Martin Brandl on the results of the British Grand Prix

      Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle summarized the British Grand Prix...

      What a race! It happens so often at Silverstone. We held our breath. So many events took place that it's hard to remember them all.

      First, congratulations to Lando Norris on his impressive victory on home soil, and to Nico Hülkenberg, who finished third, his first podium in 239 races. He is a much better driver than he may appear. I feel for second-place finisher Oscar Piastri; in many ways, it was his win, but safety car twice thwarted him.

      Initially, his impressive 14-second lead disappeared when the safety car was deployed due to very poor visibility in heavy rain. Then, when the race restarted on the 21st lap, the safety car's roof lights went out, signaling it was entering the pits, at a moment when Oscar was in the brake warming phase. At that point, he violated rule 55.15 of the Sporting Regulations concerning unpredictable braking or maneuvers.

      This is a very important rule, preventing the "accordion effect," which in poor visibility can lead to serious incidents behind. The question centered on the size of the penalty.

      The standard penalty is 10 seconds; mitigating circumstances can reduce it to five. However, the stewards decided not to reduce the penalty, judging by telemetry data the car's speed and braking force.

      At the finish, Lando beat Oscar by 6.8 seconds, so the penalty was decisive, although we’ll never know what speeds each could have achieved if necessary.

      This in no way diminishes Lando's victory; he should have won last year if not for tire choices, and this was his moment in front of the ecstatic crowd, which found a new hero after Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton.

      We were very surprised to learn that before the start, the cars would line up behind the safety car, although the track was mostly dry. At the end of the warm-up lap, George Russell, Isaac Hajar, Charles Leclerc, and Gabriel Bortolotto went into the pits to switch to slick tires and started from the back of the pit lane. The decision was risky, and soon Bortolotto ended up in the wall.

      Mercedes has a strange habit of running Hard tires in changeable conditions; they heat up slowly but last a long distance, and this was a case where data outweighed common sense.

      We saw many clumsy collisions, sometimes not even in fight but just when cars brushed against each other. Having tested one of these cars a couple of weeks ago, I am not surprised at all: they are so long and wide, and the cockpit visibility is so poor that it’s no wonder drivers bump into each other.

      Max Verstappen won the qualifying for Red Bull. Six drivers battled for pole, but as Norris, Piastri, Hamilton, and Leclerc made small mistakes, Verstappen demonstrated precision once again. However, he reduced downforce for higher top speed on straights, expecting it wouldn’t be so wet on Sunday. Due to the setup choices, he lacked grip during the race; he spun out, the car was sideways, but he still finished fifth.

      Overall, it was one of those days when timing the right tire choice was key, regardless of the time lost in pits.

      Starting last, Hülkenberg received intermediate tires on the ninth lap, and on the 43rd lap, slicks.

      Lance Stroll, starting 17th, began on intermediates, then switched to Softs on the ninth lap when his team warned teammate Fernando Alonso of heavy rain coming soon.

      Four laps later, Stroll pitted for intermediates again, and on the 42nd lap, returned to Soft. The final tire choice was a mistake, but he stayed in fourth place for a long time until falling to seventh at the end.

      Surprisingly, 15 of the 19 participants finished the race.

      Franco Colapinto couldn’t start from the pit lane due to transmission problems on the Alpine, but the remaining 19 drivers can tell long stories about the dangerous situations in this race, as conditions were extremely challenging.

      Hamilton again showed a good performance, finishing fourth. Throughout the weekend, he outperformed his teammate Leclerc. Lewis suffered from heavy rain and poor visibility but gained significantly when conditions improved.

      Leclerc said he had been choosing extreme car setups lately, which didn't work well with such levels of grip. It was arguably one of his worst races in Ferrari.

      McLaren drivers were two seconds faster than the others in some phases of the race. It seems that the championship fight will truly unfold between Piastri and Norris, and it will be very interesting.

      For the first time, we saw the angry side of the calm and silent Australian assassin. However, Oscar’s radio call asking the team to swap him with his teammate if he was unfairly penalized was more than daring.

      As for the Constructors’ Cup, it can already be handed to McLaren.