Silverstone, July 4: Kimi Antonelli returned to winning ways in Formula 1 with a sprint race victory and pole position for the British Grand Prix on a day of struggles for his title rival George Russell.
After overtaking Lewis Hamilton to deny the British star a crowd-pleasing victory in the sprint, Antonelli doubled up with pole position for Sunday’s race.
He went fastest on his last lap by 0.175 of a second from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton third.
Russell was fourth in the sprint and then again in qualifying, after contact with the wall early on, and will start Sunday’s race behind the two Ferraris.
Antonelli’s sprint race win
Hamilton started on pole and held off Antonelli until lap eight of 17, when the Italian swept past with the help of electrical power. Hamilton was back fighting for a win again after a breakthrough victory last month at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, his first since moving to Ferrari last year.
Lando Norris took third in McLaren’s white-and-green throwback livery after briefly running second at the start and then winning a thrilling back-and-forth battle with George Russell and Max Verstappen for third.
Antonelli’s first win since last month’s Monaco Grand Prix stretched his Formula 1 standings lead to 43 points. (AP)
