Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extended his lead in the Formula 1 championship with a dominant victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Verstappen overcame a poor start to pass McLaren’s Lando Norris, who delighted the 160,000 fans with a superb drive to second place, fending off Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages.
Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri completed a strong day for McLaren with fourth, ahead of George Russell, who scored his first points for Mercedes.
Verstappen’s eighth win of the season was also Red Bull’s 11th in a row, equalling the record set by McLaren in 1988 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
The Dutchman now has a 99-point advantage over Hamilton, who struggled with his car’s straight-line speed and could not find a way past Norris despite having fresher tyres after a late safety car.
The race was briefly halted when Kevin Magnussen’s Haas caught fire on lap 33, but Verstappen controlled the restart and cruised to the chequered flag.
“It was not easy today,” Verstappen said. “We had a bad start and Lando was very quick. It took me a few laps to get past him and then everything was fine. I’m very happy to win again and 11 wins in a row for the team is incredible.”
Norris, who led the race for five laps after his brilliant getaway from second on the grid, said he was “over the moon” with his best result in F1.
“It was an awesome race,” he said. “I’m proud of myself and the team. We executed everything very well. It was tough to hold off Lewis but we managed to do it.”
Hamilton, who has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, said he gave it his all but could not match the pace of Verstappen or Norris.
“I tried everything I could but they were just too quick for us,” he said. “We have to keep pushing and find some performance. Congratulations to Max and Lando, they did a great job.”
