Verstappen wins the British Grand Prix as Hamilton and Norris secure podium finish

Max Verstappen won the British Grand Prix ahead of the local favorites Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.

Max Verstappen secured Red Bull’s victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, giving the team a record-tying 11 straight victories and strengthening their hold on the 2023 title.

The victory was the first for Oracle Red Bull Racing at the Silverstone Circuit since Mark Webber’s victory in 2012. Norris outperformed Hamilton, who finished on the podium at Silverstone for the fourteenth time and achieved his highest finish since the Italian Grand Prix in 2021.

The British fans cheered on after Norris won his first podium of the year and his first at a home Grand Prix. Hamilton joined Norris on the podium, making it the first time since 1999 that there were two Britons standing side by side.

To the pleasure of the British fans, Norris was able to pass Verstappen as they entered the first turn as a result of his slow start. Verstappen struggled to get settled in the race as Oscar Piastri and the Italian duelled all through the first lap.

Different starts were made by the two drivers for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. Fernando Alonso passed Hamilton for eighth position when Hamilton ran wide at Village while Carlos Sainz Jr. was being passed by George Russell, the latter expertly employed a different tactic by starting on the soft tyre.

For the first four laps, Norris was in the lead but Verstappen soon overtook him. At Brooklands, the defending champion easily passed Norris by using his incredibly potent DRS.

Russell was aiming to climb up the pack while Hamilton maintained his excellent comeback by passing his old foe Alonso as one British driver fought to maintain the lead.

On lap 10, Esteban Ocon’s BWT Alpine F1 Team car suffered a mechanical failure, forcing him to return to the pits marking the first retirement of the race. Sergio Pérez, who had a terrible qualifying session and began from position fifteen, was making strong progress and was able to reclaim tenth place by passing Alex Albon on lap 17.

Piastri, who was in third place continued to trail Norris. On Lap Nineteen, Charles Leclerc was switched to the hard compound by Scuderia Ferrari because the McLaren F1 Team duo was losing ground to the leader but steadily growing their lead over the trailing cars.

Eight laps later, Sainz too made a pit stop and changed to the hard tyres, rejoining the race behind Lance Stroll, who had just been overtaken by Leclerc.

Russell entered to the pits next and swapped his soft tires for a set of mediums. He didn’t waste any time in catching up to Leclerc and effectively overtaking him to grab a spot.

Following a previous stop this weekend during qualifying, Kevin Magnussen experienced another disappointing stoppage on the track; this time, his car caught fire on the Wellington Straight. Virtual Safety Cars were applied at first, but soon the full Safety Car was deployed giving drivers who hadn’t pitted yet a competitive advantage.

In order to be safe, McLaren switched Norris to the hard compound while Hamilton seized the chance to make the switch to the soft tyres and overcame Piastri in the race for third place.

Verstappen immediately moved ahead of all challengers when the race ultimately restarted on lap 39, while Norris was forced to make a valiant bid to hold off Hamilton. Norris was able to continuously outrun the Mercedes driver despite the reintroduction of DRS and began to build up a comfortable lead.

Sergio Perez eventually executed a successful overtaking at the Vale chicane after the Red Bull driver had been frustrated by Sainz’s defence using worn out Hard tyres. Albon and Leclerc benefited and moved up to ninth thanks to Sainz’s struggles.

Pierre Gasly attempted to make a similar move but his attempts were fruitless and as soon as Stroll spotted a chance, the Alpine driver suffered a puncture ending his race. Later, the Aston Martin driver was penalized five seconds for triggering the incident.

On his ninth attempt, Verstappen ultimately won the British Grand Prix, significantly extending his commanding lead in the Drivers’ standings.

Norris successfully held off Hamilton’s pursuit and crossed the finish line to secure McLaren’s first podium at Silverstone since 2010. Piastri had his best F1 result to date, collecting a big number of points for the McLaren team by finishing fourth ahead of Russell’s Mercedes.

Perez wrapped up his comeback campaign from P15 by passing Alonso for sixth. There was a late tussle for eighth, with Albon narrowly holding off a last lap assault from Leclerc.

Sainz finished tenth, which meant that Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg, and Lance Stroll (after his penalty was applied) all just missed out on points.

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and the AlphaTauri duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries were the last cars to cross the finish line.

2023 F1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX RACE RESULTS