Max Verstappen and Lando Norris share about F1 British GP start where the Brit led the way until the Dutchman got back into the lead.
A bit of wheelspin caught out Red Bull’s Verstappen at the start of F1 British GP as fast-starter McLaren’s Norris pounced on the opportunity to take the lead of the grand prix. Even Oscar Piastri had a go at the Dutchman but had to back off eventually.
Verstappen feared understeer moments at various corners on Lap 1 and it took them few laps to settle down. Once he did, the Dutchman wasted no opportunity to take the lead, but Norris stayed with him for few laps until the Red Bull driver eventually pulled away.
“It wasn’t particularly straightforward,” said Verstappen. “I had a bad start, a lot of wheel spin. I just had a lot of wheelspin, and, of course, as soon as that happens you lose so much drive, all the way to Turn 1. And then, Lando was in front, I just tried to stay out of trouble through Turns 3, 4, then I had a little battle with Oscar into Copse, had to stay on the outside.
“I had to work my way up again to Lando, took a few laps, then also took a few laps to cool down the tyres again in the lead, because Lando came back at me again in the DRS. But then once everything settled in, we lap-after-lap could open up the gap to, I think at one point, it was like nine seconds before the Safety Car came out.
“So, I guess that was very positive. Everything was working quite well but it was still quite surprising to see that the McLaren was actually that quick, or Lando was that quick, over the whole stint. And then, of course, because of the Safety Car, we had to make the decision what tyre to put on: the Soft or the Hard, so we opted to go for the Soft, which at the time I thought was right.
“But when I restarted, it took only two, three laps and then I realised that it was quite tricky to keep them under control with the temperatures. The gap, of course, stayed quite similar, but it wasn’t particularly nice to drive. So, we’ll look into that, maybe we should have gone on the Hard tyre, at least we could have pushed a little bit harder over the whole stint.
“Maybe, of course, the first two, three laps are a bit more difficult, but at least towards the end, probably it was a bit faster,” summed up Verstappen. While it was seemingly under control for the Dutchman, the heart rate for Norris was pounding considering he actually got the race lead which wasn’t something many thought he would against Red Bull.
He was happy to lead for as long he did. “My heart was racing a bit more than normal and I was watching the crowd a few times and just yeah, just watching them,” said Norris. “The team have done a good job, they’ve improved the car. The last few weekends we’ve been extremely good so I’m very happy for them.
“But yeah, to get the launch kind of saved me quite a bit, saved me from some of the chaos behind because you never know what can happen in Turn 3 and Turn 4. I managed to push on quite a bit the first few laps which was exactly what we wanted to do.
“It just doesn’t always go to plan but we planned for that and it got me out of trouble and we had a very good pace the first stint. We managed to break away from everyone quite a bit, managed to go with Max for a little bit, just not as much as what I would have loved to do,” summed up Norris, who eventually finished second.
Here’s Lando Norris passing Max Verstappen: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-british-grand-prix-norris-battles-past-verstappen-to-take-the-lead-on-the-race-start-at-silverstone.1770952554961569923.html
Here’s Max Verstappen re-passing Lando Norris: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-british-grand-prix-verstappen-passes-norris-to-take-the-lead-on-lap-5.1770955429414661549.html
Here’s how F1 British GP panned out