FORMULA ONE: Max Verstappen led Red Bull Racing to a record-equalling 11th consecutive victory by beating home favourite Lando Norris to victory at the British Grand Prix yesterday (July 9).
Max Verstappen celebrates after winning the Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday (July 9). Photo: AFP
Red Bull Racing’s streak dates to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and matches the record set by the legendary 1988 McLaren team.
McLaren’s 1988 campaign is the most dominant in history, with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combining to win 15 of 16 grand prix, the most dominant run by percentage ever recorded.
It was McLaren’s modern-day leader Norris who came closest to denying the 2023 juggernaut a chance to equal that historic benchmark when he sprung from second onto the grid and into the lead on the first lap.
His heavily upgraded McLaren could keep Verstappen at arm’s length, but with DRS enabled and the pursuing Red Bull car’s tyres up to temperature, service was resumed with a straightforward slipstream pass on lap five.
Verstappen was able to split from the field, though a late-race safety car meant his victory margin was a relatively modest 3.7 seconds.
“I had a bad start, a lot of wheel spin, so I had to work my way up again to Lando,” he said. “But then once everything settled in, we lap after lap could open up the gap to nine seconds before the safety car came out.
“Eleven wins in a row for the team – I think that’s pretty incredible.”
Norris was on track for a comfortable second-place finish before the safety car, which gifted Lewis Hamilton a cheap pit stop and dropped him into third on softer tyres.
The race resumed with 14 laps to go, and Hamilton was straight on the attack.
The memorable all-British battle took them side by side through Brookland, Luffield and Woodcote, but centimetre-perfect car placement forced Hamilton to back out at every turn.
It took only a handful of close encounters for the momentum to swing decisively back to Norris, whose hard tyres fired up while Hamilton’s overcooked, and the younger Briton ground out a three-second victory.
“I would say the best, most exciting one [of my podiums],” Norris said. “The team have done a good job, they’ve improved the car. The last few weekends we’ve been extremely good, so I’m very happy for them.”
McLaren so nearly scored a double podium, having had Piastri starting third directly behind Verstappen and almost stealing second off the line, but the timing of the safety car, which interrupted the race just three laps after he’d already made his pit stop, enabled Hamilton to jump him.
“I really didn’t expect to be on the podium today,” Hamilton said. “But when we go through all the different strategy options, this is the one you hope for, which is the safety car.
“We do have a lot of work to do on our car to put ourselves in proper competitive form to fight the Red Bulls and now McLarens.”
Piastri dropped to fourth after the safety car, and the final phase of his race mirrored Norris’s, with Russell following him home on softer tyres, but the Australian rookie held firm for the best finish of his 10-race career.
Sergio Pérez recovered from another shocking qualifying result to an underwhelming sixth, the Mexican lamenting a slow start and the bad timing of the safety car for preventing him from a steeper rise.
Fernando Alonso held off fast-finishing Thai driver Alex Albon for seventh on a quiet day for Aston Martin but a superb day for Williams. The British minnow scored points for just the third time this season in Albon’s hands to rise to seventh in the constructors standings.
Ferrari faded badly in the race, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dropping five places apiece to ninth and 10th.
Both had their races scuppered by early pit stops onto the hard tyre, which proved uncompetitive for the SF-23. Leclerc made a second tyre change during the safety car that ensured he finished ahead, but neither drive was satisfied after another race of inconsistent car behaviour despite recent upgrades.
American rookie Logan Sargeant executed a strong race to finish 11th just four seconds from his first F1 point, beating Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hülkenberg.
Lance Stroll had taken the flag 11th but was docked five seconds for crashing into Pierre Gasly attempting to rejoin at the Vale chicane, which put the Frenchman out of the race with damage.
It was Alpine’s third double retirement of the season, with Esteban Ocon packing up early with a hydraulics issues.
Zhou Guanyu led home Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries. Kevin Magnussen was the only other retirement of the race thanks to a Ferrari engine problem in the back of his Haas.
