Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton DELIGHT record British GP crowd as Max Verstappen wins again

Verstappen, Red Bull, 2023 Silverstone — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

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Norris and Hamilton DELIGHT record British Grand Prix crowd as Verstappen wins again

The British crowd were loving a double podium for their favourite drivers, even though the usual suspect won

Joe Ellis

Sunday 9 July 2023 17:31 Updated: 23:06

Max Verstappen claimed a sixth successive victory, his first at the British Grand Prix, but it was the home heroes who took the headlines.

Lando Norris sent the record Silverstone crowd – which was 480,000 over the weekend – wild as he got a superb start and took the lead for McLaren but Verstappen's superior Red Bull soon made its way to the front.

Oscar Piastri was keeping up with the top two for the first stint but an untimely safety car saw him drop behind Lewis Hamilton, who profited from a shortened pit-stop loss.

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George Russell made it all three Brits in the top five by finishing behind Piastri and even Alex Albon, the inherited Brit born in London, scored points in eighth.

Sergio Perez recovered his horror qualifying in sixth with Fernando Alonso seventh, followed by Albon and the two Ferraris.

Genuine McLaren speed

The likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin could have been excused for thinking that McLaren's epic qualifying was just a one-lap fluke but the Woking team were sensational.

Norris' stunning start helped them build a gap to the chasing pack even when Verstappen cruised by into Brooklands with Piastri sat in line behind the home hero.

And as the race went on, the chrome and papaya pair just kept extending their gap to the rest of the field to prove that their radically-upgraded car really is the real deal.

The safety car for Kevin Magnussen's burning Haas didn't help the Australian at all as he could have even jumped his team-mate had it stayed green.

The decision to go on hard tyres at the end looked a questionable one considering the life in the softs appeared better than expected, but the decision worked out as Hamilton's used softs fell off at the end.

What could have been for Ferrari

The Scuderia came to Silverstone with the expectation of being second fastest behind Red Bull but the same tyre wear woes came to bite them.

Not only did they fail to beat McLaren in qualifying but they did not have anywhere near the same pace on the same tyres and fuel load which saw Charles Leclerc drop way back from the top three early on.

The pit stop phase didn't help the Prancing Horse, as Leclerc pitted a second time under the safety car and Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at that time as well.

Perez and Albon then got past Sainz late in the race which saw Leclerc also squeeze by, leaving Ferrari ninth and tenth.