Kimi Antonelli seized the lead from Lewis Hamilton on the eighth lap of the British Grand Prix Weekend Sprint race, extending his championship advantage to 44 points over teammate George Russell and 47 points over Lewis Hamilton.

While the 41-year-old Ferrari driver was in pursuit of only his second career Sprint win, the teenage World Drivers’ Championship leader had his eyes on his first. With this victory over Hamilton, Antonelli became the youngest winner of an F1 Sprint race in history, further adding to his growing list of age-related milestones.

Both Antonelli and Hamilton launched strongly from the front row, with Hamilton maintaining the lead through the opening corners. Antonelli remained within a second to pressure Hamilton into using his energy deployment early on. By Turn 15 of lap eight, the superior energy management of the Mercedes came into play, enabling Antonelli to overtake Hamilton for the lead.

Throughout the weekend, Hamilton was aware that his main challenge would be holding off the Mercedes, especially after his surprise pole position for the Silverstone Sprint. On lap eight, Antonelli drew alongside Hamilton at Turn 6 for his initial overtaking attempt and ultimately completed the move at Turn 15—two sections where Hamilton knew the Mercedes cars had the upper hand.

“They’re particularly fast up to Turn 6,” Hamilton explained to David Coulthard. “So sometimes I had to use the boost there. But one of the major spots is coming around Stowe, Turn 15—you get on the throttle, and there’s just no extra power. That’s where he was catching me a lot. Then he started using the overtake mode, and once that was active, I couldn’t hold him back since he had more deployment throughout the lap. I couldn’t maintain that one-second gap, and once that was gone, I knew he’d get me.”

Antonelli pulled clear to take the chequered flag 2.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

On his final lap, Antonelli clocked the fastest lap of the 17-lap Sprint, posting a time of 1:32.607. Team principal Toto Wolff lightly reprimanded him for pushing the car harder than necessary, given that Hamilton was already out of overtaking range.

Earlier, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri showed an uncommon burst of speed on the opening lap, slicing their way into third and fourth positions. However, George Russell reclaimed both spots on lap two, with only Norris managing to pass him again. The reigning Champion then defended his third place on the final lap against last weekend’s race winner, securing a home podium and denying Russell the same.

Charles Leclerc took fifth place ahead of Max Verstappen, who dropped three positions at the start but recovered one during the race. Piastri, after his early surge alongside Norris, eventually slipped back to his original grid position of seventh.

In the battle for the final point on the closing lap, Liam Lawson successfully held off his former teammate Isack Hadjar to secure the position.