Verstappen stuns Mercedes to win at Silverstone

The Dutchman takes his first win of the season ahead of Hamilton and Bottas
Max Verstappen wins at SilverstoneMax Verstappen wins at Silverstone
Max Verstappen wins at Silverstone

Max Verstappen drove a brilliant race for Red Bull Racing to win F1's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

Starting on the harder tyres, the Dutchman made his strategy work wonders behind the Mercedes on softer tyres, leap-frogging the pair when the had to stop early.

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Verstappen came out from his stop behind Bottas but made light work of the Finn and never looked back as he jumped him into second in the standings too.

Verstappen celebratesVerstappen celebrates
Verstappen celebrates

"I didn't see it coming!" he said. "After the first stint, we seemed really good on tyres. We had a lot of pace, and didn't have a lot of problems with the tyres at all. We had the right strategy so of course I'm delighted with the win."

Despite Hamilton running longer in the second stint, he caught and passed Bottas with three laps to go to claim second spot, with Charles Leclerc in a brilliant fourth in the Ferrari.

Hamilton said: "Congratulations to Max, they obviously didn't have the tyre problems we did. I'm really grateful to get through the race. We had a lot of blistering in the tyres. I don't know what that was.

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"The middle stint was really difficult. I was falling back towards Max and I was having to manage to the best of my abilities to avoid the blistering, and I was left with half a tyre at the end!"

A despondent Bottas added: "Of course it was very frustrating after starting on pole. As a team, we were caught sleeping at some point. As soon as I pushed towards the end the tyres just fell apart which Red Bull didn't suffer from."

Alex Albon made a late pass on Lance Stroll for fifth spot, while Nico Hulkenberg was seventh. Esteban Ocon made his one stop strategy work for eighth spot ahead of Lando Norris and Daniil Kvyat in his Alpha Tauri.

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