Max Verstappen wins British Grand Prix for the first time in his career
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Max Verstappen wins the British Grand Prix. For the Dutchman, who has two titles and more than four dozen races to his credit, this is his first career triumph at Silverstone. For Red Bull, Sunday’s race was the eleventh in a row victorious. This is a repeat of the McLaren team’s long-standing record. The latter gave the fans hope with their performance at home: Lando Norris was second, and Oscar Piastri was only a little unlucky in the fight for the last place on the podium, which went to Lewis Hamilton as a result.
The circuit at Silverstone for a good decade was perceived as the patrimony of Mercedes. Since 2013, the drivers of the German team have won eight victories on this track. Even last season, which was completely dominated by Red Bull, the Bulls failed to excel in England (Ferrari won). This season, Red Bull’s hegemony has only been strengthened, as no other team has won a race since the start of the championship. But, probably, many fans from among those who are not delighted with the crushing superiority of Max Verstappen still hoped that the Dutchman would misfire at Silverstone. He can’t win all the time. He already had a series of five triumphs on his account.
Verstappen, however, gave no reason to doubt himself. He won the qualification, not particularly, in his own words, straining. Yes, and with an injury to the hand, received, again, according to him, it is not clear how and where. However, as soon as the starting lights went out, the stands got a reason to rejoice. Briton Lando Norris took and bypassed Verstappen right from the start. Yes, and from the second number of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, the Dutchman fought back not without difficulty. British fans probably wanted the race to end right now, but there were still fifty laps ahead, and it was clear that only a miracle would allow Noriss to stay ahead of Verstappen. The miracle did not happen, after five laps the Dutchman took the lead and, on duty, began to build a comfortable gap from his pursuers. He won, of course. For him, this is the first victory in his career at Silverstone. For Red Bull – the 11th consecutive race won (including the last stage of last season), and this is a repeat of the McLaren record set back in 1988.
However, the balance of power in the current Formula 1 is such that Verstappen should be singled out in a separate standings and it is advisable not to even show it on TV during the race. Let him calmly ride ahead, to the next victory, and let the riders who do not have such fast cars demonstrate a real struggle.
And McLaren succeeded in it, for which it was both joyful and exciting at the same time. The once great team (it has eight victories in the Constructors’ Championship, 12 times its racers became world champions) has been forced to be content with the status of an average peasant for ten years. And already at the start of this season, the state of McLaren seemed so deplorable that the team was even expected to place at the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship (in five of the previous races, McLaren did not score a single point). But it doesn’t seem to be all that bad. The assurances of the team representatives in the titanic work done to improve the car (almost always completely empty words) turned out to be true. McLaren was driving at Silverstone. An interesting point is that Lando Norris worked the last quarter of the distance on hard rubber. The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who was pressing on him, was equipped with a set of quite fresh “software”. And nothing – Norris fought off the seven-time world champion, so convincingly that he simply refused to attack. And if not for a small misfire in the tactics chosen by the team, then McLaren would have had a double podium. And so Oscar Piastri had to be content with fourth place. But still, for the Australian debutant of Formula 1, this is the best result in his career. Both Ferraris should have been somewhere close to the podium, but the Scuderia again had a bout of making strange tactical decisions. As a result, Charles Leclerc is ninth, Carlos Sainz is tenth.
After the British Grand Prix, the gap between Verstappen and his closest pursuer, Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez (the Mexican did not race well, taking only seventh place, however, against the background of his fifth consecutive failure in qualifying, even this looks good) is 99 points, and it’s a whole mess.
British Grand Prix – 10th round of the World Championship
eleven). Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Red Bull) – 1:25.16.938. 2 (2). Lando Norris (Great Britain, McLaren) – backlog 3,798. 3 (7). Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) – 6.783. 4 (3). Oscar Piastri (Australia, McLaren) – 7.776. 5 (6). George Russell (Great Britain, Mercedes) — 11,206. 6 (15). Sergio Perez (Mexico, Red Bull) – 12.882. 7(9). Fernando Alonso (Spain, Aston Martin) – 17.193. 8(8). Alexander Albon (Thailand, Williams) – 17.878. 9(4). Charles Leclerc (Monaco, Ferrari) – 18.689. 10(5). Carlos Sainz (Spain, Ferrari) – 19.448.
In brackets – the position on the starting grid.
Drivers’ Championship
1. Verstappen – 255 points. 2. Perez – 156. 3. Alonso – 137. 4. Hamilton – 121. 5. Sainz – 83. 6. Russell – 82. 7. Leclerc – 74. 8. Lance Stroll (Canada, Aston Martin) – 44. 9 Norris – 42. 10. Esteban Ocon (France, Alpine) – 31.
Constructors’ Cup
1. Red Bull – 411 points. 2. Mercedes – 203. 3. Aston Martin – 181. 4. Ferrari – 157. 5. McLaren – 59. 6. Alpine – 47. 7. Williams – 11. 8. Haas – 11. 9. Alfa Romeo – 9. 10. Alpha Tauri – 2.
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