Norris home win, Hülkenberg's first podium and more in a Silverstone spectacle through mixed conditions

Meghana Sree
Jul 6
9 min read

Written by Meghana Sree

An intense stop-start race through unpredictable weather was shaped by a controversial penalty for Oscar Piastri, polesitter Max Verstappen’s dramatic spin and a high-stakes battle for P3 between Nico Hülkenberg and Lewis Hamilton. Lando Norris capitalised on the chaos to take his maiden home win ahead of Piastri and Hülkenberg, the German scoring his first podium after 239 starts.

F1 British Grand Prix — Lando Norris wins on home soil leading a McLaren 1-2 while Nico Hülkenberg takes his first F1 podium | Credit: Formula One

Formula One is back where it all began, at spectacular Silverstone where the first F1 Grand Prix was held 75 years ago. Now, in 2025, classic British weather greeted the paddock on race day, with showers across the track.

With Max Verstappen on a hard-fought pole, the McLaren’s poised behind him and wet weather out for the whole pack, all the ingredients were there for a thrilling 52-lap race around one of F1’s most iconic venues – and Silverstone delivered as usual.

A stop-start race in the first half with multiple Safety Cars and Virtual Safety Cars (VSC) quickly fired up into a thrilling fight for glory over the final laps. Big names like Verstappen spinning off, a controversial penalty that rewrote Oscar Piastri’s race and an unbelievable fight from 19th to third for Nico Hülkenberg shaped a cinematic British Grand Prix in mixed conditions.

With another Silverstone special in the books, here's how the thrilling race panned out.

Race Report

The drama started early at the cloudy venue. As all cars lined up on intermediate tyres, even before the lights went out, Charles Leclerc and George Russell took a gamble, darting into the pits for slicks.

However, their call was not the right strategy as Sector 3 was still too wet, and especially for Leclerc, the bold call had damaging repercussions.

Meanwhile the top four of Verstappen, Piastri, Norris and Hamilton were intact through the 239 metre sprint to the first corner, but it was chaos further back.

Liam Lawson and Esteban Ocon collided, going three-wide with Yuki Tsunoda into the first few corners, bringing out the VSC on Lap 2 as Lawson retired.

Moments before the race was neutralised, Pierre Gasly had made up three positions largely owing to Leclerc and Russell’s pit stop. Now under the VSC, more drivers took the opportunity to bolt on slicks, Kimi Antonelli being one of them.

As the VSC pulled in, conditions were tricky out on track. The slippery surface caught out Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who skid off at Turn 2 but managed to keep his car going. However, the Brazilian rookie soon retired after carrying a damaged rear wing which scattered debris over the racing line – bringing out a second VSC on Lap 6.

At the front of the field, Verstappen's lead was heavily under threat as he was compromised by his low-downforce setup, meaning that tyre wear was especially gruelling. Moments before the VSC, Piastri was right on Verstappen’s tail, chasing him down relentlessly through the thick spray.

On Lap 7, we were back to green flag racing, giving Piastri permission to resume his hunt to pass a Verstappen who was visibly struggling. Sliding all over the track and going off at Chapel, the Dutchman didn’t stand a chance against the Australian driver who inherited the lead on Lap 8.

Unfortunately for those who had opted for slicks, more rain was on the horizon. Prior to the race start, Fernando Alonso was given the information that a heavy rain cell would make its impact soon. Sure enough, on Lap 9, the heavens opened above Silverstone.

A heavy downpour set in, driving more cars into the pits to switch back to the intermediates. While the order was shuffled once more, Piastri felt right at home in the lead and began to pull a four-second gap to Verstappen in second.

Moments before the rain dampened the racing action, Verstappen was attempting to put up a fierce defence against Lando Norris in third, while Leclerc and Antonelli went wheel-to-wheel into Stowe.

Norris soon made the move on Verstappen, right before the complete deluge forced Race Control to disable the Drag Reduction System (DRS) on Lap 11.

