Red Bull equal record as McLaren stuns at Silverstone
Monday, 10 July 2023
Red Bull Racing ties a 35-year-old F1 record by winning an 11th straight race thanks to Max Verstappen, while McLaren emerge as an unlikely challenger at an intriguing British Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen won his sixth Grand Prix in succession – and eighth this season – with a pole-to-victory run at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, opening his championship advantage up to 99 points after 10 races.
The win – Red Bull's 11th in succession, tying McLaren's 1988 record for the most successive victories by a team – was one that came the hard way after McLaren's surprise front-row starter Lando Norris sent the 160,000-strong crowd into raptures by nailing the start and leading the reigning world champion into the first corner, Verstappen taking five laps to reel in and eventually pass the Briton.
Verstappen had the race under control from there but could never completely shake off an inspired Norris, who finished 3.7secs adrift after 52 laps after the field was compressed thanks to a lap 33 safety car caused by Kevin Magnussen's Haas coming to a fiery halt on the Wellington Straight.
Lewis Hamilton fought through from seventh on the grid – and benefitting from making his pit stop under safety car conditions with the field neutralised – to finish on the Silverstone podium for a 14th time in third place, leapfrogging McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Mercedes teammate George Russell – both of whom had pitted earlier – in the process.
Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez had another torrid weekend, failing to make the top 10 in qualifying for a fifth straight time and advancing only as far as sixth by the chequered flag.
Oscar watch
Oscar Piastri had by far the best weekend of his rookie F1® season at Silverstone, using the upgraded MCL60 chassis that Norris raced to fourth place in the previous race in Austria to finish fourth, spending the entire 52 laps in podium contention.
Piastri qualified a brilliant third on Saturday, and challenged Verstappen into the opening corners before running a composed third for the opening stint of the race, pulling away from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc with ease.
He pitted from third on lap 29 and was unlucky to get jumped by Hamilton, who pitted four laps later under the safety car. Try as he might, Piastri couldn't haul in the seven-time world champion when racing resumed for the final 14 laps, finishing 7.776secs from the victory and less than a second behind Hamilton's Mercedes.
Piastri – who had scored five points in nine races before Sunday – advanced from 14th to 11th in the drivers' standings, taking his season tally to 17 points.
Unsung hero
McLaren's form at Silverstone was circuit and temperature-specific to a degree – the sweeping curves of the former World War II airfield play to the high-speed cornering strengths of the MCL60, while the cooler track temperatures – and McLaren's propensity to warm up its tyres faster than most other cars – explained its one-lap pace in qualifying.
But that wasn't the whole story, with McLaren's Red Bull-like upgrades paying immediate dividends over the past two weekends.
McLaren hadn’t spent a single lap inside the top five before Austria last weekend, where Norris raced the new-spec car to fourth place. It was even better at Silverstone when Piastri also got his hands on the new package, McLaren scoring more points in one race (30) than it had in the previous nine (29), rocketing past Alpine into fifth place in the constructors' championship in one fell swoop.
Number to know
5: Verstappen's victory marked the fifth time a driver has won six consecutive races or more in F1 history – the others are Sebastian Vettel (nine straight), and Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, who each won seven Grands Prix in succession.
We've got a long way to go to challenge the next few teams. But anything's possible if we can keep having weekends like this…
British Grand Prix: top 10
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 1hr 25mins 16.938secs
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) +3.798secs
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +6.783secs
4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +7.776secs
5. George Russell (Mercedes) +11.206secs
6. Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) +12.882secs
7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +17.193secs
8. Alexander Albon (Williams) +17.878secs
9. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +18.689secs
10. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +19.448secs
Standings (top 5)
Drivers' championship
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 255 points
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) 156 points
3. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 137 points
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 121 points
5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) 83 points
Constructors' championship
1. Red Bull Racing (411 points)
2. Mercedes (203 points)
3. Aston Martin (181 points)
4. Ferrari (157 points)
5. McLaren (59 points)
Next race
Round 11: Hungaroring, Budapest (July 21-23)
