Race Report: Verstappen leads Norris at British GP

The Formula 1 British Grand Prix is a hallmark of the F1 series. It’s the spiritual home of the series and Silverstone is one of the oldest circuits not eh calendar and, as is often the case, one of the best.

What better way to celebrate the 450,000 British fans than to have three British drivers in teh top 5 at the British Grand Prix!

While it was always going to be difficult to deny Max Verstappen’s Red Bull a victory at Silverstone, the resurgent McLaren in the hands of Lando Norris in second place was a terrific result and an amazing drive to keep 7-time British champion, Lewis Hamilton, behind him in third.

Win

Obviously a big win for Red Bull and Max Verstappen who secured the team’s 11th win in a row equaling McLaren’s record. It’s been a long time since Red Bull won the British Grand Prix so a welcome result with Sergio Perez recovering to the points in 6th.

A massive win for McLaren with a fantastic drive from Lando Norris to secure 2nd place and Oscar Piastri in 4th. While the safety car benefitted Lewis Hamilton, it cost Oscar a podium position but a 2nd and 4th is the largest points haul in the team’s season so far and an endorsement of the recent upgrades the team have developed.

A win for Mercedes to get Lewis Hamilton on the podium and that’s a good thing even though they weren’t as quick as McLaren were at Silverstone. With Lewis in 3rd and George Russell in 5th, it wasn’t a total loss. It does put pressure on Mercedes and their aero department to find the missing links.

A big win for Williams and Alex Albon for a terrific 8th place finish beating two Ferraris on merit no less! His teammate, Logan Sergeant came home in 11th so it was a very big weekend and home race for the team. The Safety Car was a big help for Alex but his defensive driving kept him there. A clear indication of the Vowles factor and Alex is driving incredibly well. So well that the team is now 7th in the constructor’s championship.

Fail

A fail for Ferrari who were beaten by a Williams and the radio from both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz reveals the discordant situation within the team as they drifted backward at Silverstone.

A fail for Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso off the pace and finishing down in 7th and Lance Stroll in 14th with a penalty for causing a collision and taking Pierre Gasly out of the race. It’s unclear if Aston Martin has been recently beaten in the development war from other teams or if the Silverstone circuit simply didn’t flatter their car. Either way, it’s not a good weekend for the team and their home race.

A fail for Alpine who suffered a dual DNF with Pierre Gasly punted out by Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon suffering a hydraulic issue that retired the car. Help us Ryan Reynolds!

A fail for both Alpha Tauri and Alfa Romeo who both finished out of the points and at the back of the field.

WTH

Very curious to see if McLaren’s gains both in Austria and the UK are signs that there could be a permanence to their upgrades for all tracks or if these last two circuits simply flattered their car a bit.

I have people tell me that certain things I say continually annoys them so in that vein, could someone at Sky Sports tell Naomi to stop saying “Look” at the beginning of all her answers to Simon?

The discussion around Lando being given Hard compounds versus Soft compounds is a good debate but Lando feels the Softs would have been far better. The question is, would they have been as they would have been scrubbed Softs?

Unfortunate for Oscar, would have loved to see two McLaren’s on the podium.

Pirelli Tire Story:

Another win for Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion now clearly the dominant force, along with his Red Bull Racing car, in 2023. This was Max’s second win at the Silverstone circuit, following on from the Formula 1 70^th Anniversary Grand Prix held here in 2020. He was never really troubled, even if he was surprised at the speed of Lando Norris’ start in the McLaren from the spot alongside him on the grid. Once back in front, the Dutchman had a trouble-free time of it, even after the restart on lap 39, as the race had been neutralised while Kevin Magnussen’s Haas was removed from the side of the track. Much to the delight of most of the 480,000 strong crowd – a record for this track, Verstappen was joined on the podium by two British drivers, the aforementioned Norris and Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver having been the main beneficiary of the appearance of the Safety Car.

Red Bull’s win puts the team equal with McLaren for the most consecutive race wins (11.) The last time a driver for the Austro-British team did not win a race dates back to George Russell’s victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix last year.

One-stop was the most common strategy, but the Soft proved far more popular than our earlier predictions. The only cars not to run the C3 were the two Ferraris and two McLarens.

The most used compound during the Grand Prix was the C2, which ran 485 laps, 50% of the total completed. The C3 was second (337 laps, 34.74%), followed by the C1 (148, 15.26%).

Russell’s 28 laps was the longest stint on the Soft, while for the Medium, Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris and Alonso did 33 and Bottas ran 32 on the Hard.

The fastest laps for each compound were all set on tyres that had done ten or more laps. For the C1, the best time (1.30.543) was set by Norris on lap 43 with a set of tyres that was 10 laps old. Russell was quickest with the C2 (1.31.124) on lap 13 of his second stint, while the fastest race lap fell to Verstappen in 1.30.275 on C3 on lap 11 of his second stint. It should also be noted that after pit stops for Russell and Verstappen, the race was neutralised for five laps.

British Grand Prix Results: