Antonelli wins sprint race and takes pole at British Grand Prix

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy poses after clocking the fastest time during the qualifying session ahead of the British F1 Grand Prix in Silverstone, England. (AP)

SILVERSTONE, England, July 4 (AP): Kimi Antonelli returned to winning ways in Formula 1 with a sprint race victory and pole position for the British Grand Prix on a day of struggles for his title rival George Russell.

After overtaking Lewis Hamilton to deny the British star a crowd-pleasing victory in the sprint, Antonelli doubled up with pole position for Sunday's race.

He went fastest on his last lap by 0.175 of a second from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton third.

Russell was fourth in the sprint and then again in qualifying, after contact with the wall early on, and will start Sunday's race behind the two Ferraris.

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

"Let’s go! Let’s go!” Antonelli told the team over the radio after taking the win.

"It was a very fun first 10 laps with Lewis, we were both pushing very hard," Antonelli added later. "Obviously the momentum is there, and we are doing a great job together with the team.”

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.

It allowed drivers like Lando Norris to swap places with rivals lap after lap, but it also meant drivers lifting off through Silverstone's best-known fast corners to recharge power.

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.

"I was pushing as hard as I could; I gave it absolutely everything,” Hamilton said. "We’ve got a bit of work to do to try and close that gap.”

Lando Norris took third in McLaren’s white-and-green throwback livery after briefly running second at the start and then winning a thrilling back-and-forth battle with George Russell and Max Verstappen for third.

Antonelli's first win since last month's Monaco Grand Prix stretched his Formula 1 standings lead to 43 points over Russell, who was fourth after starting fifth.

Russell had been complaining of a "strange” 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's title chances.

Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari, Verstappen sixth for Red Bull, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri seventh. Liam Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls and got away with a warning in a post-race investigation into his battle for position with Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar.