Leclerc wins Silverstone. The real last lap never happened.

5 July 2026 · British Grand Prix

Antonelli started first but had a bad start, and both Ferraris blew past him before the first corner. Leclerc led from there and controlled the race. Antonelli spent the afternoon fighting back, first getting past Hamilton, then closing the gap to Leclerc lap by lap. With 11 laps to go he was right on Leclerc's tail and ready to fight for the lead.

On lap 41, a piece of bodywork near Antonelli's front wheel broke off his car. Mercedes brought him in, but somehow missed the actual problem and sent him back out still broken. He had to pit again two laps later to finally get it fixed.

Those two extra stops, and a 5 second penalty for running off track while fighting the damaged car, dropped him from a likely race win all the way to P16. Zero points, on a car that had been fast enough to win.

Hamilton moved before the start lights went out and got a 5 second penalty for it, added to his time when he pitted on lap 23. He spent a long stretch after that racing Russell hard for position, at one point going side by side into a corner. Russell held on and stayed ahead, until a moment soon after changed everything.

Not long after that fight with Hamilton, Russell's team noticed a puncture slowly deflating one of his tyres. He pitted for a fresh one, dropping to P7. He fought his way back through the field over the following laps, reaching P3 by the time Verstappen crashed late on, running right behind Hamilton.

With 4 laps to go, Verstappen lost the back of his car and hit the barrier, out of a race he'd been running well in. That brought out the safety car, a slow car that leads the whole field around while nobody's allowed to race.

Ferrari saw a chance to get Hamilton onto fresh tyres and pitted him. It was a gamble. Russell stayed out, and when Hamilton rejoined he'd lost P2 to him, a pit stop settling it a second time.

Hamilton's fresher tyres still gave him a real shot at taking it back, provided the race restarted for even one lap of proper racing, and for a moment it looked like it would when a message flashed up saying the safety car was coming in. Then it reversed, and the safety car stayed out all the way to the finish.

The FIA later called that first message a mistake, a software error, and said the race had ended exactly as the rules required, which left Hamilton without his shot and Russell with P2.

Elsewhere In The Grid

Norris spent the opening laps stuck right behind Hadjar, unable to find a way past. Once Hadjar made his pit stop, Norris moved ahead and stayed in control from there, finishing P4 to Hadjar's P5.

Further back, Lindblad and his Racing Bulls teammate Lawson fought over P7 for 19 laps, one of the longest battles of the whole race, before Lawson finally broke clear. He'd move up to P6 at the finish once Verstappen crashed out ahead of him.

Leclerc drove a near flawless race and deserved the win. But the story of the day is what didn't happen. Antonelli lost a certain victory to a broken piece of bodywork, and Hamilton lost his shot at taking back P2 from Russell when the last lap of real racing never came.

Antonelli still leads the championship, but the gap is down to 25 points. Russell is a single win behind him now.