TOPS
Qualifying was brilliant on Saturday, with Lando Norris second and Oscar Piastri third. The race was very good on Sunday, with thirty points at stake. The two McLaren drivers handled the start perfectly, Norris even leading the race for five laps, and were the only ones to keep pace with Verstappen’s Red Bull for twenty laps. The safety car, caused by the retirement of Magnussen, then lost a place to Piastri (4th) but Norris held his (2nd) with a good resistance against Hamilton despite his hard tires against the soft of the seven-time champion of the world. The new aerodynamic package works at McLaren who snatched fifth place from the manufacturers at Alpine, which had a calamitous Sunday (see below).
No parade this Sunday for Max Verstappen who had to work hard to win for the eighth time of the season and the sixth time in a row. On pole, the Dutchman missed his start and left the lead to Lando Norris. For five little rounds. Once he had recovered well, the Batavian built his victory by pushing back the McLaren tenth after tenth. The safety car allowed him to make a less costly pit stop and his perfect restart on lap 38 put him out of harm’s way. A job well done.
It wasn’t easy to land that one. Seventh on the grid, Lewis Hamilton made a serious first stint on his mediums and took advantage of the safety car to make his stop and lose as little time as possible. A perfect strategy that allowed him to be third when the race restarted. He was surely thinking of getting rid of Norris, on hard tyres, but the McLaren was going fast this weekend and the seven-time world champion was satisfied with 3rd place, his eleventh podium in a row at Silverstone.
He had already shone during qualifying in Austria, he did it again on Saturday in Great Britain with the 8th time. He was hoping for a Top 10 in the race and the Thai did it. Alex Albon lost positions at the start but never lost sight of his goal. With tender and in a crazy end of the race, the Williams driver managed to get rid of the Ferraris to take eighth place and four well-deserved points.
FLOPS
The French brand remained on three average races and it did not relaunch on Sunday in Great Britain. Saturday, qualifying was not good with Esteban Ocon’s 13th time and Pierre Gasly’s tenth, but Sunday was even worse. Ocon was forced to retire early following a hydraulic problem while Gasly saw a front suspension break at the end of the race after contact with Lance Stroll. Result ? A double retirement and no points scored.
Fourth and fifth on the grid, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were in position to score some big points but the Scuderia strategist did his thing again. Fourth, Leclerc stopped on lap 18 to abandon his mediums and put on some tough ones. Trapped by the strategy of his rivals, the Monegasque, at the time of the safety car, was forced to make a second stop so as not to be swallowed up by everyone at the end of the race but it is still expensive with a modest 9th place. What about Sainz? The Spaniard was not called back to his pit at the time of the safety car. He had to finish the race on hard tires and in 10th place. Three small points scored by the Scuderia.