Max Verstappen wins 70th Anniversary GP

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a sensational surprise victory in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix to bring Mercedes’ domination to an end.

Verstappen’s win was founded on his car being kinder to its tyres than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas and the Dutchman capitalised brilliantly.

Hamilton fought back from early struggles to catch and pass Bottas for second place with two laps to go.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was outstanding in taking fourth on a one-stop strategy.

It was an unexpectedly thrilling race, a fitting testament to the occasion as F1 celebrated 70 years since the F1 championship started at

“I didn’t see that coming,” Verstappen said afterwards.

How did Verstappen do it?

The Mercedes had produced their usually dominant performance in qualifying, a second clear of the field, but Verstappen, choosing the hardest tyre for the start of the race, found he was able to follow them comfortably after he passed Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg at the start from his fourth place on the grid.

Bottas led Hamilton away from pole and, while Verstappen tracked the Mercedes, the black cars, on the softer ‘medium’ tyres at the start, began to struggle.

By 10 laps into the race, the Red Bull was on Hamilton’s tail and it was clear the Mercedes had a real race on their hands.

Bottas and Hamilton stopped within a lap of each other on laps 13 and 14, and fitted the hard tyres, but they continued to struggle.

Verstappen motored on out front and, surprisingly, despite older tyres, extended his lead as the Mercedes ran into problems with tyre blistering.

Verstappen pitted on lap 26 for medium tyres and was again able to hold the Mercedes, with Bottas two seconds behind.

Verstappen then stopped again six laps later to switch back to the hard tyre, and Bottas followed him in, the Finn’s hopes of victory now over.

Hamilton, though, stayed out for another nine laps. His tyres were blistered badly but he drove well to maintain a gap of around 10 seconds over Verstappen and Bottas.

That meant when he finally came in on lap 41, with 11 to go, he had an abundance of grip compared to the cars in front.

He quickly passed Leclerc and then closed in on Bottas, passing him into Brooklands corner with two laps to go.

The result, with fastest lap for Hamilton, means he extends his championship lead over Bottas to 34 points, and Verstappen has slipped ahead of the Finn into second place, 30 behind the leader.

Archive: Silverstone hosts first World Championship race How about that from Leclerc?

Leclerc took a superb third in the uncompetitive Ferrari last weekend at the British Grand Prix and he continued his excellent form this weekend.

Qualifying did not go so well for the 22-year-old – he could manage only eighth on the grid compared to fourth last time, but his race drive was every bit as good.

The Ferrari was running low downforce to try to off-set its straight-line speed disadvantage, so to make a one-stop strategy work was a remarkable achievement.

His team-mate Sebastian Vettel had a difficult day, almost losing control of his car at the first corner and lucky not to be tagged as he fish-tailed left and right in yet another unforced error from the German and struggling to 12th place.

Red Bull’s Alex Albon drove well to take fifth, a drive that featured a number of bold overtaking moves, ahead of the Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Hulkenberg.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo faded after a strong qualifying in fifth place, not helped by a spin between Turns Three and Four while battling with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and ended up 14th.

Lando Norris took ninth for McLaren, while George Russell was 18th in the Williams.

Driver of the day

A tie between Verstappen and Leclerc, each outstanding in their way, the two emerging as the defining talents of the new generation behind Hamilton.

What happens next?

Another weekend, another race. This time in Spain, despite the rise in coronavirus cases there. A hot summer in Barcelona. Could Mercedes struggle again?