Max Verstappen’s winning run continued at Silverstone but behind him the British drivers thrilled on home soil in front of a record crowd of 160,000 fans as Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
Six and Counting for Verstappen
Max Verstappen didn’t lead into Turn 1 this time—after a slow start—but within five laps he was back at the front of a Formula 1 race, a position he preserved throughout. It was the expected procession at the helm of the pack as Verstappen was clear of the frantic battles behind to grab his sixth win in a row, and eighth overall this year, to extend his championship advantage over Sergio Perez to a whopping 99 points.
Verstappen has scored 255 points out of a possible 276 so far in 2023. Perez recovered to sixth place after yet another failure during qualifying, tumbling out in changing weather conditions in Q1, which left him only 15th on the grid.
The win for Verstappen—his first in the British Grand Prix—enabled Red Bull to chalk up its 11th consecutive victory to equal the record set by McLaren way back in 1988.
“It wasn’t particularly straightforward,” said Verstappen. “I had a bad start, lots of wheelspin and so I had to work my way up again and get past Lando. It took a few laps. Then it also took a few laps to cool the tires down again in the lead, so Lando came back at me in the DRS, but once everything settled in we could open up the gap lap after lap to nine seconds until the safety car came out. So that was very positive and the team was working quite well.”
F1’s Brits Put on a Show
Verstappen may have dominated, but Britain’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and its young charger Lando Norris delighted the crowd with a scintillating fight for second place.
From the front row of the grid McLaren’s Norris seized the lead, which he held for five laps, while Hamilton recovered from a slow getaway in which he dropped as low as ninth. The timing of a Safety Car period benefited Hamilton, who rose to third, and on different tire strategies the compatriots battled side-by-side for several corners before the younger Briton held on.
Lewis Hamilton added to his incredible run of success at Silverstone with yet another podium.
For Norris it marked his first podium of the season for a rejuvenated McLaren, as the updated MCL60 perfectly suited the conditions and Silverstone layout. For Hamilton, it represented a scarcely believable 14th career podium finish at Silverstone, and 11th in succession. Not since 2013 has Hamilton departed Silverstone without silverware.
“It’s special hearing everyone chanting, seeing all the fans, seeing all the team below the podium,” said Norris after his seventh career podium. “Like I saw back in 2007, 2008, when I first started watching Formula 1, seeing Lewis and Fernando (Alonso) here. Now it’s my turn. It’s pretty special to be here now and to be in that position, and especially on a day like today give how tricky it was at times. I’m very proud.”
Added Hamilton: “He wanted to hold on to second, I wanted to get that second! But it wasn’t meant to be today. Just get our heads down and keep pushing, and hopefully we’ll have some more battles moving forward.”
Piastri Coming of Age
A year ago, Oscar Piastri was the subject of a tug-of-war between Alpine and McLaren, and he spent the first events of 2023 quietly learning his craft while his McLaren team struggled in the midfield.
Piastri has rarely made errors and has impressed with his studious and methodical approach despite the relatively low-key results, with just an eighth and a 10th to show points-wise, pre-Silverstone.
Rookie Oscar Piastri had a solid weekend for McLaren, finishing just off the podium.
On McLaren’s home soil Sunday, Piastri excelled, qualifying in third position, and he remained behind teammate Norris through the first stint. It was the timing of the Safety Car which hampered Piastri, as he had stopped before the race was neutralized, allowing Hamilton to make his mandatory stop while minimizing the time loss. That dropped Piastri to fourth, which he maintained through the final stint.
Despite the setback, Piastri finished just nine-tenths of a second behind Hamilton and only four seconds down on Norris. Piastri ran the upgrades introduced onto Norris’ car in Austria and still has the new front wing to come at the next race.
“It’s nice to know we’re fighting here,” said Piastri. “Clearly the upgrade’s a massive step forward, very good step forward over one lap, but the race pace is clearly where we’ve made a massive jump. Going into the race I was maybe slightly cautious we’d hit reverse like we have done recently but if anything it was even stronger than Austria, so that was super exciting.
“It hurts a little bit to be P4 when we were looking on for a podium for so long, bit unlucky with the safety car timing, but I’m just so happy that I’m disappointed with fourth place instead of what we’ve been disappointed with earlier in the season.”
Albon Caps Strong Weekend with Points Finish
London-born Alex Albon excelled through the course of the British Grand Prix weekend as Williams’ FW45 displayed surprisingly strong pace at Silverstone.
Albon was in the top three in each practice session and went on to qualify in eighth position. Albon ceded spots in the race to the recovering Perez and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, but a superior strategy enabled him to jump both Ferrari drivers to effectively retain eighth spot.
The haul of four points lifted Williams up from ninth to seventh in the standings as Williams commemorated its 800th Grand Prix on home soil. America’s Logan Sargeant had one of his strongest performances of the season, finishing only six seconds behind teammate Albon, though was just outside of the points in 11th place.
Alexander Albon gave Williams four points on Sunday.
“It was a great weekend,” said Albon. “When you think about the speed of the car, P8 this week is the worst position from all of our sessions this weekend.We’re now P7 in the Constructors’ Championship tied with Haas, so we’re in a very good place. The points aren’t always available so we need to make sure that in the few races where we can score points, we capitalize on them.”
Sargeant was encouraged by his own performance as he continues to get to grips with Formula 1.
“The progression has been good, and I feel like I’m getting more comfortable,” he said. “I’m starting to drive the car the way it actually needs to be driven. It’s all coming to me. The team has been great in supporting me, pushing me and trying to help me out as much as they can. We had a great car today. It was the best race I’ve felt all season in terms of car performance as well as pace.”
Lando Norris had his best finish of the season on Sunday at Silverstone.
F1 British Grand Prix
Results
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 52 laps
- Lando Norris, McLaren, +3.7 seconds
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +6.7
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren, +7.7
- George Russell, Mercedes, +11.2
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +12.8
- Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, +17.1
- Alexander Albon, Williams, +17.8
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +18.6
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +19.4
- Logan Sargeant, Williams, +23.6
- Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo, +25.8
- Nico Huklenberg, Haas, +26.6
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +27.4
- Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo, +29.8
- Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, +31.2
- Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri, +33.1
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 6 laps
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 21 laps
- Esteban Ocon, Alpine, 43 laps
Updated Drivers Standings
- Max Verstappen 255
- Sergio Perez 156
- Fernando Alonso 137
- Lewis Hamilton 121
- Carlos Sainz 83
- George Russell 82
- Charles Leclerc 74
- Lance Stroll 44
- Lando Norris 42
- Esteban Ocon 31
- Oscar Piastri 17
- Pierre Gasly 16
- Alexander Albon 11
- Nico Hulkenberg 9
- Valtteri Bottas 5
- Zhou Guanyu 4
- Yuki Tsunoda 2
- Kevin Magnussen 2
- Logan Sargeant 0
- Nyck de Vries 0
Constructors’ Championship Standings
- Red Bull 411
- Mercedes 203
- Aston Martin 181
- Ferrari 157
- McLaren 59
- Alpine 47
- Williams 11
- Haas 11
- Alfa Romeo 9
- AlphaTauri 2
Read the full article here