Woo! It is time for the British Grand Prix, and I’ve been really excited for this one! A little fun fact: I was never a fan of Silverstone, but in recent years it’s definitely grown on me! Silverstone held the first-ever World Championship race in 1950. It is a much-loved circuit, not just by Britons but by fans from all across the world. Since 1950, it has held an impressive 58 races. The length of the track is 5.891 km, consisting of 18 turns, and the length of the race is 306.198 km. Lewis Hamilton holds the track record with a time of 1:24.303 in 2020, and in the same year, Max Verstappen holds the lap record with a time of 1:27.097. Across the 58 races held here at Silverstone, 32 different drivers have won. Hamilton has the most wins at the circuit with a total of nine, the latest being just in 2024. There are three other past winners other than Lewis that are on the current grid, them being Verstappen, Alonso, and Sainz. Seeing as it’s 75 years, we will carry on with some more facts!

Ferrari is the team with the most wins at Silverstone. They are also the team with the most podium finishes, achieving a whopping 47 top-three finishes. A total of 41 races at the track have been won from the front row of the grid. Of these, 22 races have been won from pole position. Hamilton has more poles than any other driver at the circuit, which I don’t think is too surprising. 1,344 cars have made the start of the race at Silverstone. Out of these 1,344, only 835 cars have crossed the finish line. This gives an overall finish rate of 58%. In 2024, the safety car did not feature at the British Grand Prix. It was the first time this occurred since 2013. The highest number of safety car appearances in a single race here is two. This happened in 2003, 2013, 2018, 2020, and 2022. A total of 11 races at Silverstone have been affected by rain. It looks like there is a chance for a potential 12th this weekend. With that being said, should we take a look at the qualifying for this year’s British Grand Prix?

All three qualifying sessions proved to be very competitive. Surprisingly, the guy who everyone ruled out put in a stunning lap in Q3. This led him to claim pole position for Sunday’s race, that guy, of course, is Max, but let’s go right back to the beginning. We start the first session with a few clouds. Nothing looks too threatening yet. Both Sauber drivers are some of the first to come out, they are joined by the Alpines of Gasly and Colapinto. Max is soon to top the time sheets with a 1:26.041 with Lando slotting into second about a tenth off. Georgy Porgy sounds a bit flustered on the radio. He is asking for advice from his engineer meanwhile we have a yellow flag caused by Colapinto who has spun. Colapinto kicks up a load of gravel at the end of the lap. He hits the barrier before coming to a complete stop. He does manage to get going again. However, it’s a very slow drive back to the pit lane. Unfortunately, he doesn’t make it and the rest of the cars make their way back to the garages. The session is stopped. A few moments later and the red flag is cleared and there’s just over six minutes of the session left. Verstappen beats Oscar Piastri’s quickest time with a 1:25.886 just after Bearman takes Albon’s P3.

It doesn’t look good for Hamilton. He is quickly making his way down to near the danger zone. Why they didn’t let him go for another lap, I will never understand, apparently not enough fuel. As close as it was, Hamilton just makes it through to Q2 and Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll, Hulkenberg and Colapinto are out. Moving onto Q2, Lewis heads out early on the softs. At the same time, Max begins his first push lap on the same compound. Once again, the two Ferraris are potentially in the danger zone. This also leads to a bit of a fight getting out of the pit lane in front of Piastri. It’s not good for Sainz, Tsunoda, Hadjar , Albon and Ocon though as they don’t make it to Q3. Green lights is on for the final session now and it’s everything to play for. Max opens the session with a 1:25.267 but that is soon beaten by the two McLarens. Lewis pushes Lando down into third and is provisionally on the front row. The time to beat is a 1:24.995 set by Oscar currently. Norris can’t beat his teammate as he twitches at the end of his lap and goes P2. Lewis can only achieve P4 at the end of his run. He also messes up his lap towards the end. However, it was the Dutchman Max who put in a beautiful lap who beat the lot of them and I couldn’t have been happier for him!

Silverstone did not disappoint! We didn’t get the response we wanted in terms of Max, however, it was a very memorable and eventful race. We had quite a dry start, but nevertheless the formation lap was done under the safety car. This led some of the cars to pit for slicks. Lights out and away we go! Max gets a decent start and manages to stay ahead of Oscar. Lando is in third and Lewis in fourth, however there was already contact! Liam goes off. He is able to rejoin the track after a collision with Ocon, but soon comes to a stop and it’s a yellow flag. Ocon also comes onto the radio stating he has damage. Whilst this is all going on, Colapinto has also been forced to retire. He started in the pit lane and his race ends in the pit lane, due to him stalling. Alpine called it a day. The virtual safety car comes in on lap 4. As we get going again, Bortoleto is off the track and hits the gravel. The Brazilian gets going again but he has substantial damage to his rear wing. It’s another yellow flag as Bortoleto struggles to make it back to the pits.

