Max Verstappen wins British Grand Prix despite Lewis Hamilton heroics, ending Mercedes' winning run

Max Verstappen claimed his first race victory of the 2020 season as Red Bull got their strategy right, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.

The two Mercedes struggled throughout with their tyres, with Hamilton suffering from blistering towards the end of the race. The world champion still managed to pass teammate Bottas, who started on pole, in the final few laps to salvage second place.

Charles Leclerc executed a one-stop strategy to finish fourth, with his Ferrari teammate finishing a lowly 12th after a spin on the opening lap. After qualifying third on the grid, Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh, with Sergio Perez expected to retake his seat in the Racing Point car for next week’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton still holds a healthy advantage at the top of the drivers’ championship, although Verstappen’s race victory sees the Dutchman move into second place ahead of Bottas after a disappointing weekend for the Finn.

Verstappen deserves credit for the way he pushed early on in the race to close the gap on the two Mercedes when he had orders from his team to manage his tyres, but in terms of a pure drive Leclerc’s performance stood out from the rest. The youngster is outperforming his Ferrari at the moment, illustrating by his teammate Vettel’s 12th place finish in the same car. If only Ferrari could give Leclerc a car he didn’t have to fight against from start to finish!

6/52 - Bottas problem? "Front left, critical, also rear left," comes the message across the Mercedes team radio to Bottas. He's seemingly having problems with his tyre temperatures and it's only Lap 6! That's a strange one!

12/52 -Mercedes in trouble! Verstappen has the pace on Hamilton and the Mercedes doesn't have much to defend with at the moment! The message over the Red Bull radio to Verstappen is that he needs to look after his tyres. He didn't like that message at all!

16/52 - Box, box! Verstappen is the new race leader after Bottas dives into the pits. The undercut could be significant here. Bottas' first lap after his pit sees hm running faster than Verstappen, but he still has 14 seconds to make up on the Red Bull.

25/52 - Hamilton issue! ”Blister front right!" says Hamilton over the team radio. He is already a pit stop behind Verstappen, who has yet to pit, and now it's a possibility that he might have to come in again! How can he possibly manage that?

42/52 - Strategy change! Mercedes have decided they can't keep Hamilton on a one-stop strategy and they have pulled in the world championship driver to put him on to the Hard compound tyres. That was strange timing given that Hamilton was starting to look more comfortable as the race leader!

50/52 - Hamilton P2! There was nothing Bottas could do to keep Hamilton behind him and the world champion is up into P2 and he has eight seconds to close on Verstappen, although with only three laps to go that will be a tall order. The Dutchman is on course for his first race victory of the season.

Verstappen wins! It's a Red Bull victory for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone! Verstappen got that spot on. Hamilton crosses the line in second and Bottas finishes third. There's also a very respectable fourth place finish for Leclerc given the state of that Ferrari car.

“Mate, this is the only chance I'm getting to be close to the Mercedes - I'm not just sitting behind like a grandma,” Verstappen hit back at his race engineer when told to manage his tyres when he was closing on Bottas and Hamilton. The decision to keep pushing turned out to be a big moment in the race.

BEST OVERTAKE

Albon has struggled over the early part of the season, but his exceptional overtake on former Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly on Lap 22 proved to be a turning point for the young Thai driver as he ultimately finished fifth.