2025 British Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
Jul 6
4 min read

Norris Wins at Home as Hulkenberg Delivers First Podium

It was cheers all around for the home British crowd as Lando Norris took the chequered flag first to win the 2025 British Grand Prix! An angry Oscar Piastri had to settle for second after a Safety Car penalty whilst Nico Hulkenberg took home an iconic maiden Podium for Kick Sauber! Yes, you read that right!

The Biggest Talking Points

The Formation Lap looked surprisingly dry, resulting in a number of drivers heading straight into the pits for slick tyres, most notably George Russell and Charles Leclerc! However, when the Race got underway, it was clearly too wet as Max Verstappen led from Oscar Piastri whilst Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton ran third and fourth (respectively)! Liam Lawson was a casualty at the start, getting wiped out by Esteban Ocon (who in fairness had nowhere to go) whilst Gabriel Bortoleto also crashed following the Virtual Safety Car restart! Franco Colapinto also failed to start the Race because of technical issues, a disaster for him! The track was ever changing, sometimes it was a lot wetter, sometimes it was a lot dryer, but this seemingly favoured Oscar Piastri as Piastri cleared for Verstappen to take the lead of the Grand Prix! Whilst none of the dry tyre runners were running particularly well, one person who’s gamble did pay off is Lance Stroll as he made progress through the field on his warm Soft compound tyre before pitting back onto a set of intermediates as the rain started to pour a lot harder again! In fact, this forced basically everyone to pit, with Max losing a place to Lando Norris after making a mistake, only to regain the place back after Norris had a slow stop! The rain wouldn’t stop lashing it down, though, meaning a Safety Car was brought out, losing Oscar Piastri a 13-second advantage out front! When we got back going again, it didn’t take too long for another Safety Car to come out as Isack Hadjar smashed into the wall at Copse following contact with Andrea Kimi Antonelli! Both men ultimately retired!

This is when the big moment of the Race came as Oscar Piastri broke hard following the announcement of the Safety Car coming back into the pits, resulting in the pack really bunching up and Oscar receiving a 10-second time penalty! To make matters worse, the following corner saw Max Verstappen spin around in his Red Bull, dropping all the way down to 10th! I’m still so unsure about this, at first I thought Oscar had broken down, I can see both sides to this, I wonder if maybe a 5-second penalty would’ve been fairer, but ultimately, I don’t know! Anyway, this promoted Lance Stroll into the Podium places, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg whilst Yuki Tsunoda spun around Oliver Bearman! As the track started to dry up a little, Stroll really struggled for pace in his Aston Martin, being dispatched by both Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton as Pierre Gasly held up George Russell! Speaking of George Russell, he made the decision to take a gamble and box for slick tyres, and this didn’t go very well at all (again) as Russell went spinning through Maggots and Becketts! However, eventually it was dry enough for slick tyres, with this finally promoting Lando Norris into the lead of the British Grand Prix thanks to Oscar having to serve his 10-second time penalty! The two Haas’ came to blows, Charles Leclerc made a mistake which ultimately took Carlos Sainz out of the points too, whilst Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly were able to make late moves on Lance Stroll as Aston Martin’s pace collapsed in the dryer conditions!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out two 10’s for the 2025 British Grand Prix and the first one is for Nico Hulkenberg! Wow, the most deserving 10 of the season, I think! Incredible, I’ve been watching Nico Hulkenberg for so long now, driving for so many different teams (Force India, Renault, Racing Point, Haas) so to finally secure his maiden Podium, in a Kick Sauber no less, is absolutely sensational! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Pierre Gasly, I think to finish P6 in an Alpine that’s looked pretty horrendous recently is a remarkable achievement that won’t get talked about enough! Lando Norris obviously had a great day, he won his Home Race, but I just can’t quite give him a 10 whilst Lance Stroll was so close, I mean so close to a 10, but it just wasn’t quite meant to be!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I’ve given out three 1’s for today’s Race, and the first one is for Yuki Tsunoda! Yuki was so slow, so slow, he finished last on the road, and he got a penalty for wiping out Oliver Bearman, that says it all! The second driver I’ve given out the lowest possible grade to is Isack Hadjar, because he ultimately crashed and took both himself and (eventually) Andrea Kimi Antonelli out of the running! The final driver I’ve given a 1 to is Gabriel Bortoleto, crashing out of a Race is always going to be a disaster, but even more so when your teammate ends up on the Podium! Whilst I didn’t give him a 1, we do need to talk about Charles Leclerc because he had an absolute shocker to finish 14th, insanely poor (not helped by his team either)!