Max Verstappen victorious as Mercedes struggle at Silverstone

70th Anniversary Grand Prix

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Verstappen victorious as Mercedes struggle at Silverstone

Red Bull spring a surprise in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix

Sam Hall

Sunday 9 August 2020 16:36 Updated: 17:04

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Max Verstappen won a thrilling 70th Anniversary Formula 1 Grand Prix after Mercedes fail to manage their tyres at Silverstone.

Starting fourth, the Dutchman jumped Nico Hülkenberg at the start and slowly crept up to the back of the Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton at the front.

To create a differentiating factor between the British and 70th Anniversary grands prix which were both run at Silverstone, Pirelli had supplied tyres one step softer than last weekend, and it quickly became evident that this change had hurt Mercedes.

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Verstappen had started on the hard tyres while Mercedes ran the faster medium rubber, but the lead duo could not shake the Red Bull driver.

Suffering with extreme blistering, Bottas and Hamilton pitted for hards after 13 and 14 laps respectively while Verstappen waited to lap 27.

Bottas retook the lead as the Dutchman pitted, but his fresh medium rubber saw the lead again change hands less than half a lap later as Verstappen drove around the outside of Bottas at Luffield.

The stint was a short one as both Bottas and Verstappen pitted again just six laps later for hard compound tyres to take them to the end of the race.

Hamilton returned to the pits for his second stop ten laps from the chequered flag for hard tyres, allowing the Briton to go on full attack in the closing stages.

The attack saw Bottas drop to from second to third, but Hamilton could do nothing about Verstappen.

In scoring a podium finish, Hamilton equals the all-time record podium tally of Michael Schumacher.

In defeating his team-mate and taking the point for the fastest lap, Hamilton extends his championship lead, but Verstappen also jumps the Finn into second in the standings.

Third last time out, Charles Leclerc finished fourth for Ferrari. In the sister car, Sebastian Vettel spun at the start and finished outside the points in P12.

Team-mate to Verstappen, Alex Albon, recovered from ninth in qualifying to fifth, his race punctuated by a series of impressive overtakes at Copse.

Racing Point distracted itself briefly from the ongoing off-track issues with Lance Stroll sixth and Hulkenberg seventh.

Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris and Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten and Kevin Magnussen was the only retirement - Haas calling the Dane back into the garage with only a handful of laps remaining.