‘Zero visibility’ – Hadjar explains Antonelli crash as Lawson rues missed opportunity for Racing Bulls

Racing Bulls had a day to forget at the British Grand Prix, with both Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar crashing out on a day where many of their midfield rivals scored big points.

Lawson was the first to exit the race after he collided with Esteban Ocon’s Haas on the opening lap, in what the stewards deemed a racing incident. While Ocon was able to continue, the New Zealander was forced into immediate retirement.

Hadjar had avoided much of the opening lap chaos by pitting at the end of the Formation Lap for slick tyres, along with George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Ollie Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto – a move that was soon proven to be the wrong strategy call.

When the race came back together after a Safety Car period, Hadjar found himself behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli but, just as the Safety Car peeled off the track and racing resumed, the rookie barreled into the back of the Mercedes, retiring immediately.

“Racing in these tough conditions means that it’s always a little bit of a gamble out there,” Hadjar explained following his collision. "At the start of the race, I was following Charles [Leclerc] and it seemed we had a good pace; we were on the same strategy, but it wasn't the right one.

“During the laps we spent behind the Safety Car, I couldn’t see much due to the heavy rain and the tyre temperature dropped.

"After the restart, I wish I could have maybe had a bit more margin, but when I saw the red light of the back of Kimi’s car, it was already too late as there was just zero visibility. Thankfully, I’m okay.”

The incident also sent Antonelli into retirement as well, with both drivers emerging unscathed from what could have been a nasty crash.

Lawson was also fortunately uninjured from his collision, and was left rueing what he believed was a missed opportunity for the team at Silverstone.

“It is a shame, I think we would have had a very good car today and obviously in a race like this, anything can happen," he said.

“It’s just an opportunity that we’ve now missed out on, and I wasn’t really trying to be aggressive, I had a really good start, a path sort of opened up for us and I just wanted to survive the first lap."

Following the British Grand Prix and their double DNF, Racing Bulls have dropped from sixth to seventh in the standings, overtaken by Kick Sauber, and are now on equal points with Aston Martin, who scored with both cars.