SILVERSTONE — Charles Leclerc won a chaotic British Grand Prix Sunday, while drivers’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli fell down the order late on when victory looked likely as a mechanical issue struck his car towards the end of a race which finished under the safety car.Max Verstappen was on course for a second-straight podium finish, but spun into the gravel on Lap 47 with five laps to go, bringing out the safety car.Silverstone braced itself for one full lap of racing on the final lap, with teams being told that the safety car was ending on Lap 52, but it stayed out, leading to an anticlimactic finish.Verstappen’s problems promoted George Russell into third. Russell then moved second after Ferrari’s decision to pit Lewis Hamilton — who looked on track for second place and what would have been a first one-two finish for Ferrari since that 2024 race at the Circuit of the Americas — cost him track position, with the seven-time champion finishing third.It is the fourth podium of the season, and second in a row, for Russell, who did not appear to be in contention for top-three finish for much of the race.Antonelli was challenging for the win when he sustained a front-left wheel shield issue going over the kerb, forcing him to pit twice and leading to a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, taking him to 16th place.Madeline Coleman and Luke Smith were at Silverstone to analyze the key talking points.Was Leclerc a worthy winner?Ferrari fans needed to keep their hopes and dreams in check after the start. Leclerc may have zipped past Antonelli to lead the pack, but a long 52 laps laid ahead of the grid, on a track where the long straights could expose the car’s energy deployment and power deficit.Silverstone is an energy-starved track, featuring long straights and lacking hard braking zones where drivers can recharge their batteries. Ferrari long has said it faces a power deficit to Mercedes, but there was a sense of ‘what if’ as Leclerc continued to hold a multi-second gap over championship leader Antonelli as the race neared the halfway mark.Leclerc hadn’t won a race since the 2024 U.S. Grand Prix, and he’s only podiumed twice this season, in Australia and Japan. Meanwhile, teammate Lewis Hamilton has thrived. The seven-time world champion secured his first victory with the team in Barcelona and three other podium finishes this season, while Leclerc has endured a rocky stint, lacking absolute confidence in qualifying.(Mark Thompson / Getty Images)“My driving style is quite aggressive, which seemed to work quite well at the beginning of the year,” he said, after qualifying second for Sunday’s race. “But recently, for one reason or another, it was just incredibly difficult to put things together.”Would Sunday be different?Leclerc pitted on Lap 26 and rejoined second, 15 seconds behind Antonelli. Mercedes opted to play the long game, and the Italian driver pushed in clean air. Leclerc was only gaining a few tenths a lap on Antonelli, a number that was dwindling as everyone waited for Antonelli to dive into the pits. The Ferrari was still just over 13 seconds behind on Lap 34.Two laps later, Antonelli pitted and rejoined 7.7 seconds behind Leclerc. The gap was down to four seconds during the virtual safety car, and Ferrari opted against pitting Leclerc despite Antonelli having fresher tires.It was a mad dash to the end, the Ferrari driver sounding a bit worried about whether he’d be caught. He said to his race engineer, “We are not in a very good place.”(Clive Rose / Getty Images)It looked like Antonelli was gaining until he started slowing, diving into the pits as he reported something felt broken over the radio. It became a Ferrari 1-2 with Leclerc in the lead, 10 laps to go.