The Culprit Of Max Verstappen's Accident, Lewis Hamilton Won His Eighth Victory At The British GP

Lewis Hamilton (Instagram @F1)

JAKARTA - Host Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, England, on Sunday, despite being awarded a penalty for causing his main rival Max Verstappen to crash on the opening lap.

Hamilton, who was behind Verstappen's crash, won at Silverstone for the eighth time after beating Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a late maneuver two laps to the finish.

Leclerc had to settle for a runner-up finish after leading most of the race by 3.871 seconds behind the seven-time world champion. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas brought the second Mercedes to the podium in third place.

"It's a physically difficult race," Hamilton said after winning his 99th career win. "I'm so grateful to the fans, it's a dream for me to do this in front of all of you."

Incredible scenes at Silverstone!

Lewis Hamilton wins his 8th British Grand Prix 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 #BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/vv6jF6q2Hh

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 18, 2021

"What a great effort from the team. I've given everything, all week, back to the factory, trying to find a performance.

"Good teamwork too with Valtteri.... Max, he's very aggressive. Regardless of whether I agree with this penalty, I just keep working."

Leaders Verstappen, who started from pole, ended his struggle early after crashing on the first lap following a collision with Hamilton at the Copse corner which is one of the fastest corners in the race calendar.

The race is paused and restarted after the track conditions are declared safe.

Since the restart, Leclerc led the race and kept Hamilton behind him, but after lap 15 the Ferrari driver had an engine problem.

"The engine stopped, then started again, what happened?" said Leclerc over the radio, who found Hamilton slashing the distance by less than a second.

By the time the Ferrari team crew resolved the Monaco driver's engine mapping problem, Hamilton's front tire scalded which significantly affected his speed.

Hamilton was given a 10-second penalty for the Verstappen incident and served the penalty at a pitstop on lap 28.

​Mercedes decided to place a team order by ordering Bottas, who was at P2 at that time, to give Hamilton way to put pressure on Charles Leclerc who led the race by eight seconds with 12 laps remaining.

Knowing Hamilton had cut the gap, Leclerc got the green light from his engineer to push until the end of the race.

​Hamilton was within striking distance of the DRS in the last four laps and Leclerc's hopes of securing his first and Ferrari win of the season were dashed after the Briton crossed him two laps to the finish in the Copse, where the incident with Verstappen occurred.

The full-capacity Silverstone Circuit for up to 140,000 spectators was enthralled by the sound of British supporters watching as their champion took the lead and finished the day's race on the top podium.

With the win, Hamilton changed Verstappen's 33-point deficit to just eight points heading into his 11th race in Hungary on August 1.

"It's difficult, of course, it's a great race," said Leclerc after securing the podium for the first time this season.

"I gave everything, but it wasn't enough in the last few laps. Congratulations to Lewis, he did a great job. We didn't expect to be competitive as well. In general, it's a lot stronger than we used to be."

What a feeling this must be! #BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/mLL9V4POnZ

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 18, 2021

McLaren duo Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo completed a top-five finish when Carlos Sainz had to settle for P6 after his pitstop crew struggled to fit the wheel nut of his left front tire.

The Alpine team also grabbed double points as Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finished P7 and P9, flanking the Aston Martin Lance Stroll.

AlphaTauri team rookie Yuki Tsunoda took home the last available points thanks to a P10 finish that day by beating teammate Pierre Gasly.

Sebastian Vettel failed to bring his Aston Martin to finish the race and returned to the garage early.