Super Max helps Red Bull equal winning record
Max Verstappen took his 6th win in a row as Red Bull equalled McLaren for the most consecutive Formula 1 victories with 11. McLaren’s Lando Norris finished in a brilliant second place in his home race whilst Lewis Hamilton secured his 14th Silverstone Podium.
The Biggest Talking Points
Lando Norris got the start that everyone at Silverstone wanted as he took the lead of the British Grand Prix at the first corner which Max Verstappen only just held off Oscar Piastri for P2. However, Max was able to get through into the lead relatively straightforwardly before he and the two McLarens pulled away from the rest of the field. Charles Leclerc defended hard against George Russell early on and it didn’t look to be the cleanest of defences even though nothing came about it. Esteban Ocon was forced to retire early on with a hydraulics failure and not much happened until George Russell pulled off a lovely overtake to go round the outside of Charles Leclerc at Luffield. Then, on Lap 31, Kevin Magnussen’s Haas caught fire which resulted in K-Mag retiring from the race and the Safety Car being deployed. Whilst this didn’t affect Verstappen and Norris up front, it massively cost Oscar Piastri and helped Lewis Hamilton who was able to jump all the way from P7 before the first round of pitstops to P3. A big talking point was then McLaren’s decision to put Lando Norris on the Hards and that definitely cost him to start with as Hamilton was all over the back of the lead McLaren. However, Norris held the 7-time World Champion off before he was able to pull away to maintain his P2. Elsewhere, Sergio Perez managed to overtake Fernando Alonso who seemingly had no pace the entire race whilst Carlos Sainz lost a few positions due to being out on an older set of the Hard tyres (Sainz was another driver who got shafted by the SC). Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll also had a couple of incidents which resulted in Gasly retiring from the race and Stroll receiving a 5-second penalty.
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve given out four 10’s for this race and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen. The most amazing thing about Max is his calmness and what I mean by that is even when Lando Norris passed him, he knew he would get back in front and he also had no worries when it came to the Safety Car restart. The second driver I’ve given a 10 to is Lando Norris who was just superb today. He got a brilliant start, had immense pace throughout, and did extraordinarily well to keep Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes behind. The third driver I’ve given out the maximum grade to is Oscar Piastri who recorded his best ever result in Formula 1. For me, Oscar drove just as well as Lando today when you consider that this was only Piastri’s 10th race in F1. Without the Safety Car, Piastri would’ve been on the Podium and he fully deserved that. The final I’ve given a 10 out to is Alex Albon who had yet another superb day in the Williams. Albon had Charles Leclerc behind him for most of the race, but he kept his nerve and the Ferrari behind him all while closing in on the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso to take home an excellent P8. I also thought Lewis Hamilton should be happy with his result.
Drivers who had a Horror Race
In total, I’ve only given out one 1 for this race and it’s unfortunately for Nyck de Vries. Nyck just can’t seem to find any confidence in his Alpha Tauri and he finished last on track as a result. You do have to wonder if de Vries’ season would’ve been any different if he was driving in the Williams alongside Alex Albon. I also thought Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda had pretty bad days as well whilst Zhou Guanyu didn’t have his finest afternoon.
Overall Race Results and My Ratings
Max Verstappen: 10 (FL)
Lando Norris: 10
Lewis Hamilton: 8
Oscar Piastri: 10
George Russell: 7
Sergio Perez: 6
Fernando Alonso: 5
Alex Albon: 10
Charles Leclerc: 4
Carlos Sainz: 4
Logan Sargeant: 7
Valtteri Bottas: 6
Nico Hulkenberg: 5
Lance Stroll: 2
Zhou Guanyu: 3
Yuki Tsunoda: 2
Nyck de Vries: 1
Pierre Gasly: 5 (DNF)
Kevin Magnussen: 4 (DNF)
Esteban Ocon: - (DNF)
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