Race Report: Tough Sunday at Silverstone

George Russell finished P10 whilst Kimi Antonelli retired in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

In changeable conditions, there were several key decision points for the team to make which would dictate the outcome of the race.

The first came early on as the track dried following pre-race rain. Both George and Kimi pitted for the Hard slick tyre but unfortunately that dropped them back into the pack.

Our duo switched back to the Intermediate tyre as heavy rain fell after 10 laps before several Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car interruptions brought racing to a halt.

After the action got back underway, Kimi was hit from behind by the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar who was unsighted by spray. The subsequent diffuser damage forced Kimi into an early retirement.

George continued on and, having made it back into the points, he once again made an early switch to slicks as the track dried.

After rejoining, he spun at Turn 10 and lost ground. He fought back into the top-10 but could only bring home a solitary point in P10.

Kimi Antonelli

That was a tough day. I wasn’t sure about stopping for the Hard tyre in the opening laps, but we made the call. Sadly, the Virtual Safety Car came out shortly afterwards and I couldn’t build any temperature in the tyre. I struggled once we were back underway to generate the necessary heat and that left me unable to utilise any pace advantage we may have had as the track dried.

Once the rain hit, the conditions became treacherous. Even once the Safety Car had come back in, visibility was still very poor and there was lots of standing water. That is what caught out Hadjar and that was just unfortunate for the both of us. I tried to continue but the diffuser damage I suffered was too much and we had to retire the car. A weekend to forget then but we will look to come back stronger in Spa.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

This was a very disappointing day for the team and a difficult end to a tough double-header. After starting P4 and P10, scoring a solitary point is significantly below our own expectations. George's race was shaped by the decision to take the dry tyre on the formation lap - it was a bit of a gamble, in hindsight a mistake, and it left us on the back foot for the rest of the race.

George drove strongly to recover ground on the first two stints, but when it came to the final stop, we aimed to leapfrog Gasly by stopping for dry tyres. We overestimated how ready the circuit was for them, however. George lost a lot of time as a result, including a spin through Becketts, and was only able to salvage a single point at the flag.

As for Kimi, we mirrored George's call for dry tyres after two laps, sacrificing track position as a result, and he was then blameless in the collision with Hadjar in the spray. This caused significant damage to the diffuser, and we took the decision to retire the car consequently. There is much for us to analyse and learn from today, and it is imperative that we do that work, regroup and deliver a much stronger weekend in three weeks' time in Spa.