(Motorsport-Total.com) – McLaren kept what was promised in qualifying in the race: Although Lando Norris was unable to do anything against winner Max Verstappen – the British local hero secured second place in his home race at Silverstone in 2023, after a phased worth seeing duel against Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were the most notable drivers at Silverstone
Verstappen briefly lost the lead at the start, but ultimately won the British Grand Prix comfortably. Red Bull also made history with their eleventh win in a row. Only one team in the history of Formula 1 had managed to do this, namely McLaren in 1988.
The big sensation in Silverstone was that McLaren team of all people – not only because of Norris in second place, but also rookie Oscar Piastri delivered a great result with fourth place.
At Silverstone, two Brits stood on the podium for the first time since 1999. Hamilton was amazed by his ex-team on the pit radio: “This McLaren is a rocket! It’s unbelievable how it goes off in the fast corners.”
Fifth went to George Russell (Mercedes) ahead of Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Alexander Albon (Williams), Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (both Ferrari), who accomplished the feat in a single lap towards the end, three losing positions.
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) crossed the finish line in 14th place, but moved up to P13 due to a five-second penalty on Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).
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With huge cheers from the fans: How did the start go?
Despite Hamilton sliding wide at the first corner, the British fans had reason to cheer at the start. Verstappen had some wheelspin in the first meters and therefore lost the lead to Norris. McLaren almost had a double lead, because Piastri had the best start in the top field.
The Formula 1 rookie from Australia, managed by Mark Webber, was inside Turn 1 next to Verstappen but had to back down. But instead of giving up, he fought a spirited duel with the world champion over long stretches of the first lap. Only before Copse, where Verstappen collided with Hamilton in 2021, did Piastri keep his nose in, but then he had to take his foot off the gas. So the air was out for the time being.
Norris had shaken Verstappen out of the DRS early on. But Verstappen was back on lap 4, and on lap 5 Brooklands had a lead change. For Norris, it was the first laps of the lead since his near-victory in Sochi 2021.
“We had a terrible start,” says Verstappen. “We have to look at why that was because the last couple of starts have actually been pretty good. The McLarens were really fast. It took me a few laps to overtake Lando. Then at some point I was able to open up a gap and from there it was it easier.”
Was there a stable order at McLaren?
After losing the lead, Norris and Piastri were able to keep up with Verstappen’s pace. Verstappen complained about an unsteady balance, which was explained to him by his race engineer with the changeable wind. After ten laps, Norris was still only a second behind.
Just behind, Piastri was able to keep up well. Until he heard the radio message: “Oscar, hold the position for the moment. Try to increase the lead on Leclerc. At the moment 2.6 seconds. Let me know if you are stopped.” Which the Australian accepted without a murmur: “Copy.”
When Piastri pitted on lap 29, still third, he was three seconds behind Norris. He switched from medium to hard. Norris had previously been told on the radio that the hard doesn’t look particularly good on other cars, “but it’s still our best option.”
When did it start raining?
On the eleventh lap, Verstappen was informed that it was supposed to start raining in about two to three minutes. Light rain, similar to Q2 on Saturday, for three to four minutes is expected, radioed race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
Small side note: Lambiase also let Verstappen know that Norris was faster in the slow corners. The world champion didn’t let that sit on him and got half a second out of it in the next lap.
On lap 15, Verstappen reported a “light shower”; however, this did not affect the lap times. In that phase, he was able to increase his lead over Norris to over three seconds. For their part, the McLarens had gained a four-second lead over Leclerc, who held off the faster-looking Russell (Soft).
In the end, the rain shower was hardly noticeable and had no effect on the race.
Why was Russell mad at Leclerc?
Russell got off to a good start and improved to 5th place. With the softer tires it was one of the fastest cars in the field in the early stages. He put a lot of pressure on Leclerc in front of him, but he couldn’t overtake him.
Russell didn’t always agree with Leclerc’s defence. For example, he once radioed: “If that’s not changing lanes on the brakes, then I don’t know what is.”
In lap 18 the problem was solved. Ferrari switched to “Plan B” and brought Leclerc (from medium to hard) to the pits. Now Russell finally had a clear lead, five seconds behind Piastri.
On lap 28, Russell pitted and switched from soft to medium. He now had ten laps fresher tires than Leclerc, but was 1.9 seconds behind the Ferrari on the track. Which was also due to the average standing time when changing tires: 3.9 seconds.
