With Wimbledon, the Tour de France, and the 2025 British Grand Prix, the long Fourth of July weekend for Americans has unpatriotically delivered a frantic mishmash of sports and European time zones. Some athletes are referencing the crossover. After easily winning his third-round match in Wimbledon on Saturday, Jannik Sinner was eager to get off court to catch the last few laps of qualifying. He was already planning his Sunday: "I will manage my practice sessions around the race," Sinner said.
Like any good Italian, Sinner was rooting for Ferrari, specifically Charles Leclerc. (Leclerc was returning the favor.) In a later interview, a commentator noted that Leclerc would only be starting P6 on the grid after a mistake-laden qualifying delivered pole position to Max Verstappen. "Yeah, but race is race," Sinner said, with great optimism. Then, as any long-suffering member of the tifosi would after these past few years, Sinner covered his face with his hands and lamented, "Don't put me down."
Sinner was correct to be optimistic for upsets to the qualifying grid. Silverstone Circuit usually makes for tough, elbows-out racing; add in the forecasted rain, and a shake-up was all but guaranteed. The gaps in qualifying were minimal—anyone in the top six could've taken pole, and were, on varying levels, mad at themselves for failing to do so. But while Sinner had high hopes for Leclerc (who has yet to get his first win of the season), and some other people thought the rainy conditions would suit Lewis Hamilton (who has had some struggles to start the year, but has never finished off the podium at Silverstone), no one would've guessed that the driver to benefit the most would be Nico Hülkenberg, who started P19 on the grid.
The race was hectic before it began. Even though the sun had come out before race start, the formation lap took place behind the safety car driven by Bernd Mayländer, who would prove to be the true star of the early race. Much of the track was drying, but there were still massive wet patches. Several cars, most notably including Leclerc and the Mercedes of George Russell, took the gamble to switch to slick tires instead.
With rain still to come, the opening laps vacillated violently between funny in a chaotic way, and a damp and demoralizing procession behind the safety car. The cars on slicks were the first losers, hemorrhaging time in the wet conditions. The visibility got so poor that Mayländer was once again called just to manage the race. The second losers were, as in the rainy conditions of the season opener in Australia, the rookies. No sooner had the safety car pulled in after lap 17 that a particularly spooky crash occurred between Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli in extremely low visibility—for Hadjar, the red lights of Antonelli's car appeared out of nowhere, and he crashed out after ramming into the back of Antonelli, leading to Mayländer's immediate re-entrance.
In the midst of this, the top three of Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and Lando Norris managed to have a relatively straightforward battle. Piastri passed Verstappen, and built a significant gap that was neutralized by the safety cars. On the second restart, however, Piastri made a costly mistake: He braked significantly on the straight in an attempt to manipulate tire temperatures, which was dangerous considering the tough visibility of the race. It worked, to some extent—Verstappen, both angry and with poor tires, spun his way out of contention—but at a cost: Piastri was saddled with a 10-second penalty that would cost him the race, in spite of his clumsy efforts to later incite team orders.
But this squabble over the race win detracted from the real story: Blink, and thanks to luck and some great strategy calls, the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll was in P3, and the Sauber of Hülkenberg—who, again, started P19 on the grid—was in P4. After a few laps, Hülkenberg dispatched Stroll, and suddenly he was in a podium position.
Hülkenberg debuted with Williams in 2010, and ever since, he has been cursed. Going into the 2025 British GP, the 37-year-old German held the ignominious record of the most race starts without a podium: a whopping 238 starts, 110 more than Adrian Sutil in second place. It is an odd record to hold, indicating a driver good enough to stick around, but not quite good enough to score a top seat or lucky enough to steal a podium. In his long time in F1, Hülkenberg has raced for Williams, Force India, Sauber, Renault, and Haas, before returning to an absolutely demoralizing Sauber team this year. Hülkenberg is a rarity, even more than repeat champions like Hamilton and Verstappen—few drivers can return to racing after a three-year gap as a reserve driver. For 15 years, it seemed like Hülkenberg's reward for his longevity would be immortalization as the supremely cursed driver who was once told by Kevin Magnussen to "Suck my balls, honey," before they later bonded at Haas. And then, all of a sudden, he was in P3.
If Hülkenberg wanted his podium, he would have to work for it. By lap 34, Hamilton was rapidly closing in. While his teammate Leclerc was floundering outside the points after the initial call for slick tires (condolences are due to Sinner), Hamilton found great pace in his wet-weather home race. He had just torn through the midfield to catch Hülkenberg and had significantly better straight-line speed. But then, a bit of fortune: Hamilton's intermediate tires fell off a cliff. The gap held steady at two seconds. After another round of pit stops kicked off by Ferrari pitting Hamilton for slick tires as the track dried—perhaps in retrospect a little too early, but not the most egregious call—the gap between Hamilton and Hülkenberg grew to over eight seconds.
For the remaining seven laps, Hülkenberg had to manage the gap to Hamilton (no pressure) and keep the car on the track (no pressure!) to earn his podium. It was an unromantic, tense grind to the end—an apt summary of his career, in a sport that does not traditionally reward his type of hard work. But this time, this time, it came with the sweetest reward. A little bit of luck, a lot of grit, and Hülkenberg had his first podium in his 239th start. "I don't think I can comprehend what we've just done," Hülkenberg said on the radio after the race, audibly in tears. "Oh. Oh my God." Forget about the race winner. In light of this joy, who gives a damn about a championship?
