Hamilton wins British Grand Prix despite 10-sec. penalty

Defending F1 champion driver Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG won the British Grand Prix despite suffering a penalty after a collision with Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing.

The incident — which happened during the first lap — immediately ended the race for the Dutchman, who was taken to a hospital for precautionary checks.

“Verstappen started the race from pole position and at the start the Dutchman made a good getaway to take the lead as the field streamed through the first corner. Hamilton, though, was quickly on the attack and though Verstappen resisted, the Mercedes driver attacked once again on the high-speed run to Copse. He went down the inside of the Red Bull and as Verstappen turned in the Mercedes clipped the right-rear wheel of the Dutchman’s car,” the FIA explained in a statement.

The crash sent Verstappen off track, hitting the tire barriers hard and severely damaging his car. This led to a red flag and race stewards quickly placed the incident under investigation, which led to a 35-minute stoppage.

Under the red flag, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was in first place after he overtook Hamilton after the immediate aftermath of the incident.

When the lights went out anew, Leclerc was trailed by Hamilton, followed by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and McLaren/Mercedes’ Lando Norris.

For the incident, Hamilton was slapped with a 10-second time penalty.

While in the lead, Leclerc experienced troubles with his engine engine.

After switching to hard tires on Lap 28 and serving his penalty, Hamilton resumed his chase of Leclerc. On the final two laps Hamilton passed the Ferrari driver for the race win and Mercedes’ Valterri Bottas notched third.

Norris is in fourth spot while teammate Daniel Ricciardo took fifth place.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was at sixth position, Fernando Alonso for Alpine/Renault in seventh.

In eighth, ninth, and 10th spots were Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Alpine/Renault) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri/Honda), respectively.

Following the incident with Verstappen, Hamiton said, "I dummied him, moved to the left and then moved to the right for that gap. I was pretty far up alongside him but I then could see he wasn't going to back out and we went into the corner and then we collided. Of course, that’s never the way I ever want to win a race or just in general to race but these things do happen. I just hope he’s OK and look forward to many more races."

Meanwhile, Leclerc—who nearly won the race—said that he is 50 percent frustrated and 50 percent happy.

“Obviously, going into this weekend there was absolutely no hope of fighting for a win here in Silverstone. So, this shows how great a job we are doing as a team. It’s not an easy situation for the team but the team is working extremely well. We are working extremely well as a team and we have shown that today with this second place. Now we need to keep on working because that’s what we want to do consistently: fight for the win. So it’s great to be fighting today with Lewis but we shouldn’t expect to be in that position for the rest of the year – and for that we need to keep working,” he explained.

Photos from FIA, Formula 1 Facebook page

Also read:

Hamilton and Bottas take 1st and 3rd in F1 Portuguese Grand Prix

Hamilton wins 2021 FIA Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix

Hamilton edges Verstappen to pick up Bahrain F1 win