Verstappen wins British GP; McLaren back on the podium

Max Verstappen has scored his sixth consecutive win this season after taking victory at the British GP. McLaren showed resurgent form, with Lando Norris crossing the line in second place, handing the team its first podium finish since Imola 2022.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton completed the podium, marking the first time since 1999 that two British drivers stood on the British GP podium.

1. Verstappen wins by 3.798 secs
2. Norris P2, Piastri P4 for McLaren

Verstappen: “I had to push for British GP win.”

Verstappen didn’t have the best of starts; in fact, it was Norris who was leading the race at the end of Lap 1. But with DRS finally open, Verstappen passed Norris to reclaim the lead. From there on, there was no looking back and he went on to claim his eighth win so far this season.

“I was doing a bit of drifting on Thursday with marketing, and it felt like I was doing that also in the start, which wasn’t very good – it was very bad. We’ll look into that because I think the last few starts were actually a lot better, and today wasn’t that great,” Verstappen said after the race.

“But at least it made it a bit more exciting, I had to push for it.”

Norris fends off Hamilton

Norris’ P4 finish at the last race in Austria seemed to indicate that McLaren was on the right track with its recent updates. The team’s Silverstone results further solidified that, with Norris finishing P2 and Oscar Piastri P4. And the team did this while on an alternate tyre strategy.

As Kevin Magnussen stopped on track with an engine failure – bringing out Safety Car – most of the frontrunners dived into the pits for fresh tyres. While the likes of Verstappen, Hamilton and George Russell took soft tyres, McLaren opted to give both drivers the hard compounds.

Both Norris and Piastri were left having to do a fair bit of defending as a result. But they pulled it off and kept both Mercedes drivers at bay.  Despite multiple overtaking attempts from Hamilton, Norris successfully fended off the seven-time world champion and crossed the line less than 4 secs behind Verstappen.

Williams ahead of Ferrari

Yet another poor qualifying saw Sergio Perez start the race from 15th on the grid. But once again, he delivered a strong recovery drive to finish sixth, ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Aston Martin once again struggling to be in podium contention.

Alex Albon scored a solid P8 result for Williams, finishing ahead of the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

2023 F1 standings

Verstappen has now extended his championship lead to a whopping 99 points from teammate Perez. With 255 points, the reigning champion has scored more points than Mercedes (second in the constructors’ championship with 203 points) has as a team.

Alonso holds on to third overall, 19 points behind Perez. Up next on the F1 calendar is the Hungarian GP on July 21-23.

2023 British GP results

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