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Lando Norris took the lead early on and then took the battle straight to Max Verstappen at Silverstone on Sunday. But a British Grand Prix that featured some early drama ended in the most predictable way possible: with Verstappen’s Red Bull way out in front and everyone else jostling for second place.
Verstappen earned his sixth win in a row, and eighth of the season, with another dominant day. The win extended Red Bull’s record to a perfect 10 wins in 10 races this season.
But it was Norris, in a McLaren who felt like the biggest winner of the day after holding off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in an all-British battle for second place, who thrilled the partisan crowd.
Norris’ result was the first podium finish for McLaren this season and a welcome reward for an impressive performance that held off Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, in the final laps.
Hamilton tried everything to get around the 23-year-old Norris as the laps slipped away. But none of Hamilton’s experience or his ability could get his car around in a great defensive drive by Norris. It was the first time two British drivers had stood on the Formula One podium at Silverstone since 1999. McLaren’s second car, driven by Oscar Piastri, was just behind in fourth.
“That McLaren is a rocket ship,” Hamilton said admiringly after the finish.
Star Struck
The most exciting driver at Silverstone, the one that both teams and fans wanted to watch all week, was a fictional one: Sonny Hayes.
That’s the name of the character actor Brad Pitt will play in a new Formula 1 movie that spent the week shooting scenes and meeting people on the track – even setting up a fake garage and a fake hospitality trailer – as part of an effort to gather intelligence, advice and race footage.
The teams seemed eager to get close to the project. Lewis Hamilton is part of the film’s production apparatus, Red Bull’s Christian Horner met with the filmmakers on Friday, and Mercedes even helped design the cars for Pitt’s fictional Apex racing team.
“We have been involved quite early,” Toto Wolff of Mercedes told reporters last week. “When we had the first discussions, we sent Brad to a driving school in France, where we reviewed the Formula cars from Formula 4 all the way up, and we tried to be helpful with the narrative. Lewis is an executive producer, so he wanted to make sure that when the movie comes out, it’s as realistic as possible.”
Pitt and his co-star, Damson Idris, were around the web all week and several windows were cut out of the tight racing schedule to allow filming on the track itself.
The standings for the driver’s championship
Verstappen will take his points lead into September, even if he stops turning up for races. (Note: Points through the Austrian Grand Prix.)
