Verstappen pays off superior Red Bull strategy with thrilling victory at Silverstone; Mercedes’ Hamilton & Bottas forced to settle for P2 & P3

Faced with the normally intimidating might of Mercedes for a second consecutive week at the high-speed Silverstone circuit Max Verstappne and his Red Bull team once again threw a strategic spanner in the works of putative Silver Arrows domination. After only qualifying P4 on Saturday for the first and last ever 70th Anniversary Grand Prix and with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row from pole and P2 respectively, Verstappen was also the only elite runner to start the race on the Hard compound Pirrelli tires. But that “hard” label was really a misnomer, as Pirelli had dropped all their offerings down a notch on the hardness scale so that this week’s Hard was equivalent to last weekend’s Medium tires. It proved a brilliant strategic decision for Verstappen, especially under particularly warm and dry conditions this Sunday in Northamptonshire, which seem to be the Mercedes W11’s only real Achilles’ heel. So with the Red Bull’s downforce advantage sparing the wear and tear on their tires compared to the Silver Arrows brute force attack and with Max running the more durable yet still quick Hard compound, it rapidly became apparent that Verstappen’s strategy was to run longer stints than both Mercedes drivers and thereby gain track position and hold it. In the end the game paid off and the superlative Dutch driver pulled a coup.

Verstappen had a good getaway from the start, making quick work of Racing Point’s fill in driver, Nico Hulkenberg, who perhaps overachieved in qualifying to start P3. So right off the bat Verstappen was on then tails of the two Mercedes men, who held station after getting away cleanly with Bottas P1 and Hamilton P2. However, both of the Silver Arrows’ tires began degrading rapidly and first Bottas on Lap 13 then Hamilton on Lap 14 were forced to ditch their Medium tires for a new set of Hards. Meanwhile, Verstappen stayed out on his original set of Hards all the way to Lap 26, racking up a big lead in the process. And even with new rubber the Mercedes struggled to preserve their second set due to high tire temperatures just as they had done in the hot conditions of the second race of the season in Austria. So while race leader Bottas was able to pass Verstappen as the Dutchman was exiting the pits after a not particularly brilliant stop by the normally terrific Red Bull crew, the Finn simply didn’t have enough grip left to hold off Verstappen on his fresh Mediums for more than a few corners. Verstappen cruised back into the lead and held station until both he and Bottas pitted again for the preferred Hard tires on Lap 32, thus elevating the third place Hamilton into the lead for the first time in the race.

And despite the desperate state of Hamilton’s tires at that point in the race it looked for a moment that Hamilton might try to pull off the one-stopper even with a whopping 20 laps remaining in this 52-lap contest. But after last week’s ordeal when both Mercedes suffered late race tire delaminations that cost Bottas any points at all and nearly cost Hamilton the victory the nervous Mercedes brain trust chose the safer and smarter option than trying sneak Hamilton home on decrepit rubber ahead of a rampaging Verstappen. So Hamtilon bowed to the inevitable and came in on Lap 41 for his last pit stop and a fresh set of Hard Pirellis. He came out in P4 and Verstappen was back in the lead of the race with 10 laps to go. With most of the car’s fuel burned off at this late stage Hamilton set some blistering lap times and quickly passed the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for P3 and then his teammate Bottas, struggling on much older rubber, for P2 with two laps to go. But the English championship points leader could never get close to Verstappen, who crossed the line victorious and over 11 seconds better than the best Mercedes on this day.

Hamilton did have the consolation of scoring his 155th F1 podium with his second place finish, tying the great Michael Schumacher’s record. But Bottas the pole-sitter finished a disheartened P3 and was probably left questioning why the team’s strategy calls benefitted Hamilton so greatly yet seemingly at his expense. Leclerc drove a brilliant race to finish P4, actually making the one-stopper work and salvaging the day for Ferrari, who saw their other driver, the perplexing Sebastian Vettel, once again finish out of the points in 12. Vettel, who looked to match Vertsppan’s Medium tire strategy while starting from 11th on the grid, blew that opportunity with an unforced opening lap spin that dropped him to dead last and forced a pure salvage job from then on in. Again the question must be asked: What in the world has happened to four-time champion Sebastian Vettel?

Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon drove a much better recovery race after another poor qualifying effort. After starting from back in P9, Albon was able to make a slew of gutsy passes along the outside of Copse and maximized but didn’t damage his three sets of tires for a P5 finish. Racing Point somewhat out-thought themselves by calling in Hulkenberg from P5 for a late switch to Soft tires on Lap 44 that didn’t really pay off. But it was still a good double-points day for the team, with Lance Stroll finishing P6 and Hulkenberg coming home in 7th place. It will likely be the German veteran’s last drive for Racing Point, as regular driver Sergio Perez is expected to be cleared to race in Spain next week after his COVID quarantine. Hopefully Hulkenberg has shown enough to get another shot somewhere else in Formula 1 after putting in yeoman’s work and looking very competitive for two weeks Perez’s fill-in after being drafted on extremely short notice. Esteban Ocon scored the only points for Renault with a P8 finish, Lando Norris was P9 for McLaren and Daniil Kvyat a surprisingly good P10 for AlphaTauri to round out the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix’s Top 10.

Top 10 finishers for the 70th Anniversary GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the Spanish Grand Prix from the extremely familiar Barcelona-Catalonia circuit, which all the teams use for pre-season testing. Hope to see you then to find out whether Verstappen and Red Bull can continue to throw sand into Hamilton & Mercedes’ otherwise supremely tuned gears!