It was a weekend in which Max Verstappen dominated, taking a lights-to-flag win, the fastest lap, and previously sealing pole position. Behind him, it was Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas in second place, with the final podium spot taken by McLaren's Lando Norris. It was a successful day for some, whilst others will be keen to move on from the second Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in as many weeks. RacingNews365.com takes a look at the main winners and losers from Sunday's race in Austria.
Winners
Lewis Hamilton
Regardless of your take on his responsibility for the crash that took out Max Verstappen, there's no question Hamilton was the big winner at Silverstone. Found predominantly to blame for the crash, Hamilton escaped being forced out of the race due to damage as the red flags were shown. Able to make the repairs needed to keep going, Hamilton stalked Leclerc in the opening stint and then fell to fifth as he served a ten second time penalty for the crash. With Carlos Sainz taken care of due to a slow pit stop, Hamilton quickly caught and passed Lando Norris as, unlike Austria, McLaren had no answer for Mercedes' pace. An obedient Bottas got out of the way, and Charles Leclerc was powerless to stop Hamilton from powering through. While Hamilton did put in a great recovery drive, there were plenty of factors of luck that contributed. Fortunate to survive the crash itself, fortunate to be able to repair the damage without any time loss, and fortunate to be punished in a way that allowed Mercedes to count it into their strategy to ensure minimal time and position loss. Closing in 25 points in the Driver's Championship at your home race while Red Bull score zero points in the Constructor's? That's a win and a half...
Charles Leclerc
From being unable to score points in France a few weeks ago, to leading convincingly until the closing stages, Charles Leclerc had one of his brilliant races at Silverstone. Seemingly a match for Hamilton on the medium compound for the first stint, the hard tyre pace wasn't quite there for Ferrari and Leclerc fell into the clutches of a recovering Hamilton. Had he not had the engine issues that cost him time earlier in the race, he may have had a few more seconds in hand towards the chequered flag and may have been able to hang on longer. But, realistically, second place was the more likely result either way once Hamilton had managed to get past Lando Norris. With Ferrari clearly going in the right direction, is it only a matter of time until Leclerc is properly able to join in the fight at the front?
Alpine
Both Alpine drivers had strong weekends overall, with Fernando Alonso continuing to establish himself as the team leader. Alonso was lucky to get away with a mistake on his way to the grid, damaging his diffuser in the process. While the car was roughly repaired during the red flag stoppage, he had to fight against Aston Martin's Lance Stroll with a slight performance deficit. Despite this, Alonso won out thanks to a great pass on Stroll at Brooklands and came home in seventh place overall. Esteban Ocon had a stronger weekend than he's had lately, seemingly happier with his new chassis and the changes the team have made to help him. However, he was lucky to come home in the points, gaining places due to Sergio Perez pitting to take a point away from Mercedes, and Pierre Gasly picking up a puncture.
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo's signs of recovery continued at Silverstone, with the Australian coming home a competitive fifth after slotting in behind Lando Norris in qualifying and the Sprint Qualifying race. Soaking up a lot of pressure from the pursuing Carlos Sainz, Ricciardo didn't put a wheel wrong to come home just one position behind Norris. There's still work to be done, given that Norris seemed to have a lot more race pace than Ricciardo, but the Australian finally seems able to put the car roughly where it should be in the pecking order and can now concentrate on exploiting more of the car's potential as Norris has been able to do.
Losers
Max Verstappen
The stewards ultimately ruled in his favour, but it was a nightmare day for Max Verstappen. The more innocent party of the two leaders, the Dutch driver had a huge hit with the barrier. His radio messages back to Red Bull revealed just how winded and hurt he was in the seconds after the impact but, thankfully, Verstappen appears to have come through the incident largely unhurt and with time to recover before the next race. From there, Verstappen was a helpless spectator as Hamilton managed to get away with the damage he'd picked up due to the red flag stoppage. An agonising 90 minutes of watching Hamilton recover from his penalty to take the win and 25 points out of his championship lead must have had Verstappen throwing the remote at his hospital television screen. Having bounced back admirably from the disappointment of Baku, Verstappen must now dust himself off again and steady the ship before the summer break. To add to Verstappen's problems, the fact that he may need another new power unit is another concern. At this point in the season, needing a new power unit would almost certainly trigger a grid penalty later in the year. There's probably an argument there to be had whether teams should be given dispensation to take a new restricted part if the damage incurred is found to have not been entirely their fault..
Sergio Perez
A bad day for Red Bull, in general, with Sergio Perez unable to pick up the pieces after his disastrous Sprint Qualifying race. Having qualified well on Friday, Perez didn't make a good start to the Sprint Qualifying race and, just seven laps in, lost control of the RB16B in the dirty air behind Ricciardo. Lucky to avoid crashing out, he had no pace after that and was retired with a lap to go having made no real recovery. Starting from the pit lane was always going to be a tall order, and Perez did reasonably well to climb back and look at seventh at the chequered flag. But, for obvious fastest lap reasons, he was pitted again and fell outside the points. Had Perez not taken himself out of contention on Saturday, he may have been able to play a bigger role on Sunday. A win, possibly, or at least holding back Hamilton after the Mercedes driver had to serve his time penalty. Red Bull need more.
Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz was unlucky to, inadvertently, also end up serving a ten second penalty at his pit stop, despite not having been given one. Ferrari's sticky wheel doomed Sainz to falling off the back of the leading battle, with a potential podium lost as a result. A philosophical Sainz said afterwards that it was the first time it had happened all year, and that there was no point getting too annoyed about it. A good opportunity lost, through no fault of his own.
Sebastian Vettel
Flashes of the Sebastian Vettel that Ferrari wanted rid of showed up again at Silverstone. The German driver looked on the pace throughout qualifying and the Sprint Qualifying and he was dueling with Fernando Alonso over seventh place when he lost control of the AMR21 exiting Woodcote. A sheepish Vettel admitted he'd made a misjudgement putting on the throttle, losing control of the car once again in a wheel to wheel battle. Certainly not his finest hour, and will need to bounce back in Hungary.
Valtteri Bottas
On a day where Verstappen was out of the race and Hamilton was compromised, Bottas should have been the man to lead the way. Instead, Bottas ended up behind Leclerc and, with the Ferrari driver taking the lead after the collision up front, Bottas' race was doomed to finish behind Hamilton as the reigning Champion recovered. Had Bottas managed to stay in front of Leclerc at the start, or find a way past the Ferrari during the race, he would have taken a commanding role to prevent Mercedes from issuing the team order to let Hamilton past. At least, until Hamilton got past Leclerc himself with two laps to go. At a time when his contract is up for negotiation, Bottas yielded without question when told to do so, knowing that he couldn't have won the race anyway. It was a typical performance from a driver who excels at passivity.
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