F1 2026: British Grand Prix Sprint Recap
Kimi Antonelli storms to Sprint win at Hamilton’s home turf
Current championship leader Kimi Antonelli was back on the top step of the podium as the young Italian driver won the Sprint race at the British Grand Prix 2026, converting his P2 start to a win to take the victory away from home hero and Sprint pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. After leading the initial stages of the Sprint, Hamilton’s Ferrari had no answer to Antonelli’s Mercedes and Hamilton finished second ahead of Lando Norris, who made it two British drivers on the podium in Silverstone. For Antonelli, it was his maiden Sprint win to go with his five race wins.
Lewis Hamilton got the British Grand Prix 2026 Sprint going with almost all drivers except Liam Lawson, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, starting on the Medium compounds. Hamilton fought off Kimi Antonelli to squeeze the Mercedes driver out and keep the lead off the line while it was Lando Norris and George Russell picking off Charles Leclerc off the line. Norris powered past a slow moving Antonelli heading into Copse for second place before Antonelli fought back on the Hangar Straight to retake the second place. George Russell meanwhile continued to make up places as he and Norris fought for third place. While Norris and Russell fought for third place, it was Max Verstappen making moves as he got past Russell on the pit straight and almost made a move stick on Norris but Norris held on as Verstappen overdid his manoeuvre.
While the fight behind the top two was heating up, Hamilton and Antonelli left the rest of the grid in their wake as by lap 5 Hamilton was over six seconds clear of Norris in third place. Behind the top of the midfield battle, on the fringes of the points, it was Alpine’s Pierre Gasly fighting for P8 with Liam Lawson and Gasly made a move stick on lap five but Lawson answered back heading into Stowe and after being passed by Lawson, Gasly lost a place to Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bull as well and fell out of the points places. Right up at the top, Hamilton and Antonelli were stuck to each other as Hamilton couldn’t shake off Antonelli, who was under half a second behind the race leader and keeping the pressure on the race leader.
On lap eight, Antonelli almost went on the inside of Hamilton going into Village and heading onto the Wellington Straight, Antonelli tried the overtake going around but Hamilton managed to keep himself ahead. Later on at the Hangar Straight going into Stowe, Antonelli stormed around Hamilton and finally took the lead of the race and while one Mercedes made up a place, the other Mercedes of George Russell lost fourth place to Max Verstappen who picked off the Mercedes driver heading into Stowe on the same lap. Russell answered back on the next lap and he dropped Verstappen into Leclerc’s path but Verstappen wasn’t sitting back as he almost went outside the track to make the overtake stick at Turn 3 but Russell just about managed to keep third place. Leclerc made the most of Verstappen’s scrap with Russell and stormed past Verstappen for fifth place heading onto the main straight.
As the race entered its final five laps, Antonelli was beginning to drop Hamilton behind as he had a gap of a second and a half to the seven-time world champion with Hamilton’s Ferrari’s being unable to keep up with the Mercedes. Hamilton was unable to get close to Antonelli, who eventually waltzed to a comfortable Sprint win while Lando Norris, who ran a lonely race for the majority of the Sprint finished third. George Russell managed to see off Charles Leclerc for fourth place with Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson rounding out the points places.
For Antonelli, it was his first-ever Sprint win and he also became the youngest-ever Sprint winner. The win for Antonelli sees him extend his championship lead to 43 points while Hamilton is 47 points behind Antonelli after his second place finish at the British Grand Prix 2026 Sprint. The action at Silverstone is just getting started though as the grid will be back on track in a couple of hours’ time for the British Grand Prix 2026 qualifying.
