Charles Leclerc (P2, 18 pts): 9.5/10
It's been a while now since Ferrari shone at Monaco and Baku. Silverstone is a very different circuit and so there was little expectation that the Scuderia would come alive again here of all places. And yet they excelled, with arguably their strongest race performance of the season so far with Charles Leclerc leading Sunday's race for 49 of the 52 laps. In hindsight, all the clues were there: he was fourth quickest in Friday's practice session, qualified in that position later in the day and held on to it in the sprint race, having been second quickest in the meantime in final practice. So why didn't we see it coming when he took the lead of the race on the opening lap in the wake of the Lewis Hamilton/Max Verstappen accident, having already dispatched Valtteri Bottas before the yellow flags came out? Even when he held on to the lead at the restart, we were still all expecting Hamilton to make short work of him as he battled to oversome a ten second penalty for causing the collision. But Leclerc was too good and Hamilton could find no way past; even the pit stops didn't help out, with Hamilton dropping 18s behind the Monegasque after serving his penalty. But then the relentless Hamilton starting charging, and by the time he caught up the Ferrari was struggling on worn tyres and was left with nothing to defend itself going through Copse. "Unfortunately, Lewis was just more competitive on the hards. I could feel his pace as he approached me and there was not much I could do." Even so, Leclerc was deservedly the driver of the day.
Lewis Hamilton (Sprint P2, P1, 27 pts): 9/10
Hero or villain? Whichever side you come down on, you have to admit that it's been a long time since we've seen Lewis Hamilton forced to such extremes to win a race. He was clearly on a mission to reward his adoring home fans with victory at Silverstone, but first practice showed that Red Bull once again had the edge when it came to pace and performance. Hamilton just managed to clinch P1 for the sprint race but his scrappy final lap in qualifying showed just how hard he was having to push. In any case, that was all undone on the first lap of the sprint when Max Verstappen took charge and slammed the door on Hamilton's counterattack. That set the scene for Sunday's Grand Prix, and again Verstappen came out top when the lights went out and then defended robustly through the opening corners. With neither man inclined to give an inch, a collision became inevitable. While Hamilton was certainly at fault, Red Bull's theatrical outrage and oversized histrionics grated somewhat and on balance a ten second time penalty for Hamilton was probably about right - although we understand Christian Horner's fury that it did nothing to prevent Hamilton from going on to win the race despite some unexpectedly stiff competition from Ferrari. Hamilton's 99th career win virtually resets the top of the championship standings, with half the season still to go.
