F1 Driver of the Day Today: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a race to remember as he won the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Verstappen started the race from 4th on the grid, but did brilliantly to get ahead of Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. He kept his cool, and win the race comfortably at the end, amidst deafening cheers from the Red Bull garage.
Max Verstappen won the Driver of the Day poll with 31% of the votes i.e. every 1 of 3 fan voted for the Dutch racer. This win also put him back in the second position in the standings, moving Bottas back into third.
Max Verstappen: Won the race starting at P4
But it was not easy at all for Verstappen, who had to even disagree with him team to win it on his own. Earlier in the race, he got in right behind the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas. But he was asked by his Red Bull engineers on radio to not get too close to them, and look after his tyres.
Max was not one to listen, and let his team know on radio that he will not push back and continue chasing the Mercs. He eventually got ahead of Valtteri Bottas, and was breathing down the neck of Hamilton. This is what Max had to say on the Red Bull team radio:
“Mate this is the only chance to be this close to the Mercedes, I’m not just going to sit behind like a Grandma!”
He went on to take the lead of the race after Red Bull later asked him to close the gap on Hamilton. Max did not have to put too much effort, as Hamilton did a pit stop to put in fresh hard tyres. Hamilton eventually got the bonus point for the fastest lap in the race.
Lewis first took ever his teammate Bottas in P2, and was chasing down Verstappen, but the gap was too much by then. Max Verstappen’s instincts paid off, and he won his first race of the season. In fact, this was the first race this season in which the Mercedes of Hamilton or Bottas did not cross the chequered flag first.
