Max Verstappen victorious at the 2020 F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix

Max Verstappen took the win at the 2020 F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix and the first win at Silverstone for Red Bull since 2012. Lewis Hamilton finished second and Valtteri Bottas in third.

Starting Grid

Valtteri Bottas started on pole, Lewis Hamilton in second with Nico Hulkenburg in third. Max Verstappen in P4, Daniel Ricciardo in P5, Lance Stroll in P6, Pierre Gasly in P7, Charles Leclerc in P8, Alex Albon in P9 and Lando Norris rounded off the top ten.

Sebastian Vettel in P11, Carlos Sainz in P12, Romain Grosjean in P13, Esteban Ocon in P14, George Russell in P15, Daniil Kvyat in P16, Kevin Magnussen in P17, Nicholas Latifi in P18 and the two Alfa Romeo’s of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen started in P19 and P20 respectively.

And it’s lights out and away we go!

Bottas ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen manoeuvred past Hulkenburg and into third place. The two Mercedes pushed each other as Hamilton tried to make a move on Bottas into Brooklands.

Vettel span round on the first lap as the Ferrari driver dropped plum last after the first lap of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

After lap five, Bottas stretched his lead to Hamilton to one second with the Finn looking to break the DRS range for Hamilton with Verstappen currently running in third.

Albon made an early pit stop on lap seven as he took off the yellow striped medium tyres and fitted on the white striped hard tyres. Gasly also decided to pit to fit the same tyre as Albon.

After ten laps, Bottas was in first with Hamilton and Verstappen in second and third. Hulkenburg in P4, Stroll in P5, Ricciardo in P6, Norris in P7, Leclerc in P8, Sainz in P9 and Ocon rounded off the top ten.

Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said: “I think we are a bit too close to the Mercedes this early on I would back off!” but the Red Bull driver decided to carry on pushing to catch the Mercedes pair.

The leader, Valtteri Bottas pitted in for hard tyres with Hamilton released into the lead as the Brit carried on his fight against Verstappen.

Hamilton then pitted for hard tyres which released Verstappen into the lead with the Dutchman on the hard tyres from the start.

Vettel moved up to where he started in P11 after making the move on Grosjean down the Wellington straight with DRS assistance. Norris then moved past Grosjean down the Hangar’s Straight and into P12.

Leclerc made his way past Norris and into tenth place into Brooklands and kept ahead through Luffield.

At the half-way point of the Grand Prix, Verstappen led away with the Red Bull driver not making a pit-stop as of yet, Bottas and Hamilton were second and third, the Racing Point pairing of Hulkenburg and Stroll were fourth and fifth, Ricciardo in sixth, Leclerc in seventh, Norris in eighth, Albon in ninth and Ocon in tenth.

Verstappen pitted on lap 27 for a set of medium tyres and Bottas jumped into the lead of the race as a slow pit-stop for Red Bull cost the lead of the race. Verstappen was able to get past Bottas into Luffield and back into the lead of the race.

Magnussen received a five-second time penalty for running wide and coming back on the track dangerously pushing Latifi wide.

Ricciardo spun into Village corner as the Aussie was side by side with Sainz and the Renault driver got on the traction too early and round he went.

With ten laps to go, Hamilton was in first, Verstappen in second, Bottas in third with Leclerc not far behind in fourth. Hulkenburg and Stroll in fifth and sixth, Albon in seventh, Ocon in eighth, Norris in ninth and Kvyat in tenth.

Hamilton moved himself back into the podium places after a move into Stowe corner and past Leclerc back into third place.

Magnussen retired from the race after the Haas team told the Danish driver to retire his car due to car problems.

Hamilton made his way past Bottas down the Wellington straight and moved him into second place past teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Final Grid Standings

P1- Max Verstappen

P2- Lewis Hamilton

P3- Valtteri Bottas

P4- Charles Leclerc

P5- Alex Albon

P6- Lance Stroll

P7- Nico Hulkenburg

P8- Esteban Ocon

P9- Lando Norris

P10- Daniil Kvyat

P11- Pierre Gasly

P12- Sebastian Vettel

P13- Carlos Sainz

P14- Daniel Ricciardo

P15- Kimi Raikkonen

P16- Romain Grosjean

P17- Antonio Giovinazzi

P18- George Russell

P19- Nicholas Latifi

Kevin Magnussen was the only driver to retire from the race due to car problems on the Haas car.

Driver of the Day

Max Verstappen is our driver of the day. Fantastic drive from the Dutchman, he started the race in fourth and had a great start which has aided him to a victory. Perfect strategy, superb speed and a spot on race by the young Dutchman.