Lewis Hamilton
Victory number 99 is perhaps the most controversial in Lewis Hamilton’s career, perhaps also one of the most important. He can turn the tide in this title duel. The events of turn nine are already the most hotly debated of the racing year. Out of the slipstream, Hamilton stabs in the very first lap of his home race in the right-hand arc of the Copse Corner. The muzzle of the Mercedes is already at cockpit height of Max Verstappen’s car, Hamilton claims the curve for himself, Verstappen steers in – there is a dramatic high-speed crash.
Only the rim of the Mercedes is bent, Hamilton can continue to drive when restarting after the termination, and he drives a terrific race. The race management puts at least a legal end to the debates about the question of guilt with a ten-second penalty – Hamilton had done too little to avoid the crash. The penance is done at the pit stop, then the sinner storms forward to his eighth win at Silverstone.
“We never give up,” says team boss Toto Wolff in Hamilton’s cockpit. Comes back an even more determined: “You’re damn right about that, man.” About the accident he only says later that he has nothing to apologize for: “I needed the points, there was a gap that I used. Max also drives very aggressively. I don’t agree with the punishment – but I accepted she. I would have loved to have fought wheel to wheel over the whole distance. “
Max Verstappen
As he stands there in the gravel, supported by the racing doctors, behind him the wreck of the Red Bull racing car in the piles of tires, Max Verstappen doesn’t just have shaky knees. After the crash at 290 km / h and the impact with 51 times his own body weight, horror is clearly written on the face of the Dutchman. He lifts his thumb a little weakly, but the FIA still orders tests at the Coventry hospital to rule out possible head injuries. From there, the 23-year-old texted his fan base in the evening, his bitter assessment of the situation: “I’m okay. But that was already severe. The punishment (for Hamilton) does not help us in any way and does not do justice to Lewis’ dangerous maneuver . “
The delicate trust that had developed between the two title rivals is permanently disrupted. Because Verstappen sent another sentence after he had to watch the award ceremony from the hospital bed: “To celebrate like this is disrespectful and unsporting.” However, Hamilton immediately asked about Verstappen’s condition after the accident and later, like everyone on the track, assumed that nothing more had happened to the opponent. He was discharged from the hospital at 10 p.m. local time. But the climate in this world championship fight is poisoned.
Christian Horner
Anyone who can serve as Bernie Ecclestone’s best man must have proven something in F1. Christian Horner, 47, made the Red Bull racing team what it is today. And not just with sheer kindness. Horner has a keen sense of how he brings racing drivers and an entire team forward. After four Vettel titles in a row at the beginning of the last decade, he now commands a team that can ensure the changing of the guard at the top. Max Verstappen, with his uncompromising attitude, appears to be the ideal foster son. Since the beginning of the season, the feud between Horner and Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff has been tougher than that of their racing drivers, although small nasties and larger accusations are usually made with a smile.
That stopped since the crash. First, corporate consultant Helmut Marko describes Hamilton’s approach as “inconsiderate, dangerous and negligent” and calls for the “maximum penalty”. After the race, Horner goes one or two more. Out of desperation, Hamilton made a terrible misjudgment that it was “amateurish” for a seven-time world champion. Horner also assumes that with the crash he caused he achieved everything he had planned – up to and including the total loss of the Red Bull Honda: “To achieve victory through such an accident, you can’t enjoy that.”
Charles Leclerc
To be in the lead after the first lap is a dream that everyone on the second row of the grid has. For Charles Leclerc, who entered the race fourth, it has come true. Due to the crash of Hamilton and Verstappen, of course, but also thanks to their own lightning start. Until two laps before the end, Monegasse can even dream of its first Ferrari victory since autumn 2019, but then Hamilton fills the rearview mirror almost completely and sits down next to the red car – again in the ominous Copse curve.
With the pictures of what happened in the first lap in the back of his mind, Leclerc prefers to give his opponent space right away, slides a little into the outside of the curve and finally sums up his best position since last season’s opening race as follows: “I’m 50 percent frustrated, but also 50 percent happy. ” As for his own performance, he can justifiably claim: “I gave 200 percent. But that wasn’t enough against Mercedes.” After all: Ferrari’s upward trend continues.
Sebastian Vettel
Thinking in green works very well with the four-time world champion. Before the last race in Austria, Sebastian Vettel built a bee hotel in Graz with children, and before the race in Silverstone he went to a school in nearby Towcester to talk about sustainability and to plant a tree. With the british racing green On the other hand, things are not going so well on the slopes. Fairly easy to read from the brevity and quality of the answers he gave to the F1 broadcaster Sky gives. At the beginning there is the promising eighth place on the grid at his home game – the Aston Martin racing factory is exactly opposite the entrance to the Silverstone Circuit.
But a spin after a wheel-to-wheel duel with his permanent rival Fernando Alonso throws Vettel to the end of the field: “I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I guess I misjudged the situation and then the grip lost.” Twelve laps before the end, Vettel only has the Haas cars behind in 17th place, the team pits him – for technical reasons, the engine starts to overheat. Nobody would resent a task due to a lack of prospects.
Mick Schumacher
And suddenly the display is black, only a red light is still on on the steering wheel. Justament at the moment when something happens that rarely happens in the Haas racing team: Nikita Masepin, the second man in the team, can overtake the German racing driver. Okay, it’s just an overtaking maneuver that makes the difference between being last and penultimate in the race. But Schumacher junior is of course annoyed about it, even though he can’t even remember the blackout in the cockpit.
Rather, he struggled with his fresh tires: “We shouldn’t overheat them in the first few laps, but that’s where Nikita attacked. Apparently he got along better with the tires.” Bad luck for him, but the 22-year-old politely tries to hide his anger: “I’m not satisfied, that would be a lie.” He finds it more annoying than his 18th place that Haas threatens to lose touch with the front.
Lando Norris
The public knows from the police report what the wristwatch of the next best British pilot after Hamilton is, or was, worth: 40,000 pounds. Robbed after the lost Euro final, in the parking lot of the Wembley Stadium. He admitted before the race weekend at Silverstone, but the best distraction for him is to concentrate. With a look at the stopwatch, he managed that quite well.
For a long time in the race it looks as if he could actually make it to third place with the McLaren. But then a wheel nut jams during the pit stop, and in the end Norris remains in fourth place. That is enough, however, to be promoted to third place in the world championship. That makes up, and the only 21-year-old likes to play the team: “It’s a bit frustrating, of course, but even without the botched grip it probably wouldn’t have made it onto the podium. The guys in the pits feel bad – and so do I. “