REPORT: Four Points Scored in Wet and Wild British Grand Prix

Silverstone delivered another memorable British Grand Prix, and we’ll make the short trip back to Grove with four more points added to our championship tally.

After a deluge just before lights out, the entire grid lined up on Intermediate tyres – though several drivers opted to pit on the Formation Lap, immediately elevating Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon to P7 and P9 by the end of the opening lap.

On Lap 2, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed to recover Liam Lawson’s stricken Racing Bulls. Racing resumed on Lap 5, but was short-lived – Gabriel Bortoleto, one of the early slick runners, ran off track and the VSC was redeployed.

Three laps later we were racing again, with DRS quickly enabled as the track continued to dry – but another heavy rain front was looming.

By Lap 11, torrential rain returned and those who had gambled on slicks were forced to pit once more. Our pair, running close together, boxed one lap apart for fresh Intermediates.

As the rain intensified, the Safety Car was called. After six laps behind the SC, we went green again – but only briefly. In treacherous conditions, Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli came together, with the former suffering a heavy impact with the barriers. That brought the Safety Car back out for what would prove to be the final time.

When racing resumed, our duo – now P9 and P11 – were joined by Max Verstappen, who had spun at the restart. The track took its time to dry, with DRS not re-enabled until Lap 34. Carlos lost a position to Verstappen, while Alex was passed by Charles Leclerc before making the move on CS55 a couple of laps later.

On Lap 42, it was time for slicks. With our pair running nose-to-tail, we couldn’t double stack, so Carlos pitted first, followed one lap later by Alex – both fitting the Medium compound to go to the end.

Conditions remained treacherous. Carlos had a big moment through Maggots but rejoined safely, with the pair sitting P9 and P10. Sadly, that didn’t last.

As Carlos lined up a move on Leclerc, the Monegasque driver had a snap and ran into the path of his former teammate, damaging the FW47’s front wing and dropping Carlos to P12.

Alex capitalised, climbing to P9 and hunting down Fernando Alonso. On the final lap, our Thai racer launched a spectacular move around the outside at Copse to snatch P8 and secure four valuable points.

Speaking after the race, Alex summed up his day by saying:

"I’m happy with our race today. We got the balance right between risky and safe, and bounced back from a tricky day yesterday.

"Towards the end of the race, we had really good pace, good rhythm, and managed to get Alonso on the last lap.

"I loved the conditions, where the racing line is so small and there’s no room for mistakes.

"Looking to the next race, we collected a lot of useful data this weekend, which will help us get on top of the issues before Spa."

Carlos shared his thoughts on his first Silverstone Sunday wearing the W, and said, "I had a good race, keeping out of trouble, managing the tyres and had good pace.

"Unfortunately, towards the end and on slick tyres, I was about to overtake Charles, but he lost the car into turn 15, came across the track and hit my front wing and front floor.

"We both went off, losing a lot of positions and I had a damaged car until the end of the race.

It seems to be the story of my season so far and it's very annoying that different issues continue to impact our weekends.

"I'm driving well and I know better days will come, but it’s frustrating at this point. I'm looking forward to the two-week reset and hopefully we can have a better second half of the season.

"Massive thanks to every Williams fan out there this weekend! Your support has been amazing! Thank you."

"Firstly, congratulations to Sauber and to Nico," is how James Vowles, Atlassian Williams Racing's Team Principal began his summary, continuing to say, "It's an extraordinary result today and well-earned in these difficult conditions.

"For us, we didn’t expect it to stay as wet for that duration. The car was set up more for a dry race and you could see that.

"In Inter conditions and even when it was drying, we were poor. We were taken by Aston Martin and dropped back, but at the end of the race, Alex was flying and able to climb back, which shows the swing in our performance.

We also didn’t get the second Intermediate call right and that cost us many seconds.

"For Carlos, he did everything right, but it was out of his control when a Ferrari spun in front of him and he had to avoid it. It’s a tough reflection on today - I was hoping for more points.

"Now we go to Spa, where we’ve got an update coming that should give us a bit of an edge and help us fight back in that very tight midfield battle.

"Spa, like Silverstone, has tended to suit our car in the past, so let’s reset and come back fighting. We have the pace to score points from here to the end of the year."