It was soon a flurry of activity down the pitlane as almost the whole field came in for new tyres, and crucially, McLaren had to execute a double stack to maintain their 1-2 on track. Unfortunately for Norris, it was a slower stop than he’d prefer, giving Verstappen the chance to sneak back into second.

At this stage of the Grand Prix, some unlikely names were in the top spots, including Alex Albon in third after staying out and Lance Stroll in fourth for Aston Martin, drawing frustrated remarks from Alonso who had outqualified his teammate.

With the rain continuing to intensify, Norris was back in Verstappen’s DRS range to take back second, but a Safety Car was released on Lap 14 to equalise the field under the torrential conditions.

This meant that Piastri’s hard-earned gap was wiped clean. On Lap 18, Piastri led the field back to racing, just as Leclerc took a trip to the gravel claiming that he had water leaking in through his visor.

Meanwhile, his teammate Hamilton was stuck behind Ocon, who was yet to stop, and Russell. A classy move into Turn 3 saw the Ferrari driver sail past both the Haas and his former teammate, pushing him up to seventh behind Gasly.

Just as the racing action was warming up, a clash between two rookies brought out yet another Safety Car. Isack Hadjar had clipped Antonelli and subsequently bounced off into the barriers, claiming that he could hardly see the Mercedes driver through the spray ahead of Copse.

The incident damaged Antonelli’s diffuser and dislodged components on his floor, making him the fifth rookie to retire in Silverstone.

As the Safety Car was set to pull in on Lap 21, the defining moment of the Grand Prix was just about to unfold. Race leader Piastri suddenly braked hard and reduced speed in the middle of the straight between Turn 14 and Turn 15, catching Verstappen off guard and momentarily promoting him to P1 under the Safety Car.

Verstappen came over on the radio to complain, and was presumably distracted by the incident – leading to a dramatic spin from second at the restart. The Dutchman plummeted down to tenth, making life easier for Norris who breezed past into second.

Max Verstappen spun out from second, relegating him to tenth | Credit: Formula One

As for Piastri, a potential victory was snatched away from him after being slammed with a costly ten-second penalty for the incident.

Another driver hit with that penalty was Tsunoda, who had tapped the sole remaining rookie in the race, Oliver Bearman, causing the Briton to spin across Brooklands and Luffield.

The rain had well and truly levelled the playing field, as while drama unfolded lap after lap, Hülkenberg had quietly managed to claw his way up to fifth all the way from 19th. The German was currently under pressure from Gasly and Hamilton, the Ferrari driver now becoming more confident with his lap times after complaining of a snappy car earlier in the race.

As the track quickly dried up, DRS was re-enabled on Lap 34 of 52. Hamilton swiftly made his way past Gasly, and lined himself up against Hülkenberg in fourth. Stroll, now third after staying out for track position, was an easy pass for the Sauber and Ferrari on fresher compounds, promoting them to third and fourth respectively.

All the drivers still remained on the intermediate tyres, waiting for other teams to react first and gamble for the slicks on the rapidly drying track. Alonso was the first to blink, stopping on Lap 38 and swapping out his intermediates for slicks.

Russell followed suit, telling his team that he wanted to take the risk, despite his race engineer quipping over the radio that they had to be “brave but not suicidal.”

Unfortunately for the man hoping to lock in his Mercedes contract, his call fell into the ‘suicidal’ category of his engineer’s message as he careened off the track through Maggotts and Becketts on the cold hard tyres.

The rest of the teams took this as a sign – it was still too early to switch to the slicks. The right moment came on Lap 42, causing a melee in the pits once more. All drivers threw off the intermediates with ten laps to go.

Hülkenberg went for the mediums while Hamilton took the softs to suit up for the P3 battle.

One driver chasing his first ever F1 podium after 239 race starts. The driver hunting him down: a nine-time Silverstone winner dreaming of his first podium in red to keep his 11-year streak of top three finishes at home alive. A nail-biting sprint to the finish line was in store.

