Lewis Hamilton did it for the home fans and won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but not before what will likely be the most controversial moment of the season as Max Verstappen ended up in the barriers on the first lap after a clash between the two. Much less dangerous is our 2021 British Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
This week even throw in the Sprint Race for all of the “action” that it provided.
The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered.
The 2021 British Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 British Grand Prix Result Sprint Race – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the sprint race live? Well you didn’t miss much, but what did happened is below in the best bits.
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen blasts away from the line easily out-dragging Lewis Hamilton. Alonso is up from to 11th to 5th with some great outside passes in the first few turns. Ricciardo and Perez lose out of the top ten cars behind Alonso. Mr Saturday is now Mr Friday dropping two places and clipping Sainz he might end up with a penalty for contact too. Mazepin after clipping the right rear tyre of his team mate. Raikkonen again makes places from the start.
Lap 3 – Max is nearly a second to the good over Hamilton. Alonso under massive pressure from Norris after his meteoric start but holding on.
Lap 4 – Verstappen sets fastest lap and is now 1.6 seconds in front. Sprint race making zero difference to the grand scheme of things.
Lap 5 – Sergio Perez flies off the track at Becketts at plenty km/h without hitting anything too solid. He was seventh and recovers to be second last which says a lot of about him and last placed Mazepin behind him.
Lap 6 – Norris passes a dogged Alonso for fifth pretty easily in the end. Hopefully Ricciardo doesn’t take his sweet-arse time to pass him. If he does delay he’ll have Vettel joining him. He gets by on lap 9 but not after some god fightback from Alonso.
Lap 10 – Halfway and Verstappen is two seconds in front of Hamilton. A surprise is how Charles Leclerc is hanging onto the back of Bottas in third (2.2 seconds). Bottas having a Nottas race being 5.2 second behind his team mate.
Lap 11 – Aside from a fast-starting Alonso providing a temporary road block and Perez giving a reason for Marko to get the shits, it’s hard to argue that Sprint race is much better than a full race. The F1 management should thank Alonso for the start as it provided the most contribution to the new format.
Lap 12 – Lewis Hamilton on the radio asking for more power. Imagine a Mercedes driver asking that over the past decade.
Lap 14 – Slowmo replays of slightly blistering tyres. It’s either that or more of Alonso.
Lap 17 – Max Verstappen wins the first ever sprint race, all done courtesy of a great start and outdragging pole sitting Hamilton. Bottas get the final Sprint point for an anonymous third. Hamilton does set fastest lap which is nice but meaningless when you’ve been well beaten and there’s no extra points. Big winners aside from Max are World Champions Alonso, Vettel and Raikkonen who made good gains for the race. Perez the ultimate loser ending the race last. George Russell finally finishes in the top ten for Williams but in a race where points stop at third.
2021 British Grand Prix Result Race – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 1 – Well, how can we do this justice…..Lewis Hamilton initially outdrags Max Verstappen off the line but the Red Bull driver gets back in front by the time the sweepers started. The duo battled into the tight corners and down the Wellington straight and into Brooklands but Verstappen stays ahead. But Hamilton gets a good run as they head down the old pit straight and heading into the 250kph+ Copse corner Hamilton is on the inside and alongside Verstappen who turns in and collects Hamilton’s left front corner and flies off into the barrier at plenty km/h. He’s OK but the race is red flagged.
The Red Bull car looks like advertising brochures that have been left on the ground when it has rained for three days straight on the side that hits the barriers.
Who’s at fault? It looks 50-50 (or 80-20 if you’re British based). But we say if Lewis Hamilton was a Grosjean or Mazepin there’d be no doubt it would end in a penalty for Lewis Hamilton.
Behind that other stuff happened. Vettel got in front of Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen mad another four places from the start. Daniel Ricciardo was briefly in front of Norris but Aussies will take 5th. Mr Friday (formerly Mr Saturday_ George Russell drops from 9th to 14th. And Charles Leclerc leads the Grand Prix.
SAFETY CAR then RED FLAG
This is going to hurt those in the GMT +8 to +10 window, the race kicked off late enough as it was.
ORDER – LEC HAM BOT NOR RIC VET ALO SAI RAI OCO
Lap 4 – The race restarts. Leclerc outdrags Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris gets past Valterri Bottas for third. Daniel Ricciardo tries to do the same but falls short. Alonso and Vettel battle for sixth and Vettel spins off down the old pit straight and goes to the back of the field. Sainz gets past Alonso too.
Penalty announced for Lewis Hamilton for the Verstappen crash. 10 seconds which will hurt.
ORDER – LEC HAM (Pen) NOR BOT RIC SAI ALO STR OCO RAI
Lap 10 – After all the excitement of the first and second start the race has turned into the expected procession. Side interest remains in Perez’s progress through the field (12th on Lap 10) and when Lewis Hamilton will pit. Slim pickings elsewhere. That and hoping both McLarens make it to the finish.
Lap 16 – Charles Leclerc reporting engine troubles. Lewis Hamilton is closing and Leclerc is crossing fingers and yelling back to his team. What a shame it will be for Leclerc if the Ferrari engine shallots itself. But Leclerc’s engine problems and Lewis Hamilton’s penalty gives Lando Norris a big chance to win.
