Max Verstappen has added his eighth victory of the season in Great Britain, the most difficult for him under pressure from the local hero, Lando Norris
Fernando Alonso has had to settle for seventh position at Silverstone and Carlos Sainz has fallen to tenth in another weekend to forget about Ferrari
The British Grand Prix, the tenth of the season, has been a party for the local fans, with two British drivers, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton on a podium headed inevitably by max verstappen. The Dutchman has had it more difficult than ever to distance the pursuers from him and reap his eighth victory of the season. Along with the leader of Red Bull, McLaren has been the great winner at the Silverstone circuit, since in addition to second place in norrishas succeeded in placing Oscar Piastri in the fourth position.
Much less fortunate has been the Sunday of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. The Asturian has worked hard to win two positions (7th), a reward that he undoubtedly knows little about in the home test for Aston Martin. And Ferrari has wasted another chance to stand out as the alternative to Red Bull. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz they lost their options after the safety car in the decisive section of the race and the man from Madrid finished tenth, preceded by his teammate.
Max Verstappen showed on Saturday that he is ‘human’ by breaking the wing of his Red Bull in a strange contact with the pitlane wall. And also today he failed to start from pole position. The Dutchman got off to a bad start and had to correct his trajectory, losing position with Lando Norris, first with the McLaren while the stands of Silverstone roared, which this weekend has gathered no less than 480,000 fans.
piastri has also come close to surpassing Max and in fact the Australian rookie has allowed himself to attack the World Cup leader, who has resisted, waiting for the DRS zones to be activated. After five laps, the Red Bull man overtook norris like a ‘missile’ and has begun his solo ride, which has already become the norm this year.
alonso He has started very well and has gained two positions to situate seventh, while hamilton, very aggressive on a circuit where he holds the record for victories (8), went off the track in the first corner, dropping to ninth place. But the Briton recovered quickly and in just six laps he overtook Ferdinand for sheer speed, getting in the wake of Sainzwho at the start had given fifth place to Russellthe only favorite with soft starting tires.
McLaren pressure on the leader
leclerc has opened the ‘season’ in the pits, with a quick pitstop to protect himself from a possible ‘undercut’ of Russell. The Monegasque opted for going to a pit stop and returned to the track on hard tyres, in twelfth position. Norris, without degradation, has chosen to continue on the track like his teammate Piastri. The two McLarens kept pressing and preventing Verstappen from escaping after more than 5 secondswhich compromised his stop.
Russell He maintained a spectacular pace on the softs and continued to ‘fly’, complicating Leclerc’s strategy, with traffic problems to overcome after his stop. The Briton managed to extend the life of his tires to 29 laps but a slow stop by Mercedes left him once again at the expense of the Monegasque, whom he surprised with a nice overtaking.
Final chance with the safety car
the haas of magnussen , on fire, caused a safety car on lap 34, especially opportune for all the drivers who had not yet made their stop, especially Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton and Alonso. He seven-time champion, with softs, has been the great beneficiary, securing his podium position and with options to attack Norris, with hards.
For his part, Alonso gained three positions with respect to his place on the grid to be sixth provisionally, preceded by Piastri and Russell. The incident has been worse for the Ferraris, who have had to tackle the decisive sections far behind, with Sainz seventh and Leclerc tenth at the start, with 14 laps to go.
Verstappen has pressed the accelerator to distance himself from the British pulse that faced Norris and Hamilton, impressive, wheel to wheel, with Lando stoically enduring the attacks of Lewis, who has ended up throwing in the towel.
A collision with Stroll put Gasly out of the race, completing the disaster for Alpine, who had already retired Ocon’s car due to a breakdown. Checo Pérez, who for the fifth consecutive time has been left out of Q3 this weekend, has faced another race in comeback mode, which has culminated with 9 positions of improvement to surpass Alonso at the end, although he has not been able to catch Russell in search for the ‘top five’.
Verstappen has added his eighth victory in ten races and extends his lead in the World Championship, although this time he has crossed the finish line less than 4 seconds behind a Lando Norris who has shone at a great height and has managed to win the game over lewis hamiltonthird.
Alonso had to settle for seventh position and Carlos Sainz fell to tenth, preceded by Leclerc, in another weekend to forget about Ferrari.