Norris – The Fastest Sector

Qualifying

George Russell took his first pole position this season, with Max Verstappen matching his time in qualifying, followed by both McLarens. Both Aston Martin cars made it through into Q3 for the first time since Australia, qualifying P6 and P9. After the incident in Monaco, Ocon was given a 5-place grid penalty, resulting in a P20 start.

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Race

Both Sauber drivers started from the pit lane due to a change in their wing set up. All the teams started the race on the intermediate tyres, except for the Haas cars.

As the lights went out, George Russell took the lead. Further down the field, Lewis Hamilton overtook Daniel Ricciardo. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both ran wide in lap one. Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly made contact, causing Gasly to fall down the leaderboard.

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Within three laps, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen both made up ten places, landing themselves in P9 and P4 at the end of lap 3.

At the start of lap four, Leclerc’s engineer reported a potential engine problems for the Ferrari.

Hulkenberg was 1.6 seconds faster than the race leader going into lap five. The other Haas sat the fastest lap.

With only six laps raced, the yellow flag was waved. Logan Sargeant locked up going into turn six, however, he was quick to rejoin the race.

On lap seven, the Mercedes of George Russell set the fastest lap. However, it was more bad news for Leclerc as he continued to suffer with more issues. Russell pushed the Mercedes to set another fastest time on lap eight. Magnussen took to the pits for intermediate tyres and came out behind Yuki Tsunoda after an 8.6 second pit stop. Daniel Ricciardo was noted by race control for a jump start. Between lap nine and twelve, the fastest laps set swapped between Verstappen and Lando Norris, with Norris setting a lap time of 1:28.032.

Lap 13 saw disappointment after disappointment. As the circuit started to dry up, Hulkenberg started to fall back and Ricciardo was given a five second penalty for his start.

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Russell was still leading the race by lap 14, followed by Verstappen. The McLaren of Norris was 4.8 seconds behind Verstappen, however he was able to cut the time between them down to less than one second within three laps. That same lap Verstappen locked up, allowing Norris to gain on the Red Bull.

The McLarens, who were currently P3 and P4, were building their speed continuously, setting the fastest lap time constantly, finishing with Oscar Piastri setting a lap time of 1:25.976.

20 laps in, we saw Norris overtake the world champion with ease. The following lap, Hamilton set the fastest lap with a time of 1:25.298. With a mistake made by Russel, Norris and Verstappen took the opportunity to overtake and Norris took the lead.

Norris extended the gap between himself and Verstappen and continued setting fastest lap times. He lapped Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu on lap 24, making the interval between him and the Red Bull over ten seconds.

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The yellow flags were waved for the second time for Sargeant after he collided with the wall. The safety car was released just after Norris passed the pit entrance, allowing everyone behind him to pit. When Verstappen left the pits, the time difference between him and Norris was around 30 seconds. As Norris entered the pits to put a fresh set of inters on, the gap had closed, leading to him rejoining the race just ahead of his teammate, Piastri. After the multiple issues, Leclerc headed into the pits, luckily for him, after a 2.41 second pitstop, he was able to fix the problem.

The safety car went in on lap 30, and Verstappen kept the lead after the restart.

Magnussen started the second round of pit stops, with pitting on lap 41. The following lap, Leclerc and Valterri Bottas entered the pits, however, only the Sauber driver existed. Leclerc was told to retire the car due to the problems he faced earlier in the race.

Sainz, Perez and Ricciardo pitted on lap 44, with Piastri, Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon pitting the following lap. Verstappen and Russell pit on lap 46. And Norris, after setting another fastest lap, pitted on lap 47.

The next couple laps saw the close battle between Norris and Russell with both of them overtaking each other, though Norris takes the final overtake retaking P2.

Lap 53 saw Sainz and Albon crash, and Perez taking to the pits. All three of them retired from the race on lap 54 as the safety car was deployed, making it a double DNF for both Williams and Ferrari. Under the safety car, both Mercedes drivers pitted for mediums. After the safety car ended, the leaderboard stayed the same.

