#F170 Race Report: @Max33Verstappen outfoxes @MercedesAMGF1 to win. #F1

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen beat Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as the softer compounds and soaring temperatures at Silverstone lead to the Milton Keynes-based outfit got the better of the Silver Arrows in the F170 GP.

Verstappen’s initial stint on the harder rubber paid off, whilst pole-sitter Bottas lost-out in a side-by-side battle with team-mate Hamilton, who opted for a longer middle phase of the Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a surprise fourth, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel suffered a spin on the opening lap and put in a recovery drive.

When the 52-lap F170 GP began, Bottas kept his lead off the line, and behind the two Mercedes, Verstappen made short work of Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg to take third place.

In the field behind, Vettel spun at turn one after running over the inside kerb at Abbey while following team-mate Leclerc – with Vettel escaping a close-call, not colliding with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz as his SF1000 racer snapped left and dropped to the rear of the pack.

Hamilton hunted down Bottas and went around the outside of the Finn into Brooklands – echoing their fight from last year’s British Grand Prix – but Bottas withstood his team-mates threat and moved away in first place.

The Mercedes pairing at first pulled clear from Verstappen, but the Dutchman used his C2 white-branded hard compounds to his advantage to charge towards the F1 W11 EQ Power+ racers as the initial stint progressed.

Red Bull warned Verstappen over the radio that he was getting to close – which he snubbed – and continued to hunt down Hamilton, with both Mercedes drivers starting to struggle with tyre wear less than ten laps old.

As Verstappen looked to Hamilton’s inside at Copse corner, with the gap a 0.5 seconds, Mercedes told Bottas to pit and swap his blistered mediums for hards at the end of the thirteenth tour.

Hamilton followed suit a lap later allowing Verstappen to take the lead of the F170 GP.

The Mercedes duo, particularly Bottas, started posting fastest laps during that period, but it was soon made clear that Verstappen was able to set quicker laps despite his tyres being used in Q2 and in the initial stint.

Bottas and Hamilton were both struggling with blisters on their hards and posted a string of 1:32’s whilst Verstappen was running smoothly in the 1:31’s.

The Dutchman continued on until he stopped on lap 26 for a set of fresh mediums and emerged behind Bottas at the exit of the pits.

The fresher rubber advantage and DRS assistance allowed the Red Bull driver to attack the Finn down the Wellington Straight and on the inside into Brooklands.

Bottas remained in-front but was short-lived as Verstappen made it look easy around outside of the Mercedes into Luffield to reclaim the lead as he flew down the long right-hander.

Verstappen used his fresh tyres to post a set of personal best times and stretch out a lead over Bottas before Red Bull told the Dutchman to abandon his tyre management and push – just as Bottas set the quickest lap of the Grand Prix.

Verstappen soon snatched the fastest lap back and moved clear on a shorter second stint, with both Bottas and the Dutchman pitting on the 32^nd tour – with the Red Bull driver putting on the hards and Bottas also taking on another set of the white-branded C2 tyres.

Mercedes left Hamilton out nine laps longer, with Red Bull concerned the Briton would go to the end despite the blisters right down the middle of the championship leader’s rears.

Hamilton came out in fourth place behind Leclerc, who climbed up from eighth on the grid with an effective one-stop strategy and started lighting up the time-sheet.

Hamilton did not immediately fly by the Ferrari – but the reigning world champion made the move stick on the Monegasque-youngster on the inside at Stowe on lap 45 – but when he closed up to his team-mate Bottas, the team allowed both drivers to race.

With three-laps remaining, Hamilton was all over the rear of Bottas’ F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer and got past with DRS on the Wellington Straight to take second place.

Verstappen had a comfortable nine-second lead, which never looked under-threat in the closing stages and came home to win the F170 GP and his first of the season, with both Mercedes much slower on the final tour.

Leclerc’s one-stop strategy work as he brought his Ferrari over the line in fourth with Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon completing the top five after starting ninth.

The Thai-Briton put on some impressive moves into Copse corner – including moves on Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren’s Lando Norris – after Red Bull opted to bring him in to remove the mediums, he started the race on.

Albon relegated Racing Point’s Lance Stroll to sixth, with Nico Hulkenberg wounding up seventh as he made a third stop – for softs – in the final stages of the Grand Prix.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon was another who made a one-stop strategy work to recover from his penalised starting spot of 14^th on the grid to take eighth, with Norris and Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat rounding out the top ten.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly struggled on the hards in his second stint and dropped from seventh to 11^th at the end, in-front of Vettel.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo spun in the battle with McLaren’s Sainz (who came home 13^th) in the middle stint of the race and the Australian took 14^th after starting in fifth place.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was the only sole retirement of the race.

Emirates Formula 1 70^th Anniversary Grand Prix 2020 Race Results Classification (52 Laps)

* Provisional results

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1049/great-britain.html

You can see the full Formula 1 2020 Driver’s (Top Ten) and Constructors Championship here at the link

F170 GP – The Top Three

F170 Winner – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16: “I didn’t see it coming but after that first stint, we seemed to be really good on our tyres. An incredible result, we just had a great day, everything went smoothly.”

2^nd – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “Yeah that was a massive challenge. Definitely unexpected to have the blistering like we experienced it. I’m sure the team will work as hard as they can as we haven’t had this before.”

3^rd – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “Very frustrating, starting from pole and finishing third is not ideal. As soon as I started to push the tyres fell apart. A lot of blistering for us and I just saw the Red Bull has none.”

Round six of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain next weekend for the Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana 2020 from August 14-16.

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