Three laps later, the issue was resolved: Russell edged past Leclerc on the outside of Turn 7 to sit seventh, 9.6s behind Norris (and 2.4s behind Piastri), his opponent in the long-distance duel for the title best Brits in Grand Prix.
What happened during the safety car period?
Verstappen had just started his 32nd lap when the race was neutralized by VSC. Shortly thereafter, the correct safety car came out. Both McLaren drivers could have pitted immediately, but did not take advantage of the first opportunity. Instead, they just brought in Norris and put hard tires on him.
Verstappen was now in the lead with Soft, ahead of Norris on Hard, Hamilton on Soft and Piastri (Hard) and Russell (Medium) who didn’t take the chance to change tires. Behind the two was Alonso in 6th with fresher softs and the softer tyres, at least on paper, should be an advantage at the restart.
When Norris was told Hamilton was behind him on a used set of soft, it dawned on him that that could become a problem when racing resumed: “Lovely,” he commented smugly on the information.
After the race he became even clearer: “They gave me the hard tires. I don’t know why – in some things they are just beginners,” grins Norris.
How did the restart go on lap 39 of 52?
Verstappen kept his distance from the safety car and increased the pace at Stowe, driving a fastest lap on the first lap after the restart. From then on he was unstoppable. Paradox: While Norris would have preferred a soft instead of a hard for the last stint, Red Bull explains that the hard would have been better than the soft.
“Taking the soft was a risk,” explains motorsport consultant Helmut Marko. “Max’s and Hamilton’s tires deteriorated a lot. We were happy when the race was over. Five laps more, then Norris’ tire advantage would have been fully effective.”
Instead, a remarkable wheel-to-wheel duel broke out behind Verstappen between Norris and Hamilton for second place. Hamilton first benefited from the safety car, which put him on course for the podium, and then from the advantage of the softer tires.
At Woodcote he was already sniffing next to Norris, in front of Copse he had an excess of speed – but put it back, just like in the lap on it. Possibly also because he didn’t want to risk a horror crash like in 2021 with Verstappen.
The crowd was upside down now, and time was ticking for Norris. His hard tires came into play more and more the longer the race went on. Behind them there was another McLaren-Mercedes duel between Piastri and Russell for fifth place, and Russell also had to admit: “The McLaren is really strong on the hard.”
Five laps before the end, it was all over. Verstappen won the Grand Prix ahead of Norris and Hamilton, who backtracked after losing Norris from the DRS window and settled for third place.
“The McLaren was incredible because of the fast corners. Just wow,” congratulates Hamilton. “I couldn’t keep up there but we had a good fight in the restart. The start wasn’t so good for me but the long run on the medium was great. It’s positive for us that we’re not that far behind.”
Was the Haas that bad again in the race?
Everything went wrong for Hulkenberg from the start. Right at the start he lost three positions and fell back to 14th place. Which may also have been due to the fact that he was the only driver besides Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) who had mounted hard tires for the start. Presumably to be able to drive the longest possible first stint.
But then Perez put a spoke in his wheel. When the Red Bull came up from behind and passed Hülkenberg, the two touched and cost Hülkenberg the left endplate of his front wing. He had to switch from hard to medium after only seven rounds, which made his planned strategy completely absurd.
Hulkenberg was already in last place, and only his teammate Kevin Magnussen set slower lap times than him. For him, the race was over on lap 31, with flames emanating from the exhaust. Magnussen parked his car on the track, triggering first a VSC and then a safety car phase. Hulkenberg also went away empty-handed.
Were there other failures in the race?
The first driver to park was Esteban Ocon. A hydraulic leak occurred on the Alpine, which is why he came into the pits after nine laps and gave up. Later, the second Alpine, Pierre Gasly, also retired. In a collision with Stroll, he suffered damage to the wheel suspension. Stroll received a five-second penalty for this, which was added to his race time.
How many spectators were there?
Silverstone set a new attendance record in 2023. 160,000 fans were live at the track on Sunday, 480,000 over the entire race weekend. This significantly exceeds the number from the 2022 season (401,000).
How will the Formula 1 World Championship 2023 continue?
After the “back-to-back” Spielberg/Silverstone, a race-free weekend is now on the agenda. After that, two more Grands Prix will take place in a row, Budapest (July 23) and Spa (July 30), before Formula 1 takes its traditional summer break. (Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 calendar!)