Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: British Grand Prix

Photo by Clive Rose from Getty Images

Last week, Austria gave us a great race.

But Silverstone gave us a classic.

Here are the winners and losers from a chaotic British Grand Prix.

Losers

5. Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen set up his car for speed, and it worked to perfection, as the Red Bull driver used his excellent straight line speed to get pole position.

But then it rained during the race, and Verstappen’s pace went way out the window due to the conditions.

He still finished 5th, which is a good result, but it could have been much better.

4. Oliver Bearman

What a weekend it could have been for Oliver Bearman.

His qualifying was great. His race pace was great.

But he had to start in the back of the field for a red flag violation, got crashed into by Yuki Tsunoda, and then crashed into his own teammate.

Despite all of that, he still finished 11th.

But it should have been points.

3. Charles Leclerc & George Russell

I give Leclerc and Russell some credit for pitting on the formation lap for dry tires in an attempt to undercut everyone with better tires and get a potential win.

But it didn’t work, and both races ended up ruined because of it.

Tough breaks.

2. Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki started out in the “doing well considering how bad the second Red Bull is” category, but the past two races have put him dangerously into the “it has to be better than this” category.

Red Bull surely won’t replace their driver again, but it was a very bad two weeks for the Japanese driver.

1. Oscar Piastri

The story of the season so far has mostly been about Lando Norris making unforced errors, while Oscar Piastri was staying cool under pressure and composed.

It was heading towards another weekend of that, as Piastri was headed towards an easy win.

Instead, he made a careless mistake under the safety car, got a 10 second penalty (which I think should have been 5 seconds, but I digress), lost the lead to his teammate, and then overdrove the car and almost crashed to end up with nothing.

It was the first time this year I saw Piastri make unforced mental mistakes, and it cost him a win, and a chunk of his championship lead.

Let’s see if he can dust this one off quickly.

Winners

5. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis tied his best finish with Ferrari at his home race.

That’s always a good moment.

4. Lance Stroll

While Leclerc and Russell made bad strategy calls, Lance Stroll’s were almost picture perfect, getting the Canadian a 6th place finish for his best finish of the season.

It could have been better in the end, as he was running third for a while, but he should be happy with that result.

3. Pierre Gasly

The Alpine is not a good car.

In fact, it’s very likely the worst car on the grid.

And Pierre Gasly continues to outperform its pace, qualifying 10th and finishing the race in 6th for a good chunk of points.

He is immensely talented, and deserves another shot at a top ride someday.

I hope Alpine gives it to him.

2. Lando Norris

Norris wasn’t the fastest guy all weekend, but he still kept the car under control in extremely tough conditions, and held the gap to his teammate so that when Piastri had to take the 10 second penalty, Norris would have an easy road to the victory at his home grand prix.

You can never underestimate what simple consistency can do in a race.

1. Nico Hulkenberg

Going from P19 on the grid at the start to P3 is incredibly impressive.

Doing it in a Sauber is absurd.

Doing it in a Sauber to end your record of 239 races without a podium is flat out legendary.

Nico Hulkenberg joined Formula 1 in 2010. He’s had bad luck, bad cars, been removed from the sport entirely, and the least wanted record in the sport.

But on July 6th in Great Britain, with an absolutely legendary performance, Hulk finally got his podium finish.

Congratulations, Nico.

Nobody deserves it more.