MOTORSPORT: Verstappen wins British GP

Max Verstappen’s dominance of the 2023 Formula 1 season has continued with victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday, when McLaren turned around its season in spectacular style on home soil with local favourite Lando Norris claiming second and Australian rookie Oscar Piastri sealing a personal best result of fourth.

Now equipped with the latest McLaren upgrades, Piastri ran as high as third and was destined for a podium finish until a mid-race safety car scrambled the running order.

In a solid day for the Brits on home soil, Lewis Hamilton claimed the bottom podium step for Mercedes.

The win for Verstappen extended his winning streak to six races – the first time he has achieved the feat in his career – with the Red Bull team continuing its lock-out on the top step of the podium for 2023.

“Of course, very happy that we won again. I mean, 11 wins in a row for the team, I think that’s pretty incredible, but it wasn’t straightforward today,” said Verstappen.

“I was doing a bit of drifting on Thursday with marketing and it felt like I was doing that also in the start, which wasn’t very good – it was very bad.

“But at least it made it a bit more exciting – I had to push for it.

“Lando didn’t really put up a fight, he was very nice to me, but then he actually came back again in the DRS, so he had a lot of pace today – he did very well today.”

From the race start, Norris jumped into the lead from Verstappen to the delight of the fans trackside, although the reigning world champion swept back into the top spot on lap five of 52.

Hamilton meanwhile made a tardy getaway, dropping as low as ninth on the opening circuit, although on lap seven he passed the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso for seventh.

On lap 33 the race came alive when Kevin Magnussen’s Haas stopped on track in flames, necessitating a virtual safety car, which turned into a full safety car, as the field pitted under the differing conditions on consecutive laps.

The loser in the switch to the full safety car was Piastri, who slotted into fourth behind Verstappen, Norris and Hamilton for the lap 39 restart.

Norris on the hard compound tyre managed to fend off the advances of the soft tyre-equipped Hamilton on the restart, while on lap 44 Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Alex Albon (Williams) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) passed Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) as the battle at the rear of the top 10 warmed up.

At the chequered flag it was Verstappen with his eighth win for the season, which extended his points advantage over Perez to 99.

Norris claimed his seventh career podium in second from Hamilton, Piastri, George Russell (Mercedes), Perez, Alonso, with the once-front-running combination battling to hold off Albon in the run home, while the top 10 was rounded out by Leclerc and Sainz.

Elsewhere at Silverstone, Saturday proved to be a solid one for Australians across the board, with Piastri qualifying in third, while Jack Doohan finished third in F2 – the same position Christian Mansell claimed in F3.

Next up for F1 is the Hungarian Grand Prix over July 21-23.

2023 British Grand Prix results:

2023 Formula 1 championship standings:

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