Charles Leclerc Wins Dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone

Charles Leclerc added a second win for Ferrari in three races at a dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Mercedes' George Russell finished second and Leclerc's team-mate Lewis Hamilton third in their home race.

Kimi Antonelli, who won his first sprint on Saturday, ended the race in 16th after car problems, reducing his lead over Russell to 25 points.

BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions after a race which finished under the safety car after Max Verstappen crashed out.

Did Formula 1 miss a trick with the ending of the British GP? Should they be looking at what happened in a similar situation at this year's Indy 500? To avoid finishing behind the safety car, they red-flagged the race to enable recovery before then restarting the race and finishing under green-flag conditions - Matthew

This is one of those situations where everyone has their own opinion, each view has its validity, but F1 as a sport has agreed a certain approach based on the lessons of the past.

In an ideal world, it would be better in terms of entertainment if races did not finish under a safety car. It can be argued that it is anti-climactic.

At the same time, it's hard to argue that the British Grand Prix lacked drama and excitement, notwithstanding the fact that it ended under caution.

Take a step back, and the issue here is the regulations around the safety car and its operation.

These have been built up over many years and developed to the point that the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams are satisfied with them, while always being open to improvements.

F1 has learned the lessons of Abu Dhabi 2021. The context there was that it had been agreed that it was, in ideal circumstances, preferable for races not to end under a safety car.

The problem in that race was that the race director at the time set about trying to ensure the race ended under a green flag, thinking that was the right thing to do, but he made a series of mistakes in doing so, including ignoring the rules.

I've seen people say that the race director is free to operate the safety car as they wish. That's a misinterpretation - they are free to operate it as they wish under the rules as they stand.

That's what Michael Masi got wrong in Abu Dhabi. The race director can't just make up the rules. Otherwise, why have them?

Now, yes, the race director on Sunday at Silverstone could have chosen to red-flag the race when Verstappen crashed at Stowe. Some may well have preferred him to.

But if Verstappen's incident had happened on, say, lap 25 rather than lap 48, would it have been a red flag? Almost certainly not.

So, why should it be a red flag with four laps to go just because the race might end under the safety car?

There is a question of sporting integrity here. Any choice by a race director in this situation has the potential to change the result.

In this case, George Russell did not stop for tyres, and he gained a place as a result of it. Had the race been red-flagged, everyone would have been free to change tyres, there would have been a re-start. Positions could well have changed again.

Who is to say which of these situations is right or wrong, preferable or not? And even the drivers can be conflicted on this, depending on their own personal situation.

Race-winner Charles Leclerc said: 'It's not great for the fans that are here around the track. In the helmet, I was kind of happy that there was not a restart to keep that win."

Russell said: "Of course it's a shame for any race to finish under the safety car. But then you go back to Abu Dhabi '21, and that is just how racing goes.

"Nobody can plan for somebody to have an incident, and the way F1 deal with it and FIA deal with it shouldn't be any different at the end of the race compared to the start of the race.

"Obviously, there was a lot of chat post-Abu Dhabi '21. If you actually look at the number of races that have finished under the safety car over the past 20 years, it's not actually a lot. So, it is a shame, but what can you do? I don't think it should be different."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Sometimes it doesn't give for the most exciting finale. Certainly from a spectacle standpoint, everybody would have loved to see Lewis (Hamilton) on a soft (tyre) against us and maybe fighting with Leclerc. But this is a sport. Show follows sport and not the other way around."

Why is it deemed necessary to get lapped cars past the safety car before the race resumes? Why shouldn't they remain where they were before the safety-car period? - Johnathan

The idea behind letting lapped cars past the safety car is to ensure the race can restart with all the cars in their correct order, so drivers can start racing with their direct competitors straight away.

Leaving lapped cars in place between other cars would prevent fighting for positions straight after a re-start.

Now, it can be argued that it's a slight manipulation of the purity of the race, in that if there had been no safety car, the lapped cars would have been negotiated anyway.

But this goes back to the previous question. It's a set of rules that have been arrived at over many years, and the current set-up is the one that has been decided upon as the best compromise at this moment in time.

Do you believe that Max Verstappen is deliberately voicing his frustration clearly on team radio and in media comments as a preparation for pulling the performance-clause trigger in his contract and leaving Red Bull this year? - Mark

Is Verstappen unhappy about the performance of his Red Bull at the moment? Yes. He's made that perfectly clear. He wants to win.

Is he concerned that the car is suffering from the same inconsistent balance problems that it has for the past two years? Yes.

Are the comments he makes over team radio directly linked to his contractual situation? I doubt it very much.

Will he trigger the performance clause in his contract that would allow him to leave Red Bull at the end of this season? No-one knows yet - not even Verstappen.

Might he trigger his performance clause because he's unhappy with the team's results and wants to go somewhere else? Yes, but that's not the same as saying his team radio comments are deliberately calculated as part of some grand strategy to leave Red Bull.

The situation is quite simple; the potential outcome unknown and unpredictable.

Verstappen wants to win races and championships. At the moment, Red Bull are not in a position to allow him to do that.

He has a contract until the end of 2028, but it has performance clauses that will almost certainly mean he is free to leave at the end of this season should he want to.

The trigger point for these clauses, BBC Sport has been told, is in October. So he has plenty of time to weigh up his options and that's what he's doing.

Verstappen and/or his management - ie, manager Raymond Vermeulen and father Jos Verstappen - are talking to all potential candidate teams. That's their job. And that means Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, as well as Red Bull.

All of them have drivers under contract for next year, but Verstappen is Verstappen.

All teams recognise he comes with baggage, but if a team is looking purely at competitiveness, he is a compelling option who would be difficult to turn down if he was definitively interested.

Verstappen has plenty of time to form an opinion on where Red Bull are going before he has to make a decision.

But it is true to say that Red Bull have some work to do to convince him that they are his best option in terms of competitiveness.

Have Red Bull quietly found the answer in Isack Hadjar to their enduring second seat problem? - Jodie

Isack Hadjar is having a quietly impressive first season with Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen.

This is only his second year in F1 and he is one place and 24 points behind a four-time champion driving the same car.

He has also stood on a podium - albeit it was taken off him in somewhat controversial circumstances in Monaco after Pierre Gasly's penalty for pit-lane speeding was overturned.

Pace-wise, Hadjar is comparing pretty decently with Verstappen.

The head-to-head score in qualifying is 9-2 in sessions where a fair comparison can be made, but the performance gap is only 0.25secs.

That's the closest in raw performance anyone has been to Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo in 2018.

Team principal Laurent Mekies said on Sunday of Hadjar: "He has been strong since the beginning of the season. He was able to do his own path and to progress race after race in terms of experience and in terms of skills.

"He is learning a lot from Max. He is learning a bit more every time he drives the car. And today was no different. He is not going to be satisfied with fifth or fourth. We are not going to be either.

"But certainly the big picture for us is that it's a step forward every time he goes out with the car. That's positive for the rest of the season."