The trophies this year? They're made of... LEGO!

New York Times

8 hours ago

Follow live reaction as Silverstone and the weather delivers a remarkable 12th round of the 2025 Formula One world championship Getty Images
McLaren's Lando Norris won a compelling British Grand Prix in horrendous conditions at Silverstone.
The damp track, falling rain, and cool temperatures brought crashes, retirements and safety car periods as the field navigated a treacherous race.
It also helped deliver Nico Hulkenberg his first podium in F1 — after a record 239 races without one.
Max Verstappen had started on pole but was overtaken by McLaren's championship leader Oscar Piastri, then spun after a safety car restart.
Piastri was subsequently handed a 10-second penalty for braking too heavily under safety car conditions moments before Verstappen's spin, leaving his McLaren teammate Norris to win the race.
Result: 1 NOR, 2 PIA, 3 HUL, 4 HAM, 5 VER
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British Grand Prix: Hülkenberg ends F1-record podium drought, Norris wins home race Getty/Lego
Say hello to the British Grand Prix trophies — made completely out of Lego!
After the success of the drivers' parade in Miami where the drivers 'raced' in F1 cars built from Lego, this is the next big 'moment' for F1 and Lego in their partnership.
The gold winner's trophy is made up of 2,717 pieces, weighs 2kg, and is modelled off the iconic RAC Trophy.
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Lego built F1 trophies for the British Grand Prix. Here's how they did it Getty Images
This felt pertinent given how FP3 ended yesterday — because ahead of this weekend, Oliver Bearman spoke to our own Luke Smith about his first full season in F1.
There is no hiding how much any driver has to evolve once they own a seat in this sport, whether it's for a few weeks or several years.
Bearman is addressing all that now, including his first home grand prix this weekend where those challenges will have only ramped up again. As Bearman told Luke:
💬 'It's certainly been a big change — more exposure, more eyes on you, more questions to answer, less time focusing on the driving.
'It's difficult to be prepared for the race weekend when a lot (beforehand) is not actually spent looking at data and stuff like that.'
It's a telling conversation, and you can read it in full with the link below.
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How life in F1 forced Ollie Bearman to evolve — as a driver and a person
Looks like it was fun at the Landostand during the drivers' parade… Getty Images
A key factor in Max Verstappen's pole lap yesterday was switching to a lower downforce, thinner, rear wing in his RB21 car. This made him faster down the many Silverstone straights.
But while the conventional theory is that lower downforce is good for qualifying but harder on tire wear over race stints, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reckoned that here, with softer tires compared to 2024, this actually might not be the case:
💬 'Our belief is that there is not a great relationship between the downforce level, or the way you produce lap time, and the tire wear.
'Because you will be fast in the straights, which means actually if anything you have to push a little bit less in the corners. If you rely on lap time generated in the corners, then you do have to push the corners, (where) you may stress your tires even more.
'So, it's not clear the rear wing solution that Red Bull adopted will necessarily cause a worse situation from a tire point of view.'
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My view for lunch. It has not gotten drier. Puddles on the main straight. Not pouring, but you wouldn't want to walk out there with a candle. Alex Kalinauckas
Look closely at this picture of a road car McLaren — the Speedtail, actually driven this weekend by Zak Brown — and you'll see some very dodgy parking (this was on Saturday).
But there's also a mildly interesting story behind Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris parking here at all, on the edge of the middle part of the Silverstone paddock. One of McLaren's sponsors has a hotel right on the main straight at this track and the drivers have typically stayed there during the race weekend.
And while they could walk across to the Silverstone Wing pit building, they chose to drive around the inner access roads of the track to wave to the fans — and show off the latest McLaren products.
As with many tracks, the fans line the guard rails of these roads and this approach in the past has ensured they get a glimpse of the McLaren pair at what is a home race event for one of them. Pirelli
Here are Pirelli's predicted tire strategies for the British Grand Prix — if it's a dry race! 😅
Franco Colapinto will be starting from pit lane for today's race, because Alpine changed the power unit components following his Q1 crash.
