Verstappen wins the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix

Max Verstappen and Red Bull ended Mercedes’ domination of the 2020 Formula 1 season by winning a 70th Anniversary Grand Prix made thrilling by the switch to softer tyre compounds than used for last weekend’s Silverstone race.

Verstappen used hard tyres for his first stint, and after immediately jumping Nico Hulkenberg’s Racing Point off the line he was soon shadowing the medium-shod Mercedes of leaders Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

While Bottas and Hamilton came in for hard tyres on laps 13 and 14 respectively, Verstappen stayed out on his hards until lap 25 – pulling away from the Mercedes as they rapidly began to struggle on their fresh tyres too.

Verstappen rejoined right behind Bottas and rapidly dived past him into Brooklands to retake the lead.

After running just six laps on medium tyres, Verstappen pitted again, with Bottas doing likewise at the same time.

That allowed Hamilton into the lead and it initially appeared he might try to stretch out to a one-stop strategy.

But with a dozen laps left and Verstappen edging closer to him, Hamilton pitted again.

He fell to fourth before successful one-stopper Charles Leclerc, who he quickly passed, and then caught Bottas for second and overtook his team-mate with three laps left.

But Hamilton was still 9s behind Verstappen and the Red Bull had pace in hand, coming home for a superb and unexpected victory.

Struggling badly with his tyres, Bottas tumbled away from Hamilton but held third, with Leclerc achieving another against the odds result in fourth on a day when team-mate Sebastian Vettel was only 12th after a solo spin at the race’s first corner.

Alex Albon completed an excellent day for Red Bull with a charging drive to fifth that featured multiple outside-line passing moves into Copse and Stowe following an early first pitstop.

Lance Stroll was Albon’s final victim and finished sixth, having run behind temporary team-mate Hulkenberg until Sergio Perez’s stand-in had to make a late third pitstop and fell to seventh.

Esteban Ocon pulled off a one-stop to finish eighth, ahead of Lando Norris and Daniil Kvyat.

Daniel Ricciardo’s fifth on the grid turned into 14th in the race thanks to a spin while battling with Carlos Sainz Jr (who was only 13th after a slow stop) and an unexpected third pitstop.

Race Results