Charles Leclerc scored his first win of 2026 in a F1 British Grand Prix that disappointingly ended under safety car and robbed fans of a racing finish. The Ferrari driver took advantage of a fast start to jump into the lead, from second on the grid, and stay out front for most of the race to take his first F1 victory in England.
“It feels incredible,” said Leclerc of his first win since the 2024 U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. “To win, after the last few weekends that have been particularly difficult, all the work that we put into trying to get the feeling back in the car – we managed to put everything together and I really hope I can keep that momentum going forward. A huge thank you to the team for having worked so hard.”
A late accident by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen saw the final five laps finish under safety car. Initially, race control called the safety car into the pitlane to leave one lap for a shootout to decide the win but then reversed the decision and the cars completed the final lap touring behind it.
While he knew it likely disappointed the fans, seeing the safety car stay out didn’t upset Leclerc too much.
“Unfortunately, the end was maybe not the one I will have dreamt of,” Leclerc said of the safety car finish. “I did all the safety car time at 100-120 km/h and my tires were completely cold, so I was very skeptical about the restart, but yeah, it’s not great for the fans, but in the helmet, I was kind of happy that there was not a restart.”
Mercedes driver George Russell survived a slow puncture about halfway through the race that threatened to ruin his day and finished second to take his first podium at home and an 18-point bite out of teammate Kimi Antonelli’s driver championship lead.
“My first podium [in the British Grand Prix], so really pleased to be standing here,” he said. “It was obviously very lucky, race got the puncture, got very lucky at the end with the safety car – it would have been great for the fans for it to have restarted, but from my side, my tires were stone cold, so I was kind of glad to just bring home second.”
Russell’s second-place saw him close the gap to his teammate to 25 points, 179-154, with Lewis Hamilton third on 147. Leclerc lies fourth, with 108, and McLaren’s Lando Norris rounds out the top-five at 97. In the constructors standings, Mercedes leads with 333, followed by Ferrari at 255 and McLaren at 179.
The race saw championship leader Antonelli look to be chasing down Leclerc for the win until a front wheel shield failed. After two pit stops to fix the problem, Antonelli shuffled back to ninth and then got a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits while driving the broken car, which took him out of the points.
While a five-second penalty for a jumped start robbed third-place Lewis Hamilton of an opportunity for another win at home and the safety car eliminated the chance of making it a Ferrari 1-2, the seven-time champion managed to get onto the podium.
“I just didn’t have it today,” said Hamilton. “I jumped the start already, got a five-second penalty, but Charles had the pace on me today. I struggled with the balance of the car, but I gave it everything, and I’m grateful to be up here. We have some work still to do to really close the gap [to Mercedes] on pure performance, but look at these results, you know, two wins for the team this year.”
The British Grand Prix turned out to be another to forget for the Aston Martin team, with both Fernando Alonso and Canadian Lance Stroll crossing the line as the last of the cars still running, finishing 18th and 19th respectively and one lap down to the leaders.
Discussion about this post