Three Britons can win at Silverstone but Oscar Piastri has his own script
Photo:
BARNI Cristiano / PHOTOSPORT
Three British winners have their sights on a home grand prix victory this weekend but Oscar Piastri could rain on that particular parade as Formula One returns to where the championship started 75 years ago.
Australia's championship leader can still count on plenty of support as a McLaren driver but much of the crowd, and certainly the 10,000 in Silverstone's sold-out 'Landostand', will be cheering more for British teammate Lando Norris.
Norris won Piastri's home grand prix in Melbourne in March, an added incentive for the Australian at Silverstone, and the pair are turning the season into a two-horse race as the campaign reaches the halfway point.
Piastri is chasing a sixth win in 12 races while Norris arrives from Austria on a high after dominating every practice session he took part in, taking pole by a huge margin and holding off his teammate to win.
The two are 15 points apart, with Red Bull's reigning four-times world champion Max Verstappen third overall but now a hefty 61 points off the lead after a first retirement of the season at his team's home track at Spielberg.
If Norris's support is strong, then Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton will always be the big sentimental favourite.
The last two races have been won by British drivers -- George Russell for Mercedes in Canada and then Norris last weekend. Could Hamilton make it three and send the crowd crazy?
British F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
Photo:
Paul Bonser / PHOTOSPORT
The 40-year-old won with Mercedes last year for a record ninth time and taking that tally into double figures, in what will be his first home appearance in the Italian team's red colours, would be something else.
Ferrari are the only top-four team without a win this season, other than Hamilton's Shanghai sprint success, and the seven-times world champion has yet to stand on the podium for his new employers.
He has also gone 13 races without a top-three finish, a career low.
Russell, on pole as Hamilton's teammate last year, also has a strong chance -- particularly if temperatures cool -- and will be eager to bounce back from a tough weekend in Austria.
Italian rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli meanwhile carries over a three-place grid drop from Austria.
New Zealand's Liam Lawson will be hoping he can carry over his sixth place form from Austria in his first F1 race at Silverstone.
New Zealand F1 driver Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, Austria 2025.
Photo:
ALBERTO VIMERCATI / PHOTOSPORT
Formula One statistics for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the 12th round of the 24-race championship:
Lap distance: 5.891km. Total distance: 306.198km (52 laps)
2024 pole position: George Russell (Britain) Mercedes one minute 25.819 seconds.
2024 race winner: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes
Race lap record: Max Verstappen (Netherlands), 1:27.097 (Red Bull, 2020)
Start time: 2am Monday NZ time (1500 local)
Sunday's race will be the 76th British Grand Prix since the championship started in 1950, and is on the fifth longest track on the calendar.
Four British drivers are on the grid, three of them race winners -- Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes's George Russell and McLaren's Lando Norris. The fourth is Haas's Oliver Bearman.
Williams's Alex Albon, although British born, races with a Thai licence.
Hamilton has won a record nine times.
The Ferrari driver has been on pole seven times at Silverstone and on the podium 14 times. No driver has been on the podium more at a home race.
Every winner has started from fourth or higher since 2000 and Mercedes have won nine of the last 12.
Four current drivers have won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone: Hamilton (2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024), Fernando Alonso (2006, 2011), Carlos Sainz (2022) and Verstappen (2023).
Verstappen also won what was designated the '70th anniversary race' at the circuit in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the first time Silverstone had hosted two rounds in a single season.
With Italy, Britain is one of two ever-present races on the calendar. This year's will be the 59th held at Silverstone.
Ferrari have won the British GP 18 times.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri leads the drivers' championship by 15 points from teammate Lando Norris. Verstappen is 61 points behind Piastri.
Leaders and champions McLaren are 207 points clear of Ferrari, with Mercedes a further point adrift.
Piastri has won five of 10 races this season, Norris three, Verstappen two and Russell one.
Seven-times world champion Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 367 starts. Verstappen has won 65 grands prix and is third on the all-time list after Michael Schumacher on 91.
Piastri and Norris both have seven career wins.
McLaren have had four one-two finishes this season, their most since 2007. They have won eight of 11 races.
Piastri has been on pole four times this season, Verstappen and Norris three times each and Russell once.
Norris has started on the front row in six of 11.
Both McLaren drivers have finished on the podium nine times in 2025.
Charles Leclerc's second place in Monaco was Ferrari's best of the season so far. The Monegasque has been on the podium in three of the last four races.
Piastri is the only driver to have scored in every race this season, with Norris's run ending after a late collision with his teammate in Canada and Verstappen's after a collision with Mercedes's Kimi Antonelli in Austria.
Piastri has scored for 37 race weekends in a row, if sprints are included.
Only one driver on the grid has yet to score -- Alpine rookie Franco Colapinto.
Red Bull's 77-race scoring streak, four short of Ferrari's record, ended in Austria. Verstappen had been on a 31-race points run.
Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto is the first Brazilian to score points since Felipe Massa in 2017.
-Reuters
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