Kimi Antonelli overtakes Lewis Hamilton and claims his first sprint victory

Kimi Antonelli wins the Silverstone Sprint with a championship-caliber move. On the ninth of the seventeen scheduled laps, the young Italian driver launched an attack on Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Hangar Straight, surprising the seven-time world champion with significantly higher speed and taking the lead. From that moment on, Antonelli controlled the race until the checkered flag, fending off a late comeback attempt by Hamilton—who had started from pole position and was forced to settle for second place.

For Antonelli, who also set the race’s fastest lap, this marks his first victory in a Sprint race. A victory built on an overtaking move aided by the effective use of recovered energy, deployed at an unusual point on the track: the start of a straight where such decisive and spectacular maneuvers had rarely been seen in the past.

Behind the two frontrunners, Lando Norris solidified his third-place position right from the start and managed to hold onto it until the finish line, withstanding pressure from George Russell in the final laps. The Mercedes driver thus finished just off the podium and lost further ground both to his teammate and in the battle for the championship lead. Charles Leclerc limited the damage after a disastrous start and brought his Ferrari home in fifth place ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.

Rounding out the points zone is Liam Lawson, the top Racing Bull driver and the last driver to score championship points, while Isack Hadjar and rookie Arvid Lindblad round out the top ten in the other car from the Faenza-based team. Further back were the two Alpines driven by Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, who finished eleventh and twelfth. Antonelli further solidified his lead in the World Championship. The Italian’s total now stands at 179 points, extending his lead to 43 points over Russell (136) and 47 points over Hamilton (132).