Max Verstappen reigned supreme once again in Formula 1 2023 to win the British Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, but the Dutchman said the race was “not straightforward” and explained he had to fight for his latest race win, a sixth in a row in a run that stretches back to the Miami GP in early May.
Photo Credit: Oracle Red Bull Racing
The reigning two-time world champion put down another marker on his way to victory at the 2023 British GP, which marks his fifth consecutive win of 2023 and extends Red Bull’s winning run to 11 races in a row, stretching back to the final race of 2022.
But whilst in the end it was a similar result to most of the races this season, Verstappen had to work harder after getting away fro the start line poorly and losing the lead to a charging McLaren of Lando Norris, and being closely challenged by Oscar Piastri all the way up to Copse corner. The Dutchman quickly made amends for this on lap, with a simple overtake on Norris into Brooklands giving him the lead, which he would keep for the rest of the race.
But a late safety car for Kevin Magnussen’s stricken Haas on the Wellington straight meant the Dutchman had to switch to the soft tyres, which he didn’t feel all too comfortable with – which he referred to as making his race “not straightforward” despite another win:
“We had a terrible start, so we need to look into that and why that was [the case],” he said. “[But] even after that – especially Lando [Norris] – but both McLarens in the beginning were super quick, so I took a few laps to pass them. And then at one point I could ease out a gap, and then everything looked quite alright again.”
Verstappen says he and his team will have to “look into” what caused his difficult launch off the line despite being on the cleaner, left side of the grid, and reckons this is not in line with their recent trend of good getaways off the grid seen in other races, admitting it at least made for some extra excitement for those watching:
“I was doing a bit of drifting on Thursday for marketing, and it felt like I was also doing that for the start,” he jokingly said. “It wasn’t very good there, it was just very bad, so we’ll look into that, because I think the last few starts were actually a lot better, and then today wasn’t that great.
“At least it made it a bit more exciting, I had to push for it. I mean, Lando didn’t really put up a fight, he was very nice to me, then he actually came back again with the DRS, so he had a lot of pace today. He did very well today.”
The championship leader said he had difficulties in running the soft tyres after the restart, claiming on the radio that they didn’t “feel good”. After tha race, he explained that he wasn’t able to build a comfortable cushion to the chasing McLaren on harder tyres:
“But then again after the Safety Car on the softest compound [tyres] around here, it was a little bit more tricky for us to keep them behind basically,” he explained. “So the gap stayed at around three to three-and-a-half seconds.
“Of course I’m very happy that we won again. I mean, 11 wins in a row for the team, that’s pretty incredible, but it wasn’t straightforward today.”
Verstappen now leads the drivers’ world championship by a whopping 99 points over his team-mate Sergio Perez, and continues a rapid march towards a third consecutive world title for Red Bull.
