Piastri gifts Norris the British Grand Prix

In the wake of his loss, Piastri’s characteristic mask of cool serenity almost slipped. He was clearly furious at the call that went against him but still kept his temper and reacted with sporting magnanimity towards both Norris and Nico Hülkenberg, for whom there was an overwhelming sense of joy as the German banished his uncomfortable zero-podium record at the 239^th time of asking, with a brilliant drive for Sauber.

On the podium, as Norris closed his eyes to soak in the moment of becoming the 13^th home winner of the British Grand Prix, and Hülkenberg beamed in contentment, Piastri struggled to raise more than a thin smile. He did well to keep a lid on it. Still, the Aussie only had himself to blame given how suddenly and hard he had braked in his attempts to throw Verstappen off his scent. Did he really need to go so far to keep Verstappen out of range at the restart?

Worse than Russell’s precedent

Two races ago, George Russell was made to sweat on whether he’d get to keep his hard-earned victory in Canada after indulging in similar tactics, also against Verstappen, in the moments ahead of a safety car restart. Once the safety car lights go out to indicate racing will resume at the start of the next lap, the lead driver has responsibility to set the pace and can do so however he wishes. But only within reason.

Russell’s erratic braking had left Verstappen with no option but to briefly shoot past the Mercedes in Montréal. It was almost as if the intention was to lure Verstappen into earning the penalty point required to leave him banned for the following race in Austria. His actions flirted with a regulation which states the leader must “proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking.” As it was, Russell’s pressure on the brake pedal, measured at 30psi, was deemed to be within acceptable parameters.

At Silverstone, Piastri denied he’d overstepped the mark. “Apparently you can’t brake behind the safety car anymore,” he said. But his pedal pressure had been double the amount of Russell’s in Canada, at nearly 60psi, which led to a sudden decrease in speed of more than 100mph. It was erratic, and it was potentially dangerous.

The bleep machine was required yet again to cover Verstappen’s reaction over the team radio as he shot past Piastri just as he had Russell in Montréal. But no wonder.

To compound his mood, Verstappen’s low-downforce wing settings to combat the McLarens combined with the tricky conditions to push him into a rare error, as he half-spun out of Stowe corner before the restart was properly under way. The incident dropped him out of contention for the win.

The early exchanges

The good old British weather made this a stressful and exhausting Grand Prix for every driver on the grid, not least because visibility in the balls of spray thrown up at one of F1’s fastest and most difficult circuits enhanced the risk factor beyond what some might deem acceptable. Yet McLaren had risen above it all, with Piastri and Norris racing seemingly in a class of their own. Without the two safety car interruptions pegging them back, they’d have been even further out of sight at Silverstone.

Norris looked pumped all weekend to secure his heart’s-desire home win, but still Piastri outqualified him — and Verstappen topped them both with a phenomenal pole position lap in his heavily trimmed out Red Bull. The Dutchman was under no illusions about his chance of converting that pole into victory on Sunday, though, and sure enough it only took until lap eight for Piastri to stroke into the lead on Hangar Straight, even after two Virtual Safety Cars as the race began on a perilously damp track.

By lap 11, Norris was past Verstappen too, as the reigning Champion struggled to tame his twitching Red Bull and ran wide at Chapel Curve — only for the leading trio to now pit to replace their worn intermediate Pirellis. At this stage, Norris’s home win appeared to be slipping away, as a slow stop caused by a sticky left-front tyre change allowed Verstappen to vault back past. Then heavy rain brought out the safety car, dangerously reducing visibility and wiping out Piastri’s lead which had grown to 13 seconds.

Green flags flew again on lap 18, but still the spray hung heavily over the old airfield, and at Copse poor Isack Hadjar was completely unsighted when the red light of Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes suddenly loomed out of nowhere. The safety car returned to clear up his frightening accident. It was on lap 21 of 52, after an admittedly late call that racing was about to resume, when Piastri committed the offence that would define the result and make Norris’ day.

Piastri’s unreasonable radio call

The eventual winner had looked well beaten until that dodgy restart. After a close defeat in Austria, Piastri had the pace to deliver Norris some painful retribution in front of his adoring home crowd. The Australian continued to lead until the final round of pitstops, when both McLarens took on medium slicks and Piastri his ten-second punishment.

Now Norris led by five seconds, but with seven laps to go Piastri still looked a threat. Perhaps this wasn’t over. Then Oscar got on the phone: “If you don’t think [the penalty’s] fair,” he radioed into his team, “we should swap back and race.”

What, McLaren should call on Norris to give up the lead of his home Grand Prix, because it felt his team-mate had been treated harshly by a stewarding decision? Pull the other one, Oscar. The call had surely been made more in hope than expectation. McLaren eventually responded in the negative to Piastri’s request, and Norris was left free to take the sweetest win of his career so far.

He’s won at Monaco and now at Silverstone this term. Only the World Championship, he said, would trump this day. At the season’s half-way stage, Norris is now just eight points off Piastri’s lead in what is set up to be one of the great F1 title duels.

Hülkenberg removes the monkey

The heralded podium for Hülkenberg was a welcome distraction from the Piastri penalty controversy. A week after climbing from the back to join team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto in the points in Austria, the German pulled a similar trick from 19^th on the grid at Silverstone to finish a sensational third.

Clearly, the weather was a defining factor. But Hülkenberg and his team had made the right calls on tyres when it counted. He picked off an also impressive Lance Stroll, then kept a charging Lewis Hamilton out of range to make history as the driver with the most F1 starts before finally making it to the podium. This was well-earned.

“Coming from almost last it was pretty surreal, I’m not sure how it happened,” he said in the immediate aftermath. “We were really on it, [with] the right calls. I was in denial until probably the last pitstop. But when we gapped Lewis I thought, ‘OK.’ The pressure was there. I knew Lewis would give it his all in front of his home crowd, but I was like, 'Sorry guys, this is my day. I have to stick my neck out’.” A lovely F1 moment.

Hamilton’s best yet

As for Hamilton, he struggled with a tricky Ferrari and after the raised hopes of his strong practice and qualifying pace, never looked likely to score a tenth British Grand Prix win. Nevertheless, this was his best Grand Prix drive in a Ferrari so far as the 40-year-old’s mature racecraft kept him in the game and carried him to fourth.

Verstappen recovered from his safety car restart half-spin to pass a game Pierre Gasly on the last lap to end up fifth, with Stroll fading to seventh. Alexander Albon, Fernando Alonso and Russell — whose Mercedes team made the wrong call in switching him to hard tyres at the end of the formation lap, leaving him sliding around from a pitlane start — were the other points scorers.

The second half of this compelling season commences on 27^th July at Spa, for the Belgium Grand Prix.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.