Verstappen takes sixth victory in a row at competitive British GP; Norris earns P2 honors with magnificent drive for greatly improved McLaren, teammate Piastri P4; Hamilton recovers with help from Safety Car to podium after P7 start

Max Verstappen and Red Bull continued their winning ways on Sunday at the British Grand Prix, as the Dutch ace notched his sixth consecutive victory, which also made it eleven on the trot for Formula 1’s most dominant team. However, the competition seemed to step up their collective game this weekend at Silverstone and, while never really being challenged for the win, Verstappen was held to a relatively modest margin of victory by his high standards of “only” about 3.8 seconds over the runner up. Even more so than yet another Verstappen win, that runner up was the story of the day because it was McLaren’s Lando Norris who took second place, converting his excellent qualifying effort into a hard earned, stressful but ultimately joyous P2. In fact, Norris even passed Verstappen at the beginning of the race after getting the better start from the ostensibly disadvantaged P2 side of the grid. While the young Englishman could only hold off the charging Red Bull until Lap 5, it still said the world about the progress that team McLaren have made within this season to haul their car up from the midpack doldrums and into genuine contention. The English fans roared their approval for the local team’s exploits on the day, which also included rookie Oscar Piastri overcoming an ill-timed Safety Car on Lap 33 of this 52-lap contest to take P4. While the timing of that SC and missing out on the cheap stop did cost the young Aussie a position from his starting grid spot, if anyone had asked him or team McLaren if they’d have been happy with a P4 as their secondary result on the day you can bet they all would have signed up for that.

How loud did you scream when the lights went out at Silverstone? 😱#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Kv05XOsNIM

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 9, 2023

The main beneficiary of that Safety Car, which immediately followed the virtual version when the stewards determined that the stopped Haas of Kevin Magnussen was going to require significant time to remove form the circuit, was Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. With Piastri having already pitted under green flag conditions on Lap 29, Hamilton was able to dive to the pits along with Verstappen and Norris under the full Safety Car, which then slowed the field to such an extent that Hamilton was able to come out in front of Piastri in P3. It was quite the opportunistic recovery for the seven-time World Champion after a lackluster qualifying saw him starting the race in P7. But there always seems to be magic for Lewis at Silverstone, his favorite track, where he has won an astounding eight times in his career. And, for a while on this day, it almost looked as if Hamilton might vault past Norris and maybe try to take on Verstappen for the overall victory. Both Verstappen and Hamilton made the switch off of their opening Medium Pirelli tires onto the Softs, while both McLarens decided on the relative security of new Hards to finish out the race. While it was hearts in mouths stuff for McLaren wondering if they had made a strategic error when Hamilton was all over the back of Norris on those first few laps after the restart on Lap 39, Norris was able to fend off Hamilton’s best efforts on the stickier rubber until his own tires switched on and the pace advantage evaporated. Likewise, Hamilton’s teammate George Russell could not quite get around Piastri on his slightly older Mediums against Piastri’s equally old Hards, both of them having pitted earlier on Lap 28 and 29 respectively and therefore missing out on the cheaper stop. Russell’s stop was also about a second and a half slower, which proved crucial. So, while Piastri then lost out to Hamilton on the Safety Car pit sequence, he was still able to hold off Russell for the rest of the race, with George having to make do with P5 as the checkers flew.

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was forced into another recovery drive after getting knocked out in the first or second round of quali for the fifth consecutive time, an absolutely perplexing turn of events for a driver of his caliber. In the end, Perez was able to work his way up to a P6 finish, which certainly deserves some plaudits. But there is no doubt that the Mexican pilot has got to put an end to his inexplicable qualifying woes if he is going to be factor in the second half of the season. Fernando Alonso made the best of a bad situation with an Aston Martin that didn’t really suit the compromise-heavy Silverstone Circuit, the Spaniard driving calmly and competently to salvage P8. The team are hoping that some new upgrades and the much different nature of the Hungaroring will again make them more competitive two weeks hence. If Aston were disappointed with their run in Britain then Ferrari have to be appalled at their dismal day in Northamptonshire. The Prancing Horses were easy meat late in the race as both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc suffered the ignominy of being passed not only by Perez but also the Williams of Alexander Albon and could only watch helplessly as the latter secured an excellent P8 result. That relegated Leclerc to P9 and Sainz to P10, a depressing setback after the Scuderia appeared to be making progress with a P2 for Leclerc and a P6 for Sainz at the last race in Austria a week ago. The fabled team from Maranello must be praying that the one-off was here at full size Silverstone and not an illusory over performance at the very short Red Bull Ring.

Top 10 finishers of the British GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two week’s time: the Hungarian Grand Prix at the tricky Hungaroring. While it won’t be the traditional last race before the summer break this season, it should prove an intriguing event to discover if McLaren’s massive pace improvement can be sustained, if mighty Mercedes can punch back against those upstart efforts and whether Ferrari and Aston Martin are now going the wrong way. And, of course, Verstappen’s streak has got to end sometime, doesn’t it? And Perez can’t keep qualifying outside the top ten, can he? Hope to see you in a fortnight to find out all the answers!