The imperious Max Verstappen has made it six wins out of six races in a row with a victory in Silverstone, beating British drivers Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton to the top of the podium of the British Grand Prix on Sunday, July 9.
However, It wasn’t the straightforward victory that the flying Dutchman has become so accustomed to, as Norris overtook Verstappen at the beginning of the race in serious home hero fashion. The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri came oh so close to following his teammate past Verstappen, but he couldn’t quite make it through, creating a McLaren-Red Bull sandwich for the first five laps.
By the fifth lap, and with DRS at his disposal, Verstappen reclaimed P1 from Norris and began to pull away from the home favourites in more predictable fashion as the race ensued. Speaking thereafter, Verstappen said that his slow start to the race “made it a bit more exciting,” adding, “I had to push for it. Lando didn’t really put up a fight, he was very nice to me,” before admitting, “but then he actually came back again in the DRS, so he had a lot of pace today, he did very well today.”
A late Safety Car period caused by Kevin Magnussen’s smoking Haas shook the race order up, as the drivers opted for different tyre strategies in the hope of gaining an edge over their opponents with the threat of rain still looming over the track.
While the majority of the front-runners chose soft tyres under the Safety Car, Norris went for a set of hards, meaning he had to pull off some impressive defensive driving to hold on to second place over Hamilton, while the Brit in the Mercedes took third place from Piastri to climb the podium at Silverstone for the fourteenth time. Nevertheless, fourth still represented the best result of the Australian rookie’s Formula 1 season and career.
Meanwhile, it was a race to forget for the Scuderia Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who crossed the line in ninth and tenth place respectively. The pair will no doubt be frustrated with the result of their weekend, having started the race in a much more applaudable fourth and fifth place.
The next stop in the 2023 calendar is the Hungaroring for the, you guessed it, Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, July 23.