During qualifying, he lost the rear of the car at the last corner, causing a spin, a trip through the gravel, and then a collision with the barriers. Getty Images
Here is how we shape up on the grid for today's race — grid penalties included… 1: MAX VERSTAPPEN (RBR)
> 2: Oscar Piastri (MCL)
Oscar Piastri (MCL) 3: Lando Norris (MCL)
Lando Norris (MCL) > 4: George Russell (MER)
George Russell (MER) 5: Lewis Hamilton (FER)
Lewis Hamilton (FER) > 6: Charles Leclerc (FER)
Charles Leclerc (FER) 7: Fernando Alonso (AST)
Fernando Alonso (AST) > 8: Pierre Gasly (ALP)
Pierre Gasly (ALP) 9: Carlos Sainz (WIL)
Carlos Sainz (WIL) > 10: Kimi Antonelli (MER)*
Kimi Antonelli (MER)* 11: Tsunoda (RBR) / 12: Hadjar (RB)
13: Albon (WIL) / 14: Ocon (HAS)
15: Lawson (RB) / 16: Bortoleto (SAU)
17: Stroll (AST) / 18: Bearman (HAS)**
19: Hulkenberg (SAU) / 20: Colapinto (ALP)
Including *3-place and **10-place grid penalty Getty Images
These are the drivers who have come out on top in qualifying, with Max Verstappen closing in on Oscar Piastri — who had stated that one of his preseason goals was to improve his qualifying performance.
Below is how the pole positions have been shared this season, and each driver's average qualifying position (AQP)… 1: OSCAR PIASTRI (MCL) — 4 poles / 2.17 AQP
2: Max Verstappen (RBR) — 4 poles / 3.08
3: Lando Norris (MCL) — 3 poles / 3.50
4: George Russell (MER) — 1 pole / 4.33
As for those without a pole so far in 2025… 5: Charles Leclerc (FER) — 5.67
6: Lewis Hamilton (FER) — 7.00
7: Kimi Antonelli (MER) — 8.00
8: Isack Hadjar (RB) — 10.08
9: Alex Albon (WIL) — 10.17
10: Fernando Alonso (AST) — 10.75 Getty Images
So what of the qualifying patterns built up through this year — did yesterday at Silverstone signal the end for any?
In short, no.
Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda remained the only drivers yet to outqualify their current teammate this season.
Both McLaren drivers and Max Verstappen preserved their 100 percent Q3 appearance records.
Ferrari is the only other team to avoid a Q1 exit so far in 2025 — although it got nervous with Lewis Hamilton in Q1 yesterday.
Likewise Alex Albon, George Russell, and Isack Hadjar all continued to avoid a Q1 exit this season.
As for the two current drivers yet to appear in Q3 this season, it was as you were: Nico Hulkenberg having taken part in all 12 weekends, and Franco Colapinto after just five.
How many more with the Argentinian get from here? We will see. Getty Images
Here is how the 2025 intra-team battles look from qualifying this season, with today's results from Silverstone and Round 12 qualifying added into the mix… Aston Martin: ALONSO ** 12-0 Stroll
** 12-0 Stroll Mercedes: RUSSELL ** 11-1 Antonelli
** 11-1 Antonelli Red Bull: VERSTAPPEN ** 10-0 Tsunoda
** 10-0 Tsunoda Ferrari: LECLERC 8-4 Hamilton **
LECLERC 8-4 ** Racing Bulls: HADJAR ** 8-2 Lawson
** 8-2 Lawson Williams: ALBON 7-5 Sainz **
ALBON 7-5 ** McLaren: PIASTRI ** 7-5 Norris
** 7-5 Norris Haas: Ocon 6-6 Bearman **
Ocon 6-6 ** Sauber: Hulkenberg 6-6 Bortoleto **
Hulkenberg 6-6 ** Alpine: GASLY ** 5-1 Colapinto
** 5-1 Colapinto Alpine: GASLY 5-1 Doohan*
Red Bull: VERSTAPPEN 2-0 Lawson*
Racing Bulls: Tsunoda 1-1 Hadjar*
*Inactive teammate pairing; **Qualifying victor at Silverstone Getty Images
Continuing with Andrea Stella, he reckoned small changes in conditions also helped Max Verstappen unleash the best of the Red Bull package when it mattered in Q3:
💬 'The gaps are very small and Max also went out for the final lap in Q3 a few minutes later or a minute later, and here there could be a slight variation of wind that can affect one tenth here and there.
