Hamilton records a record eighth home Grand Prix win, both McLaren drivers finish in the top five and Verstappen scores despite not completing a single lap of the race. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2021 British Grand Prix.
HOME VICTORY FOR HAMILTON
Lewis Hamilton recorded his 99th career victory with his eighth win at the British Grand Prix. Hamilton ended a streak of five win-less races – his longest win-less streak since the six races between the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix and the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton scored 27 points over the British Grand Prix weekend, having also picked up two points for his second place in Sprint Qualifying. It’s the second largest points total scored over a single F1 weekend. The record is held by Hamilton himself, who scored 50 points with his win at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton led only three laps on his way to victory at the 2021 British Grand Prix. He also led only three laps on his way to winning the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The only race which he has won and led fewer laps was the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, where he led only two tours of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Hamilton’s latest British Grand Prix win puts him one home victory away from equalling Michael Schumacher as the driver to have won on home soil the most times. Though Hamilton has scored all of his home wins at Silverstone, Schumacher benefited from having both Hockenheim and the Nurburgring on the calendar during his time in F1.
Hamilton’s win was his eighth at Silverstone, equalling the record for most wins at a single track. It’s a feat which he has achieved before, having already won eight times at the Hungaroring. Schumacher is the other driver to have eight wins at a single circuit: he took eight victories at Magny Cours. Hamilton also equals the record for most podium finishes at a single circuit. This was his twelfth at Silverstone – Schumacher took twelve podiums at Imola, Catalunya and Montreal.
It has now been over fourteen years since Lewis Hamilton’s first F1 victory at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. His 2021 British Grand Prix makes him only the third driver, after Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, to have a gap of more than fourteen years between their first and last Grand Prix wins. He also moves ahead of Schumacher in the list of drivers who have had the longest winning period in F1. Schumacher took his first win at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix, and his last at the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix – a gap of 14 years, one month and one day. Race day at the British Grand Prix marked 14 years, one month and eight days since Hamilton’s first win at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. Only Raikkonen has a longer gap between his first and most recent win.
ON THE PODIUM
Charles Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver to finish as runner-up at Silverstone since Fernando Alonso in 2012. The team recorded seven podium finishes in the interim period, but no second place finishes.
Leclerc led 49 laps of the 2021 British Grand Prix, but failed to win the race. It’s the fifth time this year that the driver who led the most laps of the race did not take victory. This was Leclerc’s first podium finish since last year’s British Grand Prix.
With Valtteri Bottas finishing third, the 2021 British Grand Prix marked the sixth time that both Mercedes cars have finished on the podium at Silverstone.
Bottas’ third place finish ensured that he became the fifth driver to have scored more than 100 points at the Silverstone circuit.
This was the first time since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix that Mercedes finished first and third with a Ferrari driver between them.
This was the eleventh Formula 1 race in which the driver who started second won, the driver starting fourth finished second and the driver who started third finished third. It last happened at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
THE TOP 10
For the first time since the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, both McLaren drivers finished in the top five. While Daniel Ricciardo recorded his best McLaren result to date with fifth place, Lando Norris recorded his sixth consecutive top five finish. It was also the fifteenth consecutive race in which the British driver has scored. Impressively, that’s a new record for the most consecutive points-scoring appearances for a McLaren driver in Formula 1.
Both McLaren drivers finished the British Grand Prix in the top five. It was the first time both of the team’s cars have scored at Silverstone since 2014, and the first time both cars finished in the top five at the circuit since the 2010 British Grand Prix.
With Pierre Gasly tenth and Yuki Tsunoda eleventh, AlphaTauri recorded an identical result at Silverstone to what they scored at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
Two drivers starting outside of the top ten scored points: Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda. For a second Silverstone race in succession, the driver who started fourteenth finished eighth and the driver who started sixteenth finished tenth.
With eighth place, Stroll equalled his best result of the 2021 season. This was his fourth eighth place finish of the year.
Esteban Ocon finished in ninth place, scoring for the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix. This was Ocon’s fourth ninth place finish of the season. The Frenchman maintains his 100% points-scoring rate at Silverstone.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
For the first time since last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly finished a race but in a position outside of the points. The Frenchman finished eleventh, just as he did in the Sakhir race.
It wasn’t a stellar weekend for Kimi Raikkonen. He was the only driver to finish the race in a position lower than where he started. However, it was a record breaking weekend for the Finn, who became the first driver to race at a single circuit on twenty occasions. The 2021 British Grand Prix was Raikkonen’s 20th appearance at Silverstone, and he has now raced over 1,000 laps at the circuit. Only Rubens Barrichello has toured the track more times. While Raikkonen has completed 1,036 laps, Barrichello’s total is 1,049.
With Sergio Perez finishing sixteenth and Max Verstappen retiring, Red Bull failed to score at Silverstone for the first time since the 2008 British Grand Prix. Perez recorded the fastest lap of the race – the fifth time he has done so in his career – but did not pick up a point for it as he did not finish inside the top ten.
This was the first time since the Portuguese Grand Prix that someone other than Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race.
Perez’s sixteenth place finish ended a run of seven consecutive points finishes for the Red Bull driver. It’s the first time that neither Red Bull driver has scored in a Grand Prix since the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – but Verstappen’s pole position does at least mean the team take some points away from the weekend.
For only the second time, both Haas cars reached the chequered flag at Silverstone. While Nikita Mazepin finished seventeenth, Mick Schumacher was last of the classified finishers in eighteenth place. The 2017 British Grand Prix is the only other Silverstone race in which both Haas cars have crossed the finish line.
THE RETIREES
Despite not completing a single lap of the 2021 British Grand Prix, Max Verstappen still picked up points over the weekend having scored three points after taking pole position in Sprint Qualifying.
Verstappen suffered a 51G impact in his first lap crash – the third largest suffered by a driver in the V6 hybrid era. It brought out the red flags for the fifth time at Silverstone – the first time it has happened since Kimi Raikkonen’s opening lap crash in 2014.
Verstappen’s retirement made this the fourth race in a row held on 18th July in which a driver has retired on the first lap of the Grand Prix, as well as the third consecutive race on this date in which the polesitter has retired.
This was the sixth race of the ten so far in the 2021 season which the polesitter has failed to win. This is only the third time in the last 50 races that the polesitter failed to score. It’s the first time that the polesitter has retired at Silverstone since the 2014 British Grand Prix, which Nico Rosberg failed to finish.
In all of the last thirteen Formula 1 races, Max Verstappen has either won, finished second, or retired.
Sebastian Vettel was the other driver to retire from the 2021 British Grand Prix, recording his second non finish of the season. This was the German’s third retirement at Silverstone – his first since the 2013 British Grand Prix.