Coming into the weekend for this week’s F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone it has been all Red Bull all the time with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez combining to win the last 5 races. Lewis Hamilton and team Mercedes have found themselves in an unfamiliar position on the outside of the winner’s circle looking in. And after Verstappen (current points leader for the championship) made easy work of Hamilton off the start of the Sprint qualifying race to claim pole position for today’s race, it looked like Max and Redbull were poised to add to their lead for the championship. But then the first lap happened. Lewis was trying to make his move on Verstappen on what they call “Corpse Corner” and their tires collided, Max is into the wall and his day is over on lap 1.
Hamilton did receive a 10-second penalty for which he had to serve on his first pit stop before changing tires and re-entering the race. Whether Hamilton agrees with the penalty or not didn’t matter and he would have to make up for the time to catch rising star and team Ferrari #1 driver Charles Leclerc.
The Mercedes vs Red Bull Rivalry reaching boiling point!
The British fans are all still reeling from a crushing loss to Italy at the 2020 Euro finals on penalties the weekend before and Sir Lewis Hamilton was their chance at redemption to take down the Italian Ferrari team. And on lap 50 of 52 Hamilton was finally able to make up the time and pass Leclerc to claim his 99th Grand Prix of his Hall of Fame Career. This win combined with Verstappen being unable to finish the race, due to the crash on lap 1 with Hamilton, brings the 7 time World Champion within 8 points of the Drivers’ Championship. Finishing off the top 3 to get on the podium with Hamilton was Charles Leclerc with Ferrari coming in 2nd and Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes Valeri Bottas taking 3rd. Team Maclaren also had a good showing with teammates Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finishing 4th and 5th and getting much-needed points to keep them in 3rd place and as the “Best of the Rest” in the Constructors Championship (163 points) behind Redbull (289) and Mercedes (285). RACE RECAP VIDEO
Max Verstappen cleared from the hospital!
With the Constructors and Drivers championships becoming much closer this weekend look for Redbull to try to answer back on August 1st at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest. Everything I am hearing so far is that Max Verstappen will be ok after that large crash but was sent to the hospital for some tests. Let’s hope that’s the case and we can see him back in the car battling Hamilton in 2 weeks in Budapest. This Battle between Max and Lewis is shaping up to be an all-timer and I can’t wait to see how it plays out over the rest of the season.