'The reason why we never rule out Max is because he is Max Verstappen. It would be extremely naive to think Max is not in the game. He gave another bit of evidence today of how quick he is, how capable he is of maximizing the potential he has available.
'We also know at these tracks where we have high speed, smooth circuits, Red Bull can do very well. So no surprise with Max, no surprise with Red Bull.' Getty Images
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is always worth listening to.
At his written media briefing in the Silverstone paddock last night, he explained McLaren actually thought Ferrari was the bigger pole threat after its strong practice pace.
Despite his former team ultimately finishing behind the McLaren drivers and Mercedes' George Russell in Verstappen's wake in Q3, Stella said:
💬 'Looking at the lap times Ferrari has pulled off in every session, Ferrari seems to be the strongest team, probably they still are.
'It looks like the upgrades they have taken to Austria seem to have worked very well, which makes not only Silverstone interesting because of how tight the situation is at the front of the grid, but I would say also interesting for the remainder of the championship, especially with Ferrari.'
It is race day at the British Grand Prix and it should be a really exciting one.
It's been raining — the earlier Formula Three support race ended up getting red flagged because of it — but it's now dried out a bit.
I'm seeing some patches of blue sky above me, so that hopefully means we end up with a dry race — I think Max Verstappen will be wanting that.
He put in a magic lap yesterday to take pole — I just don't know how he keeps doing it, other than just pulling it out of the bag when it really matters. It's a hard task for him to defend this world title from here, but he's not going down without a fight.
Oscar Piatri and Lando Norris are starting with him at the very front, and both will be looking to get a blow in against the other.
Norris has got his own grandstand this weekend too. There are 11,000 fans at Stowe, which was previously one of the slowest selling grandstands at Silverstone. This year it sold out within 90 minutes.
Huge demand from the Lando fans — and they've got something special planned there for the formation lap, so make sure you look out for that.
The other home interest is Lewis Hamilton. He is starting P5 and said yesterday he's really happy with the progress Ferrari has made — and that without a mistake on his final lap, he probably would have been second on the grid.
Hamilton has a better chance for that first podium in red, than he's had at any time so far this season. Getty Images
For qualifying at Silverstone, F1 very nearly got the multi-team battle many had predicted in pre-season we would see for the whole 2025 campaign.
Max Verstappen unleashed another stunning lap to claim a third pole of the year at a track where the many high-speed corners play to Red Bull's car strengths. These got even better with a floor upgrade this weekend, and helped it topple the mighty McLaren squad once again this year.
McLaren was in the fight as ever, but Ferrari was also a real threat too — until Lewis Hamilton made a mistake at the final corners and lost critical time in Q3.
Don't expect this every weekend from now on. McLaren should dominate at Hungary and Zandvoort either side of the summer break, thanks to the lower average speeds and longer corners of those tracks.
But Silverstone and Spa could serve up different winners to the season's main trend. They did that in 2025 too. Getty Images
The final free practice of the weekend appeared to back-up the promise of a Ferrari challenge at Silverstone, with Charles Leclerc quickest and Lewis Hamilton further down the order only after his final flying laps were compromised.
It was a messy end to that session with a pair of red flags, and Oliver Bearman then inexplicably crashing in the pit lane entrance under those conditions.
He paid a high price for that error too, with a 10-place grid penalty — scuppering an impressive qualifying performance later in the day.
That was when Max Verstappen came good again.
There was clear improvement in his RB21 come FP3, and confidence in his voice ahead of Q1.
He then made sure his car was the last on track for the final runs in Q3, and nailed pole ahead of both McLarens and two Ferraris that appeared to lose their edge just when it mattered most. Getty Images
There were a few choice takeaways from the two hours of free practice at Silverstone on Friday.
Firstly, there was Lewis Hamilton topping the time sheets in FP1. You would normally take such events with a pinch of salt in the opening session of a weekend, but the apparent strength of the Ferrari this weekend was immediately being taken seriously across the paddock.
More familiar service was resumed come FP2, with Lando Norris out in front and with a decent buffer to the rest of the field — including his McLaren teammate and championship leader, Oscar Piastri.
However, those Ferraris were best of the rest again and while Max Verstappen continued to complain about Red Bull's performance, no one pays much attention to that these days.
And once again, Saturday would be a totally different story…
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