Max Verstappen won Sunday’s 70th Anniversary GP as tires made the difference–good choice-making by the Dutchman and tire issues for Mercedes.
SILVERSTONE, England—August 9th—Last Thursday I had this to say about today’s Formula 1 race: “On the weekend of the F1’s 70th anniversary, tires (not cars, teams, or drivers) are making headline news.” Saying that wasn’t a stretch. A week earlier, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went in for fresh tires trying to set a fast lap of the race. That decision cost him the British Grand Prix.
But today at the 70th-anniversary race held at the same circuit, Verstappen turned the tables by staying out longer and risking his tires. The move enabled him to take advantage of degrading rubber experienced by his Mercedes rivals, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, to win the 9th Grand Prix race of his career. His victory denied Mercedes from continuing its unblemished winning streak of 2020 wins.
Max Verstappen: We seemed really good on tires. It is a great result to win here, and I am incredibly happy.
Bottas and Hamilton battled each other for the first six laps as Verstappen lay in wait. But the Mercedes’ tires were wearing out slowly, and Red Bull engineers wanted the Dutchman to pit, too. Verstappen said no, and that call paid off. On lap 27, Verstappen finally pitted to get medium tires.
Verstappen passed Bottas right out of the pitlane, and both drivers pitted again laps later. That’s when Hamilton took the lead, but that lead was shortlived: Hamilton’s tires were beginning to wear down, which forced him to pit with ten laps to go.
Verstappen took the lead for good as the other Mercedes with Bottas was losing tire wear. Because of that circumstance, Hamilton passed his teammate with just a couple of laps to go. But by that time, Verstappen was too far ahead for Hamilton to catch. The Dutchman went on to win by a clear 11 seconds with Bottas just hanging on for third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth.
As for teams on this day, it was a banner Sunday for Red Bull (#1 and #5), Mercedes (#2 and #3), and Racing Point #6 and #7).
Now it’s on to Barcelona as Formula 1 completes the final lap of its current three-week stretch. Even though Spain is experiencing a spike in COVID-19, the Spanish Grand Prix is expected to be run as planned.
It’s a race that Verstappen has won previously, and he’s looking forward to competing again against the dominant Silver Arrows. “We need to use soft tires,” Verstappen declared. “That seems to suit our car.”