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After DRS was enabled in lap 60, the overtaking started to happen in the following laps. Ocon was able to pass Tsunoda, and Russell took Piastri for P3. However a lap later, Russell and Piastri made contact, enabling Piastri and Hamilton to overtake Russell. Hamilton makes one of the final overtakes in Piastri to take P3.

With 4 laps left, the yellow flag waved for the last time after Tsunoda hit a bollard track marker. Hamilton set the final fastest lap of the race with a lap time of 1:15.074. Ricciardo was able to overtake the Alpine of Ocon for P8. And Russell came back for revenge, overtaking Piastri and a lap later, overtaking his teammate. The last overtake was made by Gasly with his teammate, Ocon.

Max Verstappen saw the chequered flag first, followed by Lando Norris and George Russell. The rest of the top ten was made up by Hamilton, Piastri, Alonso, Stroll, Ricciardo, Gasly and Ocon.

This is the first time Norris and Russell have shared a podium in Formula One.

Written by Chloe.

Featured Image credit: motorsport.com

The British Grand Prix is a staple in the F1 calendar, especially at the historic Silverstone Circuit.

This year was extra special as it featured 3 British drivers in top teams capable of competing for a podium or for some even a win.

Russell and Hamilton being the only all British driver pairing on the grid with Mercedes went into the weekend hoping to continue the momentum created from an electrifying weekend in Montreal, while Norris looked to bring McLaren back to the top of the grid with the current “Big Three”.

The weekend started off well for Hamilton finishing P2 in FP1while Russell and Norris struggled running only a combined 6 laps and neither recording a time.

FP2 saw Hamilton continue his successes from earlier in the morning and finishing in P2 yet again, Norris found his stride to end Friday running in P3 while Russell would settle for a respectable P8.

Saturday is where the big show truly begins, and with all 3 drivers finishing FP3 in the top 10 it looked promising for the home crowd for qualifying.

Quali saw all three Brits make it to Q3 despite the tricky conditions, but a mistake by Russell in the closing stages saw him finish quali in only P8 while Hamilton and Norris qualified in P5 and P6 respectively with less than a tenth separating them.

Sunday is where the points are scored though, and all three were in a prime position to score some especially with more controlled conditions.

When the five lights went off, we saw a tale of three races for each driver. Hamilton got off the line brilliantly, jumping Alonso and Leclerc for 3rd, Norris got a decent start and was able to pass Alonso and battle Perez until an incident that leads me to the final British driver.

Russell got off the line incredibly poorly, falling back on Latifi and Zhou before clipping the wheel of Gasly and spinning off into Zhou sending Zhou into the gravel and catch fence upside down and suffering a puncture himself before stopping the car and getting out to assist in recovering Zhou.

Despite Russell’s belief that he could get the car back to the pits under its own power, the Marshalls opted to tow it back meaning an end to his race and an end to his incredible streak of P5 or better performances this season in devastating fashion.

The rest of the race would see Norris put up a brilliant effort to finish P6 throughout all the chaos and pandemonium.

For Hamilton, the race was one of highs and lows, but mostly highs. A slow pitstop would mean he would lose out on the lead and even a podium in some eyes, but there is a reason he is seen as one of the greatest to ever do it, he just finds a way.

A late safety car would allow Hamilton to pit for new softs with very little to lose. The restart would allow Lewis to have an excellent look at the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who was running on much older hard tires, but with the raw pace of the Ferrari what would normally be a routine drs overtake would lead to some of the most brilliant racing we have seen in a very long time with the GOAT taking on the driver of tomorrow for a much-desired podium place. After about 7 laps of pure racing, Hamilton would get DRS and complete the move with enough time to pull away earning him a P3 in his home race to the delight of the amazing British fans.

Hope you enjoyed this piece about our lovely British drivers- make sure you show some love and tell us about your favourite moments of the drivers in the comment section.