Small Mistakes Costs Lando a Home Win at an Epic British Grand Prix

The British Sunday will be remembered for the crazy weather and the emotional return to victory for Sir Lewis Hamilton after two and a half years of struggle, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. 

Rewind 
 

Mercedes qualified 1-2, with George beating Lewis to pole position and Lando Norris in P3. Oscar Piastri was only two-tenths of a second behind Lando, but that meant that he was only fifth on the grid, with Max Verstappen between the two McLarens.

“I’m happy with P3”, confessed Lando. “Three Brits locking out the top three positions at the British Grand Prix is pretty cool. Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton did great laps and an excellent job. I made a little mistake on my part at the end, but we’re still in a good starting spot. I know we’re quick, so I can bring the fight to both the Mercedes.”

The Race 

As predicted, the race was an affair between three British drivers and the lone Dutchman: McLaren, Mercedes and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen as you can never rule him out. 

The race began on a dry track but dark clouds threatened and after the first quarter of the race, rain began to fall but it wasn’t wet enough for intermediates and so it was more about surviving on the slicks. This was the stint where Hamilton passed polesitter and initial leader Russell and where both were overtaken in turn by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. 

In the early stages of the race, the track had dried and both McLaren maintained a small gap over the Mercedes. It looked promising for the papaya team but a rain shuffled the card again and it was time to change the original mediums for intermediates.

“It was a crucial moment and as a team I don’t think we did the job we could have done. Just the two mistakes at the end. What tyre to pick, and boxing too late. It’s based on driver feel,” Norris explained.

“So it’s on me, and Lewis did a better job. Lewis was on it. We were terrible on the soft, it’s the balance on that tyre, and Mercedes are better on the soft.

“I hate ending in this position and forever having excuses for not doing a good enough job. but all in all, I'm happy because we still did so many things right. Silverstone is the place where I would love everything to go perfectly but it didn't. But I'm good. We'll come back stronger next year and try again”.

“The call to double stack or to stay out is one of the hardest decisions you can make, and unfortunately, we just got it wrong, however we’ll take it back and review to see what we can learn from it. Outside of that, we made strong decisions in the race and it’s encouraging to see we have the pace to be at the front.” 

Team Principal Andrea Stella explained clearly: “We knew rain would be a factor at some stage, and several drivers were in contention to win at different points in the afternoon. We looked very strong when the rain started to fall, with both drivers moving to the front of the field. We then didn’t capitalise on that, and it looks like a missed opportunity. We’ll review the calls we made - some were good, others could have been better. Once again, it’s important that we’re in contention for podiums and victories, and perhaps today the difference was a matter of small details in the execution”. 

McLaren pace across the triple-header has been more than encouraging and the progress undeniable. In the last five GPs McLaren shone for the number of points and now the team is able to fight for the win every Sunday.