After a rain shower hit the track 25 minutes before the end of the traffic lights, all drivers decided to start the race on intermediate tires in the grippy conditions.
While pole sitter Lewis Hamilton was able to maintain his lead, Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas misjudged his braking at Turn 1, lost control and ran into the rear of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
This put Norris on the trail of Hamilton’s title rival Max Verstappen, who was also hit while Bottas’ car ran into Sergio Perez’s second Red Bull.
Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc also collided and sent McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo into a tailspin.
The race was quickly placed behind the safety car before finally the red flag was thrown due to debris on the track and all the cars returned to the pit lane.
Bottas, Perez, Stroll and Leclerc all dropped out of the race while Verstappen lost the bargeboard on the right side of his car.
Under the red flag, Hamilton is ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, while Sebastian Vettel is third for Aston Martin.
Williams drivers Nicholas Latifi and George Russell have both pushed their way through the chaos into the top 10 and are in sixth and eighth, while Mick Schumacher is in 10th place for Haas.
As can be seen under the final red flag at Silverstone, the teams are allowed to carry out repairs under the red flag, which gives Red Bull the opportunity to fix Verstappen’s car. He will contest the restart in 13th place.
McLaren quickly tossed Norris’ car back into the garage, with much of the floor visibly missing on the left rear of the car.
But the team informed FIA race director Michael Masi on the public radio that it had to retire the car under the red flag and reduced the race to 15 cars.
The stewards quickly confirmed that the incidents in Turn 1 are being investigated.
The race management announced that the Grand Prix should resume in about 15 minutes from 1518 local time.
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