Lap 19 – First pit stops begin – Perez, Russell, Raikkonen, Vettel. Nothing too important just yet.
Lap 21 – Daniel Ricciardo pits – first of the top six. Rejoins 9th on fresher tyres. Is an old fashioned undercut on the cards. Lando Norris pits the next lap (22) but with a six second stop which is the modern day F1 equivalent of waiting for a bus. He’ll probably lose his net position to Bottas. Bottas pits the next lap (23) and ends up in front of Norris.
Lap 24 – Norris gets past Alonso. Alonso pits and gets a slow one. Still overtakes Stroll on his return.
Lap 26 – Halfway and the top three and the Alpha Tauri cars are yet to pit.
ORDER – LEC HAM SAI BOT NOR GAS RIC TSU ALO STR
Lap 28 – Lewis Hamilton pits and takes his ten second penalty. He rejoins in 5th – 35 seconds behind Leclerc and four seconds behind Lando Norris.
Lap 29 – Carlos Sainz pits and gets a stuck wheel and 12 second pitstop for his trouble. Somehow he only falls behind Ricciardo.
Lap 30 – Charles Leclerc finally pits on lap 30. He ends up seven seconds in front
Lap 31 – Hamilton right on Norris’ tail and he gets past him easily. At Copse. Without issue this time. He’s only a few seconds away from second place, I mean catching Valtteri Nottas.
Lap 40 – Hamilton gets past his team mate Bottas. Leclerc in trouble now.
Lap 46 – Hamilton is closing on Leclerc now and just three seconds shy of the Ferrari. He is in a great position to win, which will piss Red Bull off plenty.
Lap 49 – Hamilton is almost in a DRS opening one second away. He does get it down to under a second the Hangar straight. Leclerc can’t hold on much longer.
Lap 50 – Lewis Hamilton gets past Leclerc in a move that looked very similar and at the very same corner to his lap one duel with Verstappen. This time an accident is avoided as Leclerc runs wide.
Lap 52 – Lewis Hamilton wins the British Grand Prix despite the clash with Max Verstappen and the penalty that was served up with it. Doing it in front of a massive pro Hamilton crowd and F1 commentary team.
FINAL ORDER – HAM LEC BOT NOR RIC SAI ALO STR OCO TSU
2021 British Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 9/10
A big 25 point loss for Max Verstappen, but what repercussions for Hamilton v Verstappen for the rest of the season too? Will this light a fire for Max Verstappen to take him to even higher levels of Mercedes crushing or will it be the first in a series of clashes throughout the season as the drivers turn rivalry into pure hate.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 /10
The opening lap was worth an 9/10 or 10/20 alone. The ending was good too. Not a great deal of action in between. Silverstone is a great track with great corners. But perhaps not one for Sprint racing.
ENDING 7 / 10
Hamilton provided plenty of action late as he caught and inevitably passed Charles Leclerc. Whilst it seemed inevitable and wasn’t quite as exciting as the F1 commentary thought, we aren’t British.
OVERALL RATING 22 / 30
An action packed start with probably the season’s biggest talking point outside of what Lewis Hamilton is wearing. The middle was reasonably dull with mostly one stoppers but came alive at the end as Hamilton chased victory. The opposite of a sandwich where all the good stuff was at either end rather than in the middle.
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP – 23/30
French GP – 22/30
Styrian GP – 12/30
Austrian GP – 20/30
2021 British Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – CHARLES LECLERC
An unexpected result for Ferrari given the strength of the Red Bull and Mercedes cars in front under normal circumstances. A little hard done by with losing his victory after leading so many laps in the race, but did his reputation and points tally no harm.
THE GREAT – FERNANDO ALONSO
Star and saviour of Sprint Qualifying race with his jump through the field on the race on Saturday. He ran strong on Sunday too, ahead of the performance level of the car, which was two places further back.
THE GREAT – LANDO NORRIS
It is testament to Norris’ season that his fourth place can be seen as slightly underwhelming. But there was a race win to be stolen today. Did the job in qualifying and both races. Still well ahead of Ricciardo in both too.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Fifth place finish and getting closer to his team mate. Still slightly underwhelming though.
THE GRAPE-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
A championship lead extending win looked on the cards until he flew off the road after a first lap clash with Lewis Hamilton. Perhaps he’ll be thankful he isn’t toast after that crash.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Looked like the Mercedes driver had the upper hand after taking pole position on the Friday. He lost the lead at the start of the Sprint Qualifying race and struggled as Max Verstappen sailed off in the distance. Then comes the clash on Sunday with Verstappen. This not only gives him a 10 second penalty, but perhaps a harsh realisation that he is very suspect to real pressure after years of driving untouched at the front.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
SEBASTIAN VETTEL – Threw away a lot of points with a restart spin. Tooled around at the back from then onwards.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Looks all set for a Mercedes seat, but we wonder if there is concern about how he can’t convert good qualifying into any points for Williams ever.
TOM CRUISE – For showing up at multiple British sporting events.
2021 British Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the 2021 British Grand Prix and the overall 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings leader/s.
Read our last edition from after the Austrian Grand Prix here.
