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Tyres NorthamptonThe double champion extended his lead in the championship as Verstappen aims for his third title, but multiple tyre strategies, a resurgent Ferrari, and a myriad of penalties made the finishing order unknown until the end.
Starting from the front row, Charles Leclerc went on the offensive in the opening lap. The Monegasque twice got alongside Verstappen in a bid for the lead but twice had his attempts thwarted by his Red Bull rival's excellent defensive driving. Frustratingly for Ferrari, an early-race safety car stopped any further attacks, effectively ending their hopes of taking control of the strategy.
Yuki Tsunoda's opportunistic move at the inside of Turn 1 had the AlphaTauri drivers' front wing endplate break after contact with Esteban Ocon. The debris scattered across the first corner saw the safety car lead the pack through the pit lane to avoid punctures while a clean-up operation removed carbon fibre from the track.
That slowdown dampened the opportunistic driving from the 20 racers, who instead settled into a rhythm of following the car ahead and tried to stay within the white lines. Radio calls littered the airwaves as drivers began calling out the cars ahead for track limit violations to seek any advantage to progress through the field, leaving Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton's battling as the best on-track action.
A power failure on Nico Hulkenberg's Haas caused the second – and last – slowdown of the day. The German racer pulled to the side of the road, and the stewards decided a Virtual Safety Car would suffice to recover the car on Lap 14. Inevitably, most runners dived into the pit lane to swap out their Pirelli rubber for a fresh set, with the race always destined to be a two-stopper.
The proximity of the Ferrari duo in P2 and P3 had the Italian outfit needing to double stack their drivers, and Carlos Sainz lost time as the lower-placed car. Norris benefited from the situation, leapfrogging his old teammate and forcing a fired-up Sainz to get back past in wheel-to-wheel combat. With Norris dealt with, Sainz promptly hunted down Hamilton and then a yet-to-stop Sergio Perez, who was recovering from another sub-par qualifying performance.
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Red Bull opted to pit their cars later, temporarily losing Verstappen the lead, but his new Pirellis had a sizeable pace advantage over the 10-lap old tyres on Sainz and Leclerc. Verstappen filed out of the pits just behind Sainz but swiftly demoted the Spaniard back to P3. The Dutchman then dealt with Leclerc by half race distance to resume his place in P1, where he'd stay for the Grand Prix's remaining 35-lap duration.
Meanwhile, the sister Red Bull of Perez has slowly ascended the order from his P15 start. Neither Mercedes drivers, Norris, nor Fernando Alonso could hold off the Mexican's advance, but Perez's march stuttered upon reaching Sainz. A multiple-lap melee had the Ferrari fighting for the final podium spot, valiantly defending the position to halt Perez's overtake attempts. With over 10 laps to go, Sainz's elbows-out driving could only last so long, and Perez took the P3 spot on the downhill run to Turn 4.
A late-race swap for the soft Pirelli tyre gave Verstappen the extra point for the fastest lap, too. The Dutch driver even had the audacity to nonchalantly weave his car in front of the chasing Leclerc as he tried to bring up tyre temperature for his last-lap dash in a fitting metaphor for the 2023 season.
Post-race penalties hit almost half the grid, changing much of the finishing order but not the podium places. Sainz was the highest-placed driver affected, dropping from his hard-fought P4 to P6, with Norris becoming the fourth-placed finisher instead. Red Bull's 10th straight victory is also Verstappen's fifth in a row, and there'll have to be quite an upset for British fans to see a home hero win at Silverstone this weekend.