A charged British Grand Prix delivered another unexpected blow to Kimi Antonelli's Formula 1 points lead - but not a one-lap showdown for victory that everyone was briefly, accidentally promised.

Here are our winners and losers from the Silverstone contest.

Winner: Charles Leclerc (1st)

Needed. That.

Precious little in the sprint portion of the Silverstone weekend suggested Leclerc was on the cusp of breaking out of what had clearly become a sustained rut.

"Obviously there's a lot of negativity around me in general, with narratives being created," he lamented - and the truth is the sample size of his struggles hadn't been massive, but they had come just at the moment as Ferrari emerged as a credible title threat again.

The scrutiny was always going to be intense, and he just hadn't looked himself on track... until this Sunday, which laid bare a newfound 'comfort' with the SF-26.

"I'm very happy to get out of this situation in this way. However, it's still the beginning," he cautioned. "It's only one race and I must not get carried away thinking that the war is over. I mean, the battle with this car has been quite a lot recently - and I cannot take it for granted that now it's behind me." - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Loser: Kimi Antonelli (16th)

Antonelli was probably winning today. Let's say, conservatively, he was on course for second in Spain before retiring there. That's 43 points gone.

If he does lose the title this year, I would be stunned if he loses it by more than 43 points.

The tiniest silver lining is that he will have endeared himself, to fans around the world but also presumably his own team, with his headstrong insistence on trying to save a point or two. It's the kind of iconic moment his title campaign had arguably lacked so far, because his sheer speed was making things straightforward.

Another silver lining? -ish? "We lost a lot of points, but I think the momentum is there," he insisted. It's true - he seems very fast all the time - but that's also why there must be an extra urgency to translating that momentum into points. - VK

Winner: Ferrari (1st and 3rd)

Lewis Hamilton escaping with a mere reprimand for the yellow flag situation puts a neat bow on top of an exceptionally productive day for Ferrari, at a track where it expected to suffer pace-wise (but really didn't, even before Mercedes' misfortune aided it).

A more optimal outcome would've been keeping the 1-2 that was lost by that late Hamilton pitstop. Arguably the most optimal outcome, points-wise, would have been Hamilton in first and Leclerc in second, though it's probably a touch too early to declare Hamilton Ferrari's definitive best title hope over the next 13 rounds given what Leclerc showed today.

In any case, Ferrari continues to stay in range, and buy itself more time to overcome its lingering but increasingly small performance deficit to Mercedes. - VK

Loser: Max Verstappen (DNF)

By his own admission, Max Verstappen finishing on the podium at Silverstone would have been “lucky” given Antonelli’s issue, but he’d done a great job to stay ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes until another rear wing drama struck. 

He called it “super dangerous” to have back-to-back car failures causing high-speed crashes after his Austria qualifying shunt, and was frustrated at how many issues the team is having. 

And asked about the impact of his frustration with the team on his future, Verstappen replied: “I'm not going to say anything about that. It's not fair to say anything about that also right now.” 

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Red Bull’s post-race debrief…- Josh Suttill

Winner: George Russell (2nd)

This wasn’t a second place on pure pace for Russell, but it’s one that still pays 18 valuable points regardless and gets him closer to the championship lead.

Russell was struggling all weekend relative to team-mate Antonelli, with this probably on par with Monaco for his toughest event, pace-wise.

That leaves him with even more answers to find before Spa, but this bit of fortune at least means he’s now only a race win's worth of points behind Antonelli. - JS

Loser: The fans

Was it the 'safety car in this lap' bait-and-switch that inspired the most visceral of the reactions, or just the fact that a restart looked totally viable yet didn't happen for regs reasons?

We can't know, for sure. What we do know was that the first was an unlucky accident, but the second is by design. F1 regulations are such that you cannot 'force' a restart even when there really feels like there should be one. Which, uhh, obviously didn't stop that from happening in the past - but it stopped it here.

Will it prompt any soul-searching from F1, to improve its chances of leaving a good last impression from a grand prix? Maybe.

I'm not sure it should. But it's easy to sympathise with the spectators - and particularly with the attending fans - if they're feeling short-changed. - VK

Winner: Racing Bulls (6th and 7th)

There were elements of this race that maybe weren’t perfect, but Racing Bulls maximised its result in a tricky and somewhat attritional British Grand Prix.

Arvid Lindblad hurriedly urging his team to tell Liam Lawson ahead to speed up was prophetic as the pair were almost undercut by Gabriel Bortoleto, and might have been under attack from the Audi on fresh tyres at the end if the race had restarted.

But they weren’t undercut, the race didn’t restart, and this team gets the spoils.

The only blotch here is for the Lawson incident with Oscar Piastri, which warrants more investigation if any blame is to be attributed. Benefit of the doubt awarded for now.

But Racing Bulls is the fastest car in the midfield currently and is maximising the results as an effective operator. - Jack Benyon

Loser: Alex Albon (DNF)

Alex Albon has had a horrible run of luck in F1 this year, but the best drivers negate that by delivering the highest level of performance on the days where outside factors don’t intervene.

Sadly, Albon - admittedly not likely fighting for anything today as even a fairly flawless Carlos Sainz could ‘only’ score 12th, despite many drivers who should have finished in the top 10 falling out of it - effectively put himself out on lap one.

An easy mistake to make. Locking up into Brooklands, he slammed into Ollie Bearman’s Haas - and, his race ruined, then did a bit of testing before retiring.

You’ve got to maximise the good days in F1, especially when the bad ones are as woeful as Williams’s right now. A poor day at the office. - JB

Winner: Franco Colapinto (9th)

Franco Colapinto benefitted from Pierre Gasly’s slow pitstop, but he still drove a brilliant comeback race from his qualifying off - one he said was down to a floor problem that lost him 25 points of downforce from one second to the next. 

He started down in 19th, picked his way through the opening lap chaos, jumped Gasly at the pitstop and then was lifted to ninth place when Antonelli’s penalty was applied. 

A tidy Sunday drive to salvage what was looking like a fruitless weekend after qualifying. - JS 

Loser: Oscar Piastri (11th)

Piastri’s race was basically over after aforementioned contact with Lawson on lap one which cost him his front wing. In the footage - admittedly from a distance - I’ve seen, it looked more like Lawson’s fault, but the stewards didn’t penalise him, and Piastri seemed calm about it speaking after the race.

With the level of attrition and strong pace Piastri might have claimed a top-10, but sadly fell one position short. Even so, it’s little consolation for a driver who should have finished higher but whose team has struggled more this weekend than in any weekend in recent memory.

But you can look forward to Spa and Monza, right, Oscar?

“Spa and Monza are going to be sad.”

Someone’s not got a lot of hope for these regulations at those tracks with long straights… - JB

Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto (8th)

Gabriel Bortoleto cursed a mistake at Turn 6 and an energy management-related issue at Turn 9 on Saturday, which stopped him from snatching Lawson's Q3 spot. Fast forward 24 hours and it was the ‘aborted’ restart at the end of the race which cost him the chance to beat Lawson - and Lindblad - again.

Bortoleto stopped for fresh tyres in a bid to overcome the Racing Bulls - which he had run close anyway with a very well-played undercut strategy that saved him a lot of race time even if it didn’t quite help vault both of those cars in the end.

Bortoleto’s first points since Melbourne left him buoyant after the race, and while the sister car of Nico Hulkenberg retired in another sign of poor Audi reliability, its recent pace has been more encouraging versus the head of the midfield. - JB