Motorsport

Six in a row! Verstappen dominates the British GP after another flawless performance. He was joined on the podium by two local drivers

For the tenth round of this year’s Formula 1 season, the British circuit of Silverstone was visited. Two British drivers stood on the podium in front of the home fans. Max Verstappen took to the top step for the sixth time in a row.

Published

12 months ago

9. 7. 2023

Dominik Barták

F1, Velká cena Velké Británie, Silverstone — Zdroj: Ryan Pierse, Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

The British Grand Prix, along with the Italian Grand Prix, is the only race to have been part of the F1 World Championship every year since the inaugural season in 1950. The first winner of the British GP was Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, who also won the world championship with his dominant Alfa Romeo 158.

The dream start for Mclaren didn’t stop Verstappen

Verstappen’s bad start was punished by Lando Norris, who took the lead at the first corner. Piastri also attacked the championship leader on the opening lap, but changed his mind before Copse corner, where Verstappen has unhappy memories of his clash with Hamilton.

Norris held the race lead until lap five. He put up little resistance to Verstappen at turn six and hung on with his teammate behind the No. 1 Red Bull, helping them pull away from the rest of the field led by Leclerc.

The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was long pressed by Russell, who was the only one of the top 10 to start on the softest tyre compound. The Monegasque defended his position by defending hard on the edge of the rules.

Only ten laps of the race were completed by Esteban Ocon. A hydraulic fluid leak forced him to retire from the race when he was holding twelfth place.

The field stabilised around lap 12. Verstappen was slowly but surely stretching his lead on Norris, Leclerc was not keeping up with Piastri’s pace and still had to defend against Russell’s attack. The only driver who managed to fight his way to the front was Pérez, who started from 15th place.

Leclerc was the first of the top 10 to head to the pits for a tyre change. He got rid of his medium hard tyres on lap 19. This change came before Russell, starting on the softest compound, was called to the pits, which was predicted to last around ten laps before the race.

Leclerc’s pace on the new hard tyres was nothing short of miraculous, with both Mclaren and Russell setting almost identical times. So no other team responded to his stop.

Russell was called into the pits ten laps after Leclerc, put on the medium hard tyres and took to the track less than two seconds behind the Ferrari driver. However, the British driver managed to quickly erase the deficit and just one lap later Leclerc was passed on the outside of the corner by Luffield.

The safety car knocked Piastri off the podium

Kevin Magnussen provided the big twist in the race. His Haas suffered an engine failure and he parked his burning car on the track. The subsequent safety car meant that the vast majority of the field headed to the pits.

This left Lewis Hamilton in third place with the soft tyres used between the two Mclarens on the new hard tyres.

After five laps, Bernd Mayländer and his safety car returned to the pits and the sprint for the podium could begin.

Verstappen broke away from the rest of the field immediately after the restart. Norris defended second place with all his might from Hamilton. Behind them, Piastri and Russell quickly dropped out of contention for the podium.

After Norris managed to extend his deficit to over 1 second and take the DRS advantage from Hamilton, the action moved to the lower points positions.

Pérez’s manoeuvre to overtake Sainz slowed the Spanish Ferrari driver so much that he lost a further two places to Albon and Leclerc over the next three corners.

Even the other Spaniard on the grid, Fernando Alonso, could not keep the Red Bull driver behind him. Towards the end of the race, Alonso also had to fight off the fast approaching Williams of Alex Albon.

Williams certainly came away from his home race overjoyed. Albon’s eighth place finish means points for the team for the third time this season. Logan Sargeant recorded his best result in Formula One, finishing just outside the points in tenth place.

Verstappen extended his lead over Pérez in the Drivers’ Cup to 99 points with his victory. In the teams’ championship, Red Bull leads Mercedes by 199 points.