BRIT PUT IN THE SHADE AS HUBERT AND PIQUE T SHARE THE GLORY
Callum Ilott arrived at Silverstone for his home grand prix event on the back of two wins in the last four, having taken the points lead the previous round in Austria. The Ferrari Academy driver struggled from the outset to match strong ART Grand Prix team-mate Anthoine Hubert, though, and was always going to have a battle after qualifying fourth while Hubert took pole.
Indeed, the Frenchman was right back in the game, recovering from a weekendruining crash with team-mate Nikita Mazepin at the Red Bull Ring, which cost him the points lead to Ilott. The key point came after a safety car on lap six, where Hubert needed to extend a one-second gap to his rival Mazepin to remain outside of DRS range, and he did that to score a much overdue first on-the-road victory having been given a first when Dorian Boccolacci had been excluded for running out of fuel at Paul Ricard.
Ilott recovered well, to take third behind Mazepin, and added a fifth in the following day’s sprint race.
That was one any motorsport fan would enjoy. In the red corner, Ferrari junior and son of Jean Alesi, Giuliano. In the other corner, Pedro Piquet, son of Nelson.
Both sport their father’s helmet designs adding to the nostalgia, but it was Piquet over Alesi as the former jumped the latter away from the startline. Joined by Trident team-mate Ryan Tveter, the trio were lucky as the chasing Hubert and Ilott had saved DRS – of which they have four uses per race – and tyres for the end.
The only other British hope, Jake Hughes, retired from the first race with battery issues in what has been a nightmare return to the series he was one of the favourites to win as the fourth ART entry.
After four rounds and eight races, Hubert heads Ilott by six points, with 10 races still remaining this year. Hubert has the benefit of a year’s experience with the series’ standout team, while Ilott and Mazepin are both rookies. Both have shown the pace and scored wins much quicker than Hubert did, but the question is whether they can match the Renault driver’s ultra-consistent traits: if they can’t, they will struggle to come out on top at the end of the year.