Another victory for Max Verstappen, and there are eight, which confirms that this season is being one of the most crushing in years. The Dutchman did not go well, the slightest stain that can be put on him, but it is beginning to border on the absurd that despite everything it is practically a dream to see someone other than him at the top. Those who accompanied him on the podium were not the usual Sergio Pérez and Fernando Alonso, far from it, but the British Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, local pride.
And it is that Verstappen made a very bad start and led Lando Norris to overtake him at the start of the race at Silverstone. The McLaren driver’s huge start made the stands come to a head in a big way, since it was a matter of waiting for the DRS to promote the umpteenth doped overtaking for the Dutchman to return to his natural position. Both Norris and his partner, an unexpected Oscar Piastri, hooked onto his back to try to escape from the pursuers, led by Charles Leclerc.
From behind, heads and tails for the Spanish in the first laps. While Carlos Sainz lost position with a George Russell who started on soft tires in front of his midfielders, Fernando Alonso gained three places that he later had to fight tooth and nail in his search for the ‘top 5’, until losing two again in brief. He didn’t even offer to fight them, aware that he was having more problems than expected: as happened in Barcelona or Austria, the low temperature took its toll.
Whether for reasons of temperature, or because the fearsome black clouds that were approaching threatened rain, at Ferrari they decided to go for the so-called ‘plan B’, which consisted of stretching the entry of Carlos Sainz to the maximum to make a later change than that of his buddy. They made Charles Leclerc enter much earlier, although then the first knockout of the race came and it came to nothing.
The Haas breakdown and the fight at Ferrari
The foreseeable appearance of a safety car caused Ferrari’s ideas to be blown up. How could it be otherwise, and this is no longer a novelty, the Scuderia’s strategy left much to be desired, because the idea of extending Sainz’s presence on the track deprived him of options in the final stretch of the race. The man from Madrid, who started fifth, finished in tenth position, which makes it clear that once again the idea was disastrous.
And among those who were deprived of a higher position was Leclerc himself. With Sainz who saw how his little income bled to death as the laps went by, his partner had to fight the copper to win the position. Because the man from Madrid couldn’t be more desperate seeing that, once again, his team became a perfect enemy. Sainz, very nervous, even later received criticism from Pierre Gasly for his aggressive defense. The man from Madrid is earning a fame that he does not deserve.
Alonso was not good either in the second part of the race. He couldn’t hold Hamilton back, and he didn’t even try. In fact, he had to take old learnings from him as a defender to resist what was coming from behind. After a very difficult weekend for him, in which minimizing the damage was the key, he was forced to fight with one of the great surprises these days, an Alex Albon who was desperate for not being able to pass the Asturian, but satisfied with the eighth final position that he signed. For Williams, anything that adds up (even little by little) is more than enough. For Aston Martin, on the other hand, this final seventh place knows little.
The race gave little more than itself, beyond the comeback of Sergio Pérez forced again by a disastrous Saturday for the Mexican. Checo, who will be in Madrid on Saturday for an exhibition, cut him off in sixth position, given the impossibility of achieving more against Russell, Piastri and of course the top three.
For the memory of this weekend, the enormous performance of the McLaren, with special attention to Lando Norris, who signed a magnificent second place ahead of Hamilton himself. Piastri, fourth, will not forget this race either, which is his best result in F1 so far. McLaren has returned, it seems, which adds a new player to the game for being the second team in contention and confirms the thesis that this is being a spectacular World Cup, if Verstappen were not there. The problem is that he is there, and he is expected.
#Alonso #Sainz #freeze #Silverstone