MOTORSPORT: Verstappen 'sends it' for F1 win

A bold tyre strategy, hot weather and ‘sending it’ helped Max Verstappen and Red Bull halt the 2020 Mercedes-Benz winning streak at four in the 70th Anniversary Formula 1 grand prix at Silverstone overnight.

Starting the race fourth on hard Pirellis, Verstappen immediately jumped to third and was able to keep pole qualifier Valtterri Bottas and championship leader Lewis Hamilton in sight until their medium tyres blistered in the hot weather and they pitted for fresh rubber.

Bottas very briefly re-took the lead mid-race when Verstappen pitted, but the Dutchman dealt with him immediately he rejoined on fresh tyres.

Hamilton also led again at a later stage and briefly looked to be trying for an unlikely one-stop run to the flag on hard tyres, but he was again forced to pit, handing Verstappen the lead and the win.

Hamilton charged back on fresh tyres from fourth, sweeping past an unhappy Bottas with a few laps to go for second place.

The Finn, re-signed by Benz for 2021 in the days leading up to the race, post-race complained about the team being “caught sleeping”, something predictably denied by boss Toto Wolff.

Bottas’ demotion, combined with his first victory of 2020, also pushed Verstappen up from third to second in the driver standings on 77 points, behind Hamilton on 107 while Bottas has 73 points.

The race result demonstrated again that the Mercedes’ speed advantage over the field is reduced the hotter the conditions and the softer the tyres.

Red Bull’s willingness to take a risk and get Verstappen through Q2 on hard tyres so he could start the race on them was critical in fully exploiting the opportunity.

The race also emphasised the incredible talent, competitiveness and mischievous humour of Verstappen. He refused to obey team instructions to conserve and drive like a “grandma”. Later he revelled in the instruction to drive flat out and, as he put it, “fully send it”.

He even reprised his hydration instruction to his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, adding he should sanitise his sweaty hands.

"When you are able to overtake and pull away from a Mercedes it is really satisfying,” said Verstappen. “Of course, I hope this will happen a lot more throughout the season and we’ll keep pushing them hard even though they have been the dominant team up until now.

“We’ll keep pushing, we have a really good team spirit and I love that we never give up and do take risks. We will enjoy today because everyone deserves it after all the hard work, before focusing our attention on next week’s race in Barcelona.”

Sadly a promising fifth on the grid didn’t translate to a good result for carsales global ambassador Daniel Ricciardo, who sank to 14th in a messy race that included a spin.

“Today was just one of those days where things got progressively worse and worse,” he said. “It was going OK at the beginning, maintaining sixth and hanging on pace-wise to the cars ahead. We pitted for another medium and I was struggling to hold onto them.

“We had to pit for the hard and then it got messy at turn three and I lost the rear defending from Carlos [Sainz] and had the spin. The race was done then. We have to accept it, take it on the chin and go again in Barcelona.”

Single-stopping Charles Leclerc was a delighted fourth in a Ferrari that is not competitive with Mercedes and Red Bull and arguably should be finishing behind the Racing Points.

Teammate Sebastien Vettel had another miserable outing, qualifying only 12th and spinning back to last at the first corner. He eventually finished 12th, complaining about the team’s strategy along the way.

Alex Albon pulled off some stellar high-speed passes in the other Red Bull on his way to fifth from ninth on the grid. He finished ahead of the two Racing Points of Lance Stroll and third-fastest qualifier Nico Hulkenberg, the impressive replacement for quarantined COVID-19 sufferer Sergio Perez.

This was the first outing for the RP20 since the FIA ruled its rear brake ducts were a copy of the 2019 Mercedes, docked it 15 constructor points and fined the team 400,000 Euro in the Styrian grand prix.

Strangely, the FIA stewards continue to allow the team to use the ducts even though they reprimanded the team for doing so after yesterday’s race and, apparently, will continue to do so. Some rival teams have already indicated they will appeal the FIA verdict seeking harsher punishment.

In Formula 3 Australian Oscar Piastri lost the points lead to his Prema Racing teammate Logan Sargeant.

The American won Saturday’s race while Piastri was seventh. But the Australian fought back in Sunday’s reverse-grid race with sixth, while his rival was forced to retire after a crash.

After all that, Sargeant leads Piastri by just one point, 106 to 105.

It was not a great weekend for the other Aussies contesting F3. Alex Peroni was 14th on Saturday and 24th on Sunday after a clash. Jack Doohan went 26-20 while Calan Williams failed to finish either race.