Kimi Antonelli is back in the winner’s column, taking the first sprint race victory of his Formula 1 career on Saturday at Silverstone.The 19-year-old started second behind home favorite Lewis Hamilton and swept past the seven-time world champion on Lap 8 of 17 to take the lead.Lando Norris, another of five British drivers in this year’s field, improved from a starting position of sixth to finish third. But he crossed the line almost 10 seconds behind the top two.Hamilton held off Antonelli at the start of the first of two races this weekend, and the pair built up a comfortable gap to a train of drivers behind them.Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Norris all exchanged places over the opening laps, as the reality of managing engine energy around Silverstone became clear.
Energy deployment came into play on the move for the lead, with Antonelli pestering Hamilton into Village eight laps in and forcing the Ferrari driver to use up much of his battery energy holding him off.On the Hangar Straight later in the same lap, there was nothing Hamilton could do as the Mercedes moved past him. The seven-time world champion was then unable to eat into the near three-second gap that Antonelli built up to the finish.Russell recovered from a scrappy start to finish fourth, Leclerc came fifth, Verstappen finished where he started in sixth, while Oscar Piastri could not improve on seventh. Liam Lawson took the race’s final point in eighth.Results:1 Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes2 Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari3 Lando Norris, McLaren4 George Russell, Mercedes5 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari6 Max Verstappen, Red Bull7 Oscar Piastri, McLaren8 Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls9 Isack Hadjar, Red Bull10 Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls11 Pierre Gasly, Alpine12 Franco Colapinto, Alpine13 Nico Hülkenberg, Audi14 Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi15 Ollie Bearman, Haas16 Esteban Ocon, Haas17 Carlos Sainz, Williams18 Alex Albon, Williams19 Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac20 Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin21 Lance Stroll, Aston Martin22 Sergio Pérez, Cadillac