Just as this high-stakes battle was revving up, Norris was in a dream position. The Briton had leaped into P1 after Piastri served his penalty. Now, he only needed to keep it clean to deliver a maiden home win in front of his very own grandstand.

Lando Norris win — Norris capitalised on the drama to sail into P1 | Credit: Formula One

The final laps of Silverstone provided a riot of action all across the field: Leclerc and Carlos Sainz scrapping outside the points, the Haas teammates making contact and executing a synchronised spin and Verstappen recovering lost positions with moves on Gasly then Stroll were just a few exciting moments as the laps ticked down.

The most thrilling moment of course was the ongoing battle for third, with the race win now firmly in Norris’ grasp.

Hamilton and Hülkenberg were driving their hearts out, rapidly swapping fastest laps. The precarious conditions meant that both drivers had to remain clinical yet rapid.

Hamilton needed to cover a gap of eight seconds with eight laps remaining. However, Hülkenberg had the advantage of clean air, the McLarens a whopping 27 seconds ahead.

Hamilton, stuck in dirty air and quickly running out of laps, was ultimately unable to close the margin and struggled to match the electric pace of Hülkenberg in a Sauber.

The German driver crossed the finish line third for the first time in his F1 career, just behind Norris scoring a jubilant home win and Piastri, furious with the harsh penalty that cost him the win.

Hamilton came home in fourth, ending his legendary streak but achieving his best Grand Prix finish with Ferrari. Another driver ruing what might have been was polesitter Verstappen who followed in fifth, limiting the damage from his uncharacteristic spin in the wet weather.

Lewis Hamilton's long-standing streak of home podiums comes to an end | Credit: Formula One

Gasly made a last-lap lunge on Stroll to take sixth, while Albon, Alonso and Russell rounded out the points. This is Albon’s first race finish since Monaco, a positive result for the part-British driver.

Bearman was the only rookie who finished the race, just outside the points in 11th after a punishing ten-place grid drop that saw him start 18th. He finished ahead of Sainz who split the two Haases.

A nightmare Grand Prix for Leclerc saw the Monegasque cross the line in 14th, his Sunday coming undone with the pre-race gamble. Tsunoda was the last of the 15 qualified drivers, after serving his ten-second time penalty.

Championship Standings

Despite Norris’ back-to-back victories, Piastri remains in the Drivers’ Championship lead but is now just eight points ahead.

It’s tighter than ever between the Papaya drivers who will certainly push each other to extreme limits over the next half of the season, both intent on claiming the title.

The Constructors’ Championship is spicing up too, the midfield now densely packed. A double DNF for Racing Bulls knocked them down a place from seventh, while Hülkenberg's historic podium takes his team to sixth with 41 points.

Williams’ early-season points advantage is now at threat, with only 18 points separating them from Sauber.

Key Quotes

The men of the moment were undoubtedly Hülkenberg and Norris.

The Sauber driver scoring a long-awaited maiden podium after 239 starts was a collective victorious moment for the sport, and Hülkenberg expressed his jubilation, stating: "It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? I always knew we have it in us, and I have it in me somewhere.

"I mean what a race, coming from virtually last, and doing it all over again from last weekend, was pretty surreal to be honest. Not sure how it all happened, but obviously crazy conditions, mixed conditions – it was a survival fight for a lot of the race.

“I think we were just really on it – the right calls, the right tyres in the right moment. We made no mistakes and it’s quite incredible.”

Hulkenberg podium — Hülkenberg shared plenty of wholesome moments with his team while basking in the joy of his first F1 podium | Credit: Formula One

A beaming Norris after his landmark win at Silverstone shared: "The last few laps I was just looking into the crowd.

"I was just trying got take it all in, enjoy the moment because it might never happen again. I hope it does but these are memories that I’ll bring with me forever so – incredible achievement.”

Up Next

From one historic venue to another, F1 travels to Spa-Francorchamps for a Sprint weekend. The battle resumes from 25th to 27th July, with the season reaching its halfway point and storylines cropping up both on and off the track.