Damon Hill believes the racing between Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton at the end of the British Grand Prix was "hard but fair" amid questions over a lack of late-race penalties. Following a late Safety Car, the race at Silverstone ended with an enticing battle for the podium between four drivers; Leclerc, Perez, Hamilton and Carlos Sainz. With Sainz able to pass for the lead and break away, the remaining three drivers competed for the final two podium places. There were numerous off-track moments involving all three drivers during overtaking manoeuvres and some hard defending, prompting Fernando Alonso to predict a post-race penalty for Leclerc , but the stewards elected not to hand out any penalties. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Hill believed that the stewards were correct not to act on the combative racing. "There was a little bit of touching, and a little bit of shoving, and leaning on people, but I think that when the race directors received a protest, it seemed to be very quickly dealt with," said Hill. "Basically they said 'no, we're not going to do anything, that's fair racing', and I think that was a good sign." The 1996 World Champion added that much of the off-track moments were part of the tough racing and described the final laps of the British GP as "hard but fair". "This is just what happens when you race, it's what happens when you've got a guy diving down inside. You can't make room for everyone," added Hill. "Sometimes you use all of the road! We saw Lewis going off at turn three, and you could say 'well, he was pushed off by Sergio' but not really. Sergio dived down the inside and Lewis had to give up track position. "It was brilliant watching some very exciting racing, and I thought it was hard but fair. We had Charles and Lewis going around the outside of Copse, that was so unbelievably good."
Hill: Silverstone race a testimony to 2022 regulations
The competitiveness in the closing stages of the race was seen all the way to the chequered flag. Along with the contest for the podium, Alpine's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Lando Norris battled for P5, whilst Mick Schumacher (Haas) competed for P7 against Max Verstappen (Red Bull). Hill added that he believed the race at Silverstone showed that the aerodynamic regulation changes brought in at the start of 2022 can work at the correct venues. "We have had some processional races where people couldn't get close enough in the fast corners to be able to get the DRS to work but, this time, they were able to do that," Hill continued. "They were able to get their car, follow through the Becketts section, and then get close enough to have a run down to Stowe. "There was some really incredibly close racing, and I think that it showed that these cars can get really close in the high-downforce corners because they were very close for a long time, and it set up the most thrilling finish."
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