Lando Norris won a hectic, rain-affected 2025 British Grand Prix for McLaren, as Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri was penalised for braking erratically in front of Max Verstappen under the safety car.
The first half of the race was frankly a mess, featuring four separate safety car interventions as various cars crashed and a heavy downpour of rain hit the circuit after the first 10 of the Silverstone F1 race’s 52 laps.
Verstappen led away from pole in his Red Bull, but Piastri always looked the quickest driver on track and took the lead at Stowe on lap eight as Verstappen clearly struggled for grip on intermediate tyres through the high-speed Maggotts/Becketts complex on his lower downforce settings.
In the early part of the race the track had mostly a dry line - except for the run from Stowe to the first corner at Abbey where heavy spray was visible. A handful of cars, including fourth on the grid George Russell and sixth on the grid Charles Leclerc gambled on a pitstop at the end of the formation lap (which took place under the safety car) to fit slicks, but that backfired.
By lap 14 the track was so wet from a sudden deluge that everyone was on intermediate tyres and the safety car was scrambled to control the pace while waiting for the weather to clear a little and the track conditions and visibility to improve.
By this point, we’d already lost Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto to crashes, causing virtual safety car periods, and after the race restarted again on lap 18 a clearly unsighted Isack Hadjar rear-ended Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes at Copse and crashed heavily, causing race-ending damage to the Mercedes' diffuser.
It was as the race was restarting after that safety car period that Piastri slowed suddenly on Hangar Straight to create a gap to the pace car. Verstappen appeared to narrowly avoid rear-ending the McLaren then spun down to 10th exiting Stowe corner as the race resumed.
The stewards penalised Piastri 10 seconds for that move, though McLaren was debating during the race whether to challenge that decision based on how late in the lap the safety car turned off its lights and the restart order was given.
Piastri was clearly furious after the race, claiming he'd done nothing different to his previous laps behind the safety car.
In any case, Piastri had to serve that penalty at his final pitstop - for slick tyres as the track dried out in the closing stages - allowing Norris through to win.
Piastri tried hard to chase Norris down after his stop, and even argued he should be let past if McLaren considered his earlier penalty unfair, but went off on the damp track through Maggotts/Becketts, which seemed to blunt his charge.
The McLarens finished over 27s clear of the next car home, which turned out to be Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.
Hulkenberg started on the back row of the grid and benefitted from a well-timed pitstop for fresh intermediates just before the big rain deluge came, propelling him into the top five when the safety car was scrambled on lap 14.
That became fourth when Verstappen spun. And as the track dried out, Hulkenberg overtook the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll - another to benefit from well-timed early pitstops - to run third.
Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari was closing Hulkenberg down at one stage, but lost touch after going off at Maggotts/Becketts on slicks after that final round of stops.
With that result Hulkenberg scored his first F1 podium finish at the 239th attempt, and ended a podium drought for Sauber stretching back to the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton had to settle for fourth, his Ferrari looking quite competitive in the changeable conditions but less convincing in the very wet or drying parts of the race.
He lost time racing Russell's Mercedes and Pierre Gasly's Alpine, which maybe cost him a podium.
Verstappen eventually recovered to fifth, while Stroll lost a top six finish on fading soft tyres to Gasly’s very well-driven Alpine at Stowe on the final lap.
Alex Albon took eighth for Williams, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Russell’s Mercedes - both of which gambled on switching to slicks at the end of the race earlier than most, which didn’t quite pay off.
In fact, Russell’s race was a story of failed pitstop gambles, as well as an impressive 720-degree spin through Maggotts/Becketts.
Leclerc, the other front runner to gamble on slicks for the first stint, fared even worse - having several huge off-track moments and ending the race a miserable 14th out of 15 finishers.
The second Ferrari came home behind Ollie Bearman’s Haas, Carlos Sainz’s Williams and Esteban Ocon’s Haas - and ahead of only Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull, which copped a questionable penalty for colliding with Bearman at Brooklands.
Bearman had a similar collision with team-mate Ocon at the very same corner later in the race.
British GP result
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +6.8s
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +34.7s
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +39.8s
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +56.7s
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +59.8s
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +60.6s
- Alex Albon (Williams) +64.1.s
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +65.8s
- George Russell (Mercedes) +70.6s
- Ollie Bearman (Haas) +72.0s
- Carlos Sainz (Williams) +76.5s
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) +77.3s
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +84.4s
- Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) + 1 lap
