For the second weekend in a row, the Formula 1 circus headed out on track for a world championship event. This time, they took to the high-speed, exciting circuit that is Silverstone, and put on a show for the fantastic British fans. Max Verstappen unsurprisingly took pole position on Saturday, but the talk of qualifying were the two McLaren drivers, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri bagged the second and third fastest times, respectively. Papaya fans were hopeful that their young stars could fight for a surprise podium finish in the race on Sunday.

But what no one saw coming was Norris challenging Verstappen on the initial start. In fact, the young Brit muscled his way past the championship leader with a rapid getaway off the line, and found himself leading his home grand prix after the first corner. Piastri was not far behind, and even had a little look to the inside of both Norris and Verstappen down the main straight. However, the Australian thought better of it, and settled into third as he watched his teammate try and pull away.

Lando put up a valiant effort against the mighty Red Bull, and somehow managed to fend off Verstappen for a few laps after DRS had been enabled, something we rarely see nowadays. However, all good things must come to an end, as the Dutchman blasted past at the end of the Wellington straight on lap five. From there, Max went on to pull a comfortable margin out in front, while the McLarens conserved their tires and assessed their strategy options.

Behind them, George Russell was in a scrap with the two Ferraris, and tried repeatedly to get past Charles Leclerc for fourth. Although he was unable to get the move done on track, the Scuderia pitted Leclerc early in the stint for hard tires to avoid getting undercut. Unfortunately for them, all their move accomplished was put Leclerc back in traffic, which saw his pace suffer as a result. Once Russell pitted for fresh mediums, he quickly caught up to the back of the Monegasque, and pulled off a scintillating overtake around the outside of Luffield corner to get ahead of Leclerc. Sadly, this would not be the end of Ferrari’s woes on the day.

The race was flipped on its head when Kevin Magnussen’s Haas had a sudden engine failure that forced him to pull over on the side of the road. Magnussen’s day was done, and a safety car was deployed to clear the stricken car. This came at an opportune time for those who had not yet made a pit stop, so pit lane became a very busy place. Verstappen, Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso all fitted new tires on, and emerged towards the front of the field. With the restart impending, the running order was Verstappen in first, with Norris behind him on hard tires, then Hamilton on softs, and Piastri in fourth on slightly older hards, as he had just pitted before the safety car. Then came Russell, who also lost out in this shuffle, Alonso, Carlos Sainz, and Sergio Perez, who was trying to claw his way through the field after another disappointing qualifying result.

Many feared that McLaren had set their drivers up for failure by giving them the harder compound tire compared to the two Mercedes, but neither Lando nor Oscar had any intention of giving up their places. Verstappen bolted away in the lead at the restart, whilst Hamilton attacked Norris. The seven time world champion tried to make his move around the outside of Luffield just like his teammate had done, but Norris closed him off. Lewis tried again at Copse corner, but once more he found the McLaren in front of him too quick to pass. The next lap, Lando went wide in Luffield, which allowed Hamilton to get side by side with him. The two Brits drag raced down to the next corner, and it was Norris who came out ahead. All this fighting cooked Hamilton’s tires, and he was forced to ride in third place for the remainder of the grand prix.

Meanwhile, the day was going from bad to worse for Ferrari. Sainz on old hard tires got eaten up by Perez, Alex Albon, and even his teammate Leclerc in the span of a few corners. He even would have been passed by Pierre Gasly in the Alpine if not for a nifty bit of defense in the middle part of the lap. Still, that left the two scarlet cars in ninth and tenth places, which was a very disappointing result for the team from Maranello. Just behind them, Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had an incident when Stroll went off the track and slammed into the side of the Frenchman’s car, leaving it with a broken suspension. The engineers told Pierre to retire the car, making it a double DNF for Alpine, as Esteban Ocon had pulled into the garage many laps prior with a mechanical failure.

Max Verstappen cruised on to take his first British Grand Prix victory, and his second career win at Silverstone (he won the Anniversary Grand Prix back in 2020). For the first time since 1999, two Brits stood on the podium for the British Grand Prix, as Norris and Hamilton brought their cars home second and third, respectively. Both Lewis and Max were very complimentary of young Lando, and the fans were equally as impressed, as they voted him driver of the day by a landslide. 

Piastri finished a fantastic fourth, making today’s race his best by far in F1. Russell, Perez, and Alonso followed, with Albon in eighth place after a great day for Williams. The driver of the number 23 car continues to show his talent week after week, and now has his team in a tie for seventh place in the constructors championship along with Haas. Leclerc and Sainz rounded out the top ten; certainly today will be yet another day to forget for Ferrari. While not scoring any points, American driver Logan Sargeant earned his best finish in F1 with an impressive 11th place result, and Valtteri Bottas managed to come home 12th after starting dead last on the grid. 

The British fans were energized and joyous throughout the race, as they were treated to epic on-track battles, close-quarters racing, and a 2-3 finish for their home stars. While most of the event was a cake-walk for Max Verstappen, that did not stop the Silverstone circuit from delivering the exciting action it almost always features. All in all, this year’s British Grand Prix did not disappoint, and will leave many people talking about it for years to come.