Many drivers are warned that they have roughly 10 laps before they can expect rain. The virtual safety car ends once again. Max gets off to a good start and is defending beautifully against Piastri. With the DRS open shortly after, the Australian goes for the attack and is the new race leader. The slicks soon prove to be a bad choice. It’s too late for Stroll, who has just recently pitted for them. On lap 10, the rain starts to come down. Some of the drivers ask for a change of tire if it gets any worse. A slow pit stop for Lando meant that Max passed him exiting the lane. Oscar is still leading with Max in second and Norris in third. Visibility is becoming difficult for the drivers now as the rain is coming down hard. This brings out a full safety car. There’s lots of switching of positions, and Leclerc catches a pool of water and goes straight across the grass at Turn 12. Meanwhile, Alonso comes onto the team radio complaining that Aston Martin never gets the tires right for him.

It’s back to racing on lap 18 as the safety car comes in. George and Hamilton are battling it out for seventh, but there is yet another yellow flag, this time for Hadjar, whose car looks a right mess due to crashing. Due to the rain, Hadjar couldn’t see Kimi in front of him. He hit the back of his Mercedes and went into the barriers. Thankfully, he is okay. This causes another safety car, and there’s drama at the restart. Piastri slowed down, and Max went ahead when the safety car peeled off. When Oscar finally did make a move, Max dropped it out of Stowe and tumbled down the order. It then comes up that the Australian is under investigation for a safety car infringement. Lewis is the next driver to go off the track due to the slippery conditions. He rejoins. George steals his position. A very quick decision was made on the incident with Oscar, and it’s a 10-second time penalty. Piastri has only a 3-second lead on his teammate Lando, and he isn’t the only driver to be given a penalty.

Tsunoda is also handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with the Haas of Bearman. Meanwhile, Antonelli is the fifth car to retire from the race, and Hulkenberg is doing incredibly well in fourth! With 17 laps to go, Hulkenberg is finally able to make a move on Stroll and is up into third! It’s more bad news for Mercedes. They gamble on a change of tires for George, but it doesn’t pay off. George goes flying across the gravel at Maggotts. It doesn’t take him out of the race, but it does mean he is now in P14. McLaren calls in Piastri to pit, where he serves his 10-second penalty. Oscar tried to plead on the radio for him and Norris to switch around. However, he was instructed that McLaren wasn’t doing any team orders. With that being said, we saw Norris win his first Silverstone Grand Prix and Piastri finish in second. We aren’t bothered about that though; what we are bothered about is Hulkenberg getting his first podium! I am so happy for him! It’s been a long time coming and so deserved!

The drivers had mixed reactions after that race. Let’s start off with one from Hulkenberg, who said, “I don’t think I can comprehend what we’ve just done.” I think the thing about Hulkenberg is he’s a very underrated driver and he deserves more podiums. Oscar, on the other hand, showed a different side. He was obviously annoyed. The penalty situation cost him the win. When spoken to at the end of the race he said “I’m not going to say much, I don’t want to get myself in trouble.” He further stated “Apparently, you can’t brake behind the safety car anymore.” I’ll be honest and say in my opinion the penalty was fully deserved. Lastly let’s hear from the winner himself Lando who said this when speaking to Sky Sports “I always believed, ‘I can do it’. I was thinking on the grid, ‘one of us is going to win out of the 20 drivers, I’ve got a good chance so why can’t it be me?’ I’m not always like that but I believed – maybe I should do more of that. I gave myself a chance and it all paid off.”

This post was meant to go out last week, but better late than never! I just want to touch on the news about Christian Horner. I feel as a Red Bull fan it’s only right that I talk about it. I am honestly still in shock. Say what you want about the guy, but you can’t deny the fact that he is a very good principal! I feel like he deserves better, and honestly, for me, he is the face of Red Bull! Never did I think in a million years that they would get rid of him! Despite him still “under” Red Bull, I don’t think this will be the last we see of him. I hope not, anyways, and hopefully we see him with another team. He has made that team what it is today and achieved incredible things, so I think it’s a real shame. I don’t condemn what happened last year. By that, I mean cheating on his wife, but I feel sorry for him. It feels a bit strange supporting Red Bull at the moment when I can’t get behind that decision. We will have to see how the rest of the season plays out. Laurent Mekies has some big shoes to fill!

2025 Driver’s Standings

POS.	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	TEAM	PTS.
1	Oscar Piastri	AUS	McLaren	234
2	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren	226
3	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	165
4	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes	147
5	Charles Leclerc	MON	Ferrari	119
6	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Ferrari	103
7	Kimi Antonelli	ITA	Mercedes	63
8	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams	46
9	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	Kick Sauber	37
10	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Haas	23
11	Isack Hadjar	FRA	Racing Bulls	21
12	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin	20
13	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Alpine	19
14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin	16
15	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Williams	13
16	Liam Lawson	NZL	Racing Bulls	12
17	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Red Bull Racing	10
18	Oliver Bearman	GBR	Haas	6
19	Gabriel Bortoleto	BRA	Kick Sauber	4
20	Franco Colapinto	ARG	Alpine	0
21	Jack Doohan	AUS	Alpine	0