70th Anniversary GP: Verstappen beats the Mercedes’ in tyre-dominated race

Max Verstappen brought Mercedes’ dominance to an end with a brilliant victory in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Dutchman benefitted from a race dominated by tyres as the all-black Silver Arrows struggled with high wear and blisters while he was supreme in the Red Bull.

A move on Valtteri Bottas proved decisive shortly after his first stop as he was able to pull out a gap that kept a late-charging Lewis Hamilton at Bay, as the world champion moved ahead of his teammate to finish second.

Race Review 

At the start, it was Bottas who held the lead through Abbey from pole and fended off a Hamilton attack into Brooklands and through Luffield as Verstappen gets the jump on Nico Hulkenberg into third.

Further down, Sebastian Vettel would lose the rear on the kerb through Turn 1 and spun, narrowly avoiding those around him and falling to the back of the field.

Pirelli’s decision to bring softer compounds saw the first pit-stops as early as Lap 7 from Alex Albon with those on the medium tyres having to manage their pace.

High tyre wear allowed Verstappen, who started on the hard tyre, to keep up with the Mercedes’ on mediums, before Bottas and Hamilton pitted to join the Dutchman on the white-striped tyre.

The pace of both cars was surprisingly slow after their stop, however, allowing the Red Bull to gradually pull away in the lead.

When Verstappen did pit, he came out just behind Bottas but was able to immediately pass the Finn around the outside of Luffield to reclaim P1.

Despite only a short stint, Red Bull called Max in again on the same lap as Valtteri for hard tyres again to remain ahead.

Hamilton retook the lead as a result and opted to stay out but was struggling with blisters on both rear tyres.

Behind, Leclerc showed impressive pace to jump the two Racing Points and ran third when Hamilton stopped with 11 laps to go.

The Briton though went on a mission, immediately setting the fastest lap and hunting down the top three.

He would pass Leclerc for third into Stowe despite some late defence from the Mongasque.

Hamilton would then cruise up to the back of Bottas for second, with his teammate not putting up much defence as Lewis cruised passed down the Wellington Straight.

Out front though, Verstappen was out of reach for the world champion and eased across the line to claim his first win of the season and hand Mercedes their first defeat since Brazil last year

He would also move up to second in the Drivers’ Championship as Hamilton’s lead held at 30 points with second.

Questions though might be asked as Bottas couldn’t hang with the top two drivers on the grid in third.

Leclerc was still very satisfied with fourth for Ferrari as Alex Albon recovered to fifth in another strong race in the second Red Bull

A third pit-stop for Nico Hulkenberg dropped him behind teammate Lance Stroll as the two Racing Points were sixth and seventh.

Esteban Ocon was eighth, less than a second clear of Lando Norris in ninth as Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10.

Down the field, Sebastian Vettel had another difficult race in 12th, at one point telling Ferrari over the radio they had “messed up” after pitting and coming out in traffic.

Daniel Ricciardo rued a spin while battling the McLaren’s as he slipped to 14th from fifth on the grid.

The poor race pace of the Williams’ again showed as George Russell slipped to 18th ahead of teammate Nicholas Latifi.

Kevin Magnussen would be the only retirement after pulling in the garage in the Haas.

Full results from Sunday’s race can be seen below: