Max Verstappen has become the first non-Mercedes driver to win a race in 2020, the Red Bull racer won the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes pairing and policeman Valtteri Bottas after an incredible display at Silverstone .
Verstappen had been the only driver in the top 10 to start the race on the hard tires. And after he started P4 – which became P3 by Turn 1, after quickly overtaking Nico Hulkenberg’s Racing Point – he managed his pace brilliantly throughout the race, pushing the Mercedes early before the took the lead from Bottas with a brilliant move around Luffield, before heading to the finish line for his first victory since Brazil last year – and Red Bull’s first at Silverstone since 2012.
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Hamilton enjoyed an increase of a late race, by passing his teammate by two laps to go to Brooklands to claim second place – equal to the number of stage finishes of Michael Schumacher in the process – while it was the second time in three years was that Bottas failed to convert a Silverstone pole into a win because he came home third.
Charles Leclerc was another driver to manage his tires well, creating a one-stop job for a fine P4, while teammate Sebastian Vettel could only manage P12, on his own spins in the first corner of the race.
Alex Albon finished fifth for the second Red Bull, passed the Racing Point of Lance Stroll with a lap to go, Stroll finished P6 ahead of stand-in teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who stopped late for soft tires.
The top 10 ran Esteban Ocon on P8, ahead of Lando Norris’ McLaren and Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri, who despite his lower starting position finished one place ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly to take his second point of the season.
|
1 Max Step VER Red Bull Racing |
1:19: 41,993 | 25 |
|
2 Lewis Hamilton HAM Mercedes |
+ 11,326s | 19 |
|
3 Valtteri Bottas BOT Mercedes |
+ 19.231s | 15 |
|
4 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari |
+ 29,289s | 12 |
|
5 Alexander Albon ALB Red Bull Racing |
+ 39,146s | 10 |
|
6 Lance Stroll STR Racing Point |
+ 42.538s | 8 |
|
7 Nico Hulkenberg HUL Racing Point |
+ 55,951s | 6 |
|
8 Esteban Ocon OCO Renault |
+ 64,773s | 4 |
|
9 Lando Norris NOR McLaren |
+ 65.544s | 2 |
|
10 Daniil Kvyat KVY AlphaTauri |
+ 69,669s | 1 |
70th Anniversary Grand Prix: Verstappen and Bottas go wheel by wheel for the lead
IF IT HAPPENS
Polesitter Bottas was calm and assured of the line, putting Hamilton – who had aggressively tipped his Mercedes W11 to his teammate on the grid – in Turn 1, while Verstappen passed Hulkenberg past Abbey to take P3. Further back, Sebastian Vettel ruined every advantage of starting P11 on the hard tires by turning on his own via Turn 1, causing him to immediately lie to the back of the pack.
Daniel Ricciardo had maintained his fifth position, but attempted to go outside Hulkenberg at The Loop, was pushed by the German, Ricciardo’s stutter on the dirt allowing Lance Stroll to pass for fifth. Far ahead Hamilton had a string of catches on Bottas going to Brooklands, but Bottas held the corner before putting himself in a rhythm at the head of the pack, just a second up from Hamilton.
George Russell and Charles Leclerc were two other fallers at the start, Russell fell short behind his teammate Nicholas Latifi despite starting three places ahead of him, while Leclerc dropped from P8 to P10 – with Lando Norris the opposite to get to P8.
That became P7 when Pierre Gasly was one of the first to punch early doors on Lap 8, trading his mediums for hards, as Alex Albon previously had a round, the two drivers being the first of several. t early thought.
70th Anniversary Grand Prix: Watch the F1 race begin at Silverstone
Verstappen had done incredibly well to keep in touch with the Mercedes in the early part of the race, much to the chagrin of his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who on Lap 11 told his driver to cool his pace around his tires to maintain. “Companion, this is my only chance to get the Mercedes, I’m not just sitting like a grandmother,” came the reply.
That he was not. Verstappen smelled blood with Hamilton, and after leader Bottas ran out on Lap 14, rising P6, the Dutchman was running around the back wing of Hamilton, Hamilton complained that his rear tires were “ready”. However, the battle was called off when Hamilton was brought in on Lap15, leaving Verstappen in the lead, after starting crucially on the hard-assembled tires.
At Lap 26 was the order Verstappen by Bottas from Hamilton, Verstappen led the Finn through 19s – theoretically enough for a free pit stop – and made Mercedes sweat, the Dutchman consistently beat faster than the Silver Arrows despite on much older tires, with Lambiase then instructed his driver to increase his pace before bringing him to Lap 27 for mediums.
