{"id":779461,"date":"2026-07-04T23:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/779461\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T23:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:16:12","slug":"f1-news-2026-kimi-antonelli-wins-sprint-race-takes-pole-position-at-british-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/779461\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news 2026: Kimi Antonelli wins sprint race, takes pole position at British Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Oscar Piastri<\/a> struggled in both the sprint race and qualifying at the British Grand Prix<\/a> on Sunday (Australian time), as Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli dominated.<\/p>\n

Piastri will start Monday\u2019s race in eighth after a poor showing in qualifying at Silverstone. The McLaren driver wasn\u2019t much better in the sprint, finishing seventh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri.\u00a0AP<\/p>\n

After overtaking Lewis Hamilton to deny the British star a crowd-pleasing victory in the sprint, Antonelli doubled up with pole position for Monday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last lap was very tidy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt came all together. It was very tricky with the wind, because it was very gusty, unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old standings leader went fastest on his last lap by .175 of a second from Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton third.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I satisfied? Of course not; I\u2019m P3. But I\u2019m happy to be up here,\u201d Hamilton said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, these guys did a great job today.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharles has obviously been making good improvements and we just didn\u2019t have the pace, unfortunately, of the Mercedes. It\u2019s been kind of a thing for a while, but we\u2019re slowly closing the gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to have both of us up here is great for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes\u2019 George Russell was fourth in the sprint and then again in qualifying, after contact with the wall early on, and will start the race behind the two Ferraris.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen qualified seventh as the four-time champion reported his car had a problem affecting its top speed that needed to be fixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise there\u2019s no point competing [in the race],\u201d Verstappen told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

Antonelli\u2019s sprint race win<\/p>\n

Hamilton started on pole and held off Antonelli until lap eight of 17, when the Italian swept past with the help of electrical power.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go! Let\u2019s go!\u201d Antonelli told the team over radio after taking the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very fun first 10 laps with Lewis, we were both pushing very hard,\u201d Antonelli added later. \u201cObviously the momentum is there and we are doing a great job together with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race was a prime example of F1 in 2026, with the strategy of charging and deploying electrical power central to the battles on track.<\/p>\n

It allowed drivers like Lando Norris to swap places with rivals lap after lap but also meant drivers lifting off through Silverstone\u2019s best-known fast corners to recharge power.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kimi Antonelli.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pushing as hard as I could, I gave it absolutely everything,\u201d Hamilton said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a bit of work to do to try and close that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris took third in McLaren\u2019s white-and-green throwback livery after briefly running second at the start and then winning a thrilling back-and-forth battle with Russell and Max Verstappen for third.<\/p>\n

Antonelli\u2019s first win since last month\u2019s Monaco Grand Prix stretched his Formula 1 standings lead to 43 points over Russell, who was fourth after starting fifth.<\/p>\n

Russell had been complaining of a \u201cstrange\u201d lack of pace in qualifying the day before, a setback after his win at the Austrian Grand Prix last week had boosted the British driver\u2019s title chances.<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari and Verstappen sixth for Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls. He got away with a warning in a post-race investigation into his battle for position with Verstappen\u2019s teammate Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Oscar Piastri struggled in both the sprint race and qualifying at the British Grand Prix on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-779461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}