SILVERSTONE — A first win for Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix, and an 11th in a row for Red Bull to equal a record set by McLaren 35 years ago.
Well done to them, an outstanding champion setting the agenda in a dominant car built just 15 miles down the road in Milton Keynes.
But if it’s romance you want, the day belonged to Lando Norris, a leading man with sufficient allure to put Brad Pitt back in his Hollywood box and breathe new life into one of Formula One’s historic marques.
In front of a record crowd of 160,000, Norris blitzed Verstappen off the line and revved the audience into a frenzy wild enough to believe an improbable maiden victory might be his.
The delirium lasted for five beautiful laps until Verstappen edged his car in front at the end of the Wellington Straight to pluck the McLaren’s feathers under the noses of the BRDC members in their Brooklands splendour. That appeared to be that until the appearance of the safety car 18 laps out reset the race for a thrilling finish.
Verstappen was never anything but in control when the race resumed six laps later. Behind him, however, Kevin Magnussen’s burned-out Haas gave Lewis Hamilton a fortuitous shot at Norris for second and for half a dozen laps an enthralled audience gripped their seats as a British duel royally unfolded.
With the safety car deployed Verstappen, Norris and Hamilton, all of whom had still to pit, dived in for the obligatory stop, which became the race order when the race resumed. Lucky Lewis.
Not only that, McLaren fitted Norris with the hard tyre to counter concerns of habitual degradation on the soft compound. Mercedes went with convention, cladding Hamilton in the quicker red rubber. When Norris learned of this development his response was a deeply ironic “lovely”.
Hamilton was suddenly a contender again, misgivings about an underpowered car blown away by the visceral nature of the engagement. His instincts as switched on as his tyres, Hamilton swarmed all over the McLaren. Through Brooklands and Luffield they diced, Hamilton close enough to blow Norris a kiss, Norris chaste enough to deny him.
Silverstone was ablaze with the thrill of it all. Hamilton came at him again through Copse, Norris refused to give way, the revised downforce package through the fast corners helping him stay in front.
The battle endured for five more laps before Norris eventually broke Hamilton’s DRS grip, the Mercedes tyres cooked by the unforgiving physics of chasing. In the end it was all Hamilton could do to bring his car home in third ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Having started seventh, Hamilton would have signed for that, ensuring a first podium for two British drivers at Silverstone since David Coulthard led Eddie Irvine home in 1999.
That too was in a championship winning McLaren. Though Ferrari would rise again in the early years of the century, there was no sense when Coulthard took the chequered flag ahead of Irvine that McLaren would ever be anything other than contenders. The lean years that followed Hamilton’s maiden title in 2008 would bottom out in 2015 and 2017 when the team twice finished ninth.
This season’s start was the worst since then, which explained why this result felt like a win in Woking. The front and second row starts earned in qualifying proved anything but false dawns for Norris and Piastri, who would have locked out the podium were it not for Magnussen’s broken engine.
F1 result: British Grand Prix 2023
- 1st: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- 2nd: Lando Norris (McLaren)
- 3rd: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- 4th: Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- 5th: George Russell (Mercedes)
- 6th: Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- 7th: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
- 8th: Alex Albon (Williams)
- 9th: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- 10th: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- 11th: Logan Sargeant (Williams)
- 12th: Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
- 13th: Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
- 14th: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- 15th: Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
- 16th: Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
- 17th: Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri)
- DNF: Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
Hamilton, who recorded his 14th podium at the British Grand Prix, described the McLaren as a rocket ship, and was genuine in his praise for Norris and his former team. “Big congratulations to Lando, to McLaren. That’s my family, where I first started. To see them back up there looking so strong. That thing was so rapid around the corner. I couldn’t keep up.”
Norris had never attended a grand prix before 2017. When Hamilton won the first of his seven world titles in 2008 he was watching on his mother’s lap in Bristol. Here it was he who looked like the veteran. The oldest grand prix on the calendar also saw that other faded British institution Williams throwing their weight about in the hands of Alex Albon.
In the pre-ground force, hybrid days the Grove squad was struggling to find the money to compete and it looked like the last of the garigistas might not survive. The budget cap and the new regs have done the job, giving an emasculated outfit legs fresh enough to leave both Ferraris behind. With Albon chasing down Fernando Alonso whilst keeping Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in his mirrors, you could imagine Sir Frank nodding heavenly approval, a marvellous thought to end a memorable day.