It was not Red Bull’s nicest pit stop, with the right back gradually on, allowing Bottas to take the lead again through a couple of car laps when Verstappen came on. It didn’t take long, though, for Verstappen topped Bottas on the inside on the approach to Brooklands, before defeating Luffield on the outside and reclaiming the lead – before Bottas immediately gaped for a few seconds.
At the bottom of the order was Albon in punchy form, who passed Räikkönnen with a brilliant move around the outside of Copse, before passing Gasly at Brooklands and Norris, once again at Copse, before stopping his second pit on Lap 31.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was hit in the meantime with a penalty of five seconds, before he aggressively got in the way of Nicholas Latifi – while Haas would later finish the car six laps in the last place. withdraw.
Daniel Ricciardo, who had sniffed a pop stage after finishing P3 in Free Practice 2, did not have a good time, making two pit stops early before the Australian strained his Renault at the exit of Doarp and fell to P12 on Lap 31. After his own Lap 1 spin, Vettel was also not in the best mood, banning Ferrari for his own pit stop because he put himself in an unfavorable gap. “We talked about it this morning,” he said on the radio. “You have messed up.”
Verstappen and Bottas both pitched again for hards on Lap 33, Red Bull confident enough to match Mercedes stop-for-stop, meaning that with 15 laps to go, the order was Hamilton – who Mercedes had chosen for it to hold out as long as possible despite the haggard status of his hard ties – with Verstappen about 10 seconds behind, when Bottas, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Stroll and Albon, the Racing Points had held up decently after being a week earlier in the UK Grand Prix for racing match wrestling, on Lap 18 Leclerc had managed his band life beautifully to be in P4.
If Mercedes thought they might have stopped Hamilton once, memories of his tire failure seven days earlier probably controlled that course of action, with Hamilton spitting on Lap 42, 10 from the end, fourth up, and Verstappen left, Bottas and Leclerc in the top three.
Hamilton’s pace was electric in the final stages, as he directed Leclerc to the end of the Hanger before chasing his teammate. He sat on his tail with a handful of rounds to go, and pulled the coup de grace on Bottas on Lap 50 of 52 to Brooklands to take P2.
However, Mercedes’ quatrains could have cleared Verstappen at the front. He had enough time on hand to send a cheeky message to Lambiase on the final lap and reminded himself to stay hydrated – as he had done a week ago – before happily venturing across the line to claim his ninth career win no one, to admit after the race that it was a victory he “did not see it coming”.
Hamilton was able to hold on to second, after Dark suggested on team radio during the race that Verstappen’s pace was perhaps somewhat thanks to what Red Bull had done with his tire pressure – while Bottas found it “very frustrating” to finish third after he first began, afterwards stiffly saying that his team had been strategically “sleeping” because Hamilton appeared to be receiving a more optimal strategy.
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Charles Leclerc finished on the pop stage a week ago, but this time looked almost happier with P4, and went on his radio after bravely making a one-stop strategy work in one of the discs of the day.
After starting P9, Albon had to fight through the pack again, but did so with aplomb, and Stroll finished off with a round to go to P5, and Stroll and then finished sixth for Hulkenberg, leaving the German too late for softs went.
Fourth at the British Grand Prix, Ricciardo’s day was more difficult this time, when he won P14, but the performance of Reanult teammate Esteban Ocon was better, as he finished eighth, ahead of the McLaren of Norris and the two AlphaTauris of Daniil Kvyat and Gasly.
That’s where you go – Mercedes can be beaten. And perhaps it is hardly surprising that the driver to do so was Max Verstappen, whose resistance from his engineer early in the race ensured such an exciting 70th anniversary Grand Prix. Roll on Barcelona …
The main quote
‘I did not see it coming! But after the first stint, it looks like we were really good at taping. Of course, there was then a question mark over how Mercedes goes on that hard tire. We had a lot of pace in the car, I did not really have a lot of tire problems, we just kept busy.
An incredible result to win here, we had a great day, everything worked well, we had the right strategy, everything went smoothly and I am incredibly amazing to win ”- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
What comes next?
We are heading straight to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix on August 14-16 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
It’s a track where Mercedes has won the past three years – but with warmer temperatures forecast, and Verstappen in the form he is in now, there could be some extra pain in Spain to come for the Silver Arrows ?
