Antonelli was six laps from catching Leclerc before mechanical failure ended British GP hopes

Kimi Antonelli was tracking down Charles Leclerc for a potential British Grand Prix victory when an aerodynamic component on the front-left corner of his Mercedes broke at Copse, ending any chance of a maiden Formula 1 win at Silverstone on Sunday.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff confirmed after the race that the team’s simulations had Antonelli catching the Ferrari leader with six laps remaining, having run a strategy that delayed his pitstop by 10 laps compared to Leclerc. The tyre offset gave the 18-year-old Italian a significant pace advantage — until the damage, sustained after he attacked the kerbs on the exit of Copse, stripped him of it entirely.

“Yeah, it’s difficult, you know, that would have been an epic end of the race,” Wolff told F1 TV. “He would have caught Charles six laps to the end with a huge tyre offset. But you know, it’s a mechanical sport. These things can happen.”

With the car compromised, Mercedes briefly considered retiring Antonelli but the driver pushed on, insisting lap by lap that he could manage the damage. He crossed the line ninth before a five-second penalty for repeated track limits violations dropped him to 16th — a result that compounded the frustration given that his excursions beyond the white lines were largely a consequence of the mechanical failure itself.

Wolff suggested Formula 1 may need to revisit how track limits penalties are applied in cases of car damage. “Maybe we can look at the [how] track limits done and reassess. And then it’s two points and that could be important at the end,” he said.

Despite Antonelli’s misfortune, Mercedes still left Silverstone with 18 points. George Russell finished second, benefiting from Max Verstappen’s retirement, Ferrari’s decision to pit Lewis Hamilton under the late safety car, and the safety car itself remaining on track until the chequered flag — denying rivals on fresher tyres any opportunity to attack after a restart.

For Russell, it was a valuable recovery on a weekend when he had lacked pace relative to his team-mate, and the result allowed him to close the gap in the Drivers’ Championship standings.