Martin Brundle on the results of the British Grand Prix

Former Formula 1 driver, Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle summed up the British Grand Prix…

It was a great weekend for Silverstone and the British Grand Prix. An interesting qualifying on a drying track and an exciting race that made my heart beat faster for 85 minutes

From Thursday until the end of the race, the track was filled with fans, there were Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup races, the shooting of the upcoming film with Brad Pitt – cars with cameras often appeared on the track.

There were concerns that filming would disrupt the weekend, but no. The film crew were assigned boxes, they used three Formula 2 cars that looked like Formula 1 – it all looked like a little enclave in the middle of the track, and even with the cars for the warm-up lap it all came easy.

This as-yet-untitled movie and the upcoming race in Las Vegas will be the next steps in Formula 1’s amazing rise in popularity. I’ve never seen anything like it in Formula 1.

The protagonist remains Max Verstappen, who started from pole position and took his sixth consecutive victory and eighth this season. He finished second in the other two races.

His team-mate Sergio Perez has not been able to realize the full potential of his car in recent races, we can say once again that if Max hadn’t been so at odds with himself, the car and the team, the battle in the World Cup could have been much sharper .

At first Aston Martin seemed to take the lead, but then other teams got ahead of them, or they went a little bit the wrong way in their own designs, or both, but in the last two races they fell back.

Mercedes continues to refine their failed car, which shows good race pace at times, but only when it is in the optimum working range, which is apparently very narrow.

Ferrari also modified the SF-23, which performed well in Austria, and at Silverstone the team took fourth and fifth on the start, but the modified McLaren car was ahead, which was very quick in Silverstone’s difficult corners, both in the hands of Lando Norris and by Oscar Piastri.

Add to that Williams and Alpine’s ability to occasionally join the “let’s beat Max” show, and you know what I mean when I say the title fight could have been a lot hotter.

On the day of the race, 160,000 spectators gathered at Silverstone. I remember standing here with Copse in 1965 and witnessing Jim Clark win. Silverstone is the starting point, the foundation of Formula 1, and so be it.

Pole went to Verstappen with great difficulty, only a quarter of a second separated him from McLaren – and he had to work hard on a fast lap. I have no doubt that as their cars improve rivals will get close to the leaders, and Red Bull will minimize the cost of updating the 2023 car, focusing on the 2024 car.

Alex Albon also showed himself radiant behind the wheel of Williams, who has been performing very well lately on an adapted car. I know all too well how brutal the world of Formula 1 is, and indeed any other high performance sport, but if you give the driver a chance to feel comfortable, don’t let them constantly look over their shoulder , he will go faster and better.

Second on the starting grid at Silverstone is not the best on the face of it – away from the track, with a narrow entrance to the fast first corner, allowing rivals to attack from behind. But lately we’ve seen a lot of leadership changes going into the first corner and the crowd was delighted when Lando Norris took the lead.

It was inevitable that an in-form Verstappen would blast past once DRS was released, but Lando had enough pace to get the situation under control after that.

I hate to write this because I like Sergio Pérez as a person and as a driver, but while Max took six wins in a row, Sergio was second, third, fourth, two sixth and 16th having spent the last five races to come back from a bad qualifying.

It was nice to see the battle between Norris and Hamilton. The safety car, which took off after the Magnussen car stopped on track, prevented those who had already pitted, in particular Oscar Piastri, who showed himself perfectly at McLaren. A rookie in his tenth F1 race, the 22-year-old driver, who grew up near Melbourne’s Albert Park, is driving with confidence. He is a real find for McLaren.
His manager, Mark Webber, knows very well what’s important in our business, and I’m sure he’s a source of direct and understandable advice for both the team and the driver.

Piastri was unable to take his first podium due to Hamilton being lucky with the safety car exit, Lewis had a great race and took his 14th podium at the British Grand Prix. I’ve only been on the podium once at Silverstone, in 1992, I’m very proud of it, so I can’t imagine how he feels.

The main event of the race was the restart after the departure of the safety car, which had both McLaren racers on fresh hard tyres, and those next to them had a rolled-up Soft. It seemed like McLaren’s mistake, and Norris, judging by his radio communications, thought so too.

Hard tires take longer to warm up than soft tires. Norris and Hamilton knew this very well. Lewis was aggressive but clean, and Lando positioned his car perfectly to block Lewis without crossing lines or getting muddy.

It was nice to see this, fending off the attack, he was able to pull away, exit the DRS zone and finish almost four seconds ahead of Hamilton, who already had Piastri on his tail.
Before the weekend in Austria, the McLaren drivers had not completed a single lap in the top five this season. Here’s an example of real progress in updating a machine.

For the first time in 24 years, two British riders have climbed the podium at Silverstone. Many fans dreamed about it – and saw it with their own eyes.