during lap 14 when both Verstappen and Leclerc took a pit, the ultimate drama started while leaving the pit lane. Initially, the 2019 Austrian GP winner Verstappen took over the Monégasque driver but Leclerc did not surrender and very skilfully surpassed him. But this clash did not end there, it continued later also.
During lap 20 when the safety car was deployed after Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi lost control and went off the track due to a lockdown, Hamilton came for his first pit stop, followed by Vettel and Verstappen, who took his second pit stop. There were other drivers also, who also took the pit stop when the safety car was on track.
After the safety car left the track, positions changed very dramatically. The rivalry between Verstappen and Leclerc attracted the audience, while Hamilton finally took over Bottas to become the race leader at Silverstone. Even Gasly also put pressure on the 21-year-old Ferrari driver.
Racing Point's Sergio Pérez damaged his front wing after the race was resumed and had to take a pit stop which dropped him to 17th position.
During lap 38, Vettel and Verstappen crashed which could have destroyed 21-year-old Red Bull's driver's race strategy. But due to that incident, Vettel faced the damage issues and took a pit, while Verstappen continued on the British GP race track. However, the former world champion Vettel was given a 10-second penalty after the incident was scrutinized.
