F1 Fantasy: Tallying up after a Silverstone all-timer

Perhaps the least surprising thing about Sunday’s race is that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clinched a one-two. Piastri fans may be itching about his penalty for blocking Max Verstappen under the safety car, but he actually outscored his teammate in F1 Fantasy with 38 points.

The Aussie picked up ten points for the fastest lap, showing just how important a purple lap time could turn out to be in this year’s competition. Having spun off after Piastri’s hijinks, Verstappen did surprisingly well, scoring 21 in-game points. The same could be said of Lewis Hamilton, who missed out on a 13th consecutive Silverstone podium but registered 24 points in F1 Fantasy.

But the star of this year’s show was no doubt Nico Hulkenberg. A glorious run from 19th ended a 239-race wait for a Formula 1 podium. A third of all players correctly guessed that the German would do well over the weekend and were rewarded with 48 fantasy points.

You can join this year’s GP247 F1 Fantasy league here. In the meantime, let’s find out more about the biggest upsets at the British Grand Prix, starting with the least likely of all: Lance Stroll.

Whenever there’s changeable weather in F1, there’s always a chance that pulling the pin on an explosive strategy will fire you up the grid. For Stroll, that’s exactly what happened. Strapping on a pair of softs at exactly the right moment allowed him to fly through the pack before the heavy rain fell. Much to teammate Fernando Alonso’s disbelief, this saw him take fourth.

Though the Canadian eventually slipped to seventh, he gained enough overall places for 28 in-game points. An impressive haul — and a surprising one — only 10% of players picked him.

Another major surprise came from Ollie Bearman. The young Brit appeared to have kissed his chances at the British Grand Prix goodbye when he binned it under a red flag during qualifying. However, his fightback to 11th earned him a solid 16 fantasy points.

Pierre Gasly did similarly well, as did Alex Albon. Gasly scrapped to a valiant sixth (and he can claim an assist for Hulkenberg’s first podium after a defensive driving masterclass). Following a tricky run of results, Albon will be relieved to finish back in the points with eighth place. For the first time in three races, he rewarded F1 Fantasy players with points too, 14 of them in fact.

With every wet race opportunity comes a potential calamity for another driver. Of all the frontrunners, Mercedes suffered the most. In hindsight, risking George Russell and Kimi Antonelli’s races on a bold dry tire strategy call in the rain wasn’t a great idea.

Russell picked up ten points (a lot less than usual), while his young teammate registered -7 points in F1 Fantasy, his fifth negative result in six races. Carlos Sainz, who started 11th and would’ve expected to progress, had another shocker, slipping to a disappointing 12th.

But the biggest disasters of all belonged to Isack Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto, and Liam Lawson. None of them finished, and they all scored (at best) -18 points. Ouch for the fans who picked them in F1 Fantasy!

Colapinto will be feeling the breath of Flavio Briatore on the back of his neck at this point. Lawson has improved slightly since being dropped by Red Bull for Yuki Tsunoda, but he’s far from in the clear. Hadjar is on a bit of a mediocre run after a very promising start to the year. Bortoleto will also be rueing a missed opportunity after his more experienced teammate had a dream grand prix.

Another classic British Grand Prix, another week of 44th Gear at the top of the GP247 F1 Fantasy league. Like many of the frontrunners in this week’s standings, the team suffered a big point deduction for a crashed car, but this was offset by their selection of Hulkenberg.

McLaren and Ferrari also seem to be the outfits to beat this year. They scored a combined 131 in-game points at Silverstone, and the constructors featured in three of our league’s top five teams in F1 Fantasy. Clearly, they’re part of the current winning formula. Piastri, on the other hand, remains the biggest bargain. At $25.8 million, he’s still $5 million less than Norris (and only has seven fewer points).

There’s still time to take part in this year’s GP247 F1 Fantasy league; you can sign up here. For coverage of the rest of the season, stay tuned; we’ll be reporting on the action in-full, starting with the Belgian Grand Prix, which runs from July 25 to 27.