Max Verstappen Second After Wild End To British GP

August 2, 2020 — SILVERSTONE, U.K

• Verstappen runner-up for second consecutive Event
• Pierre Gasly matches season-high sEventh-place finish
• Verstappen’s Honda engine logs fastest lap of race

Max Verstappen likely would have written a sizeable check to extend Sunday's Formula 1 British Grand Prix an extra lap, as his Honda-powered Aston Martin Red Bull car came up just five seconds short of Lewis Hamilton's limping Mercedes in claiming his second consecutive runner-up finish.

Verstappen started third and ran 50 laps on his own, building a wide gap over the rest of the field while chasing the two championship-leading Mercedes around the 3.65-mile Silverstone circuit. Seemingly headed for a comfortable third-place result, Verstappen vaulted into second when Valtteri Bottas suffered a flat tire with two laps to run. Upon the promotion, the Red Bull squad called Verstappen in for new tires, allowing for a shot at the fastest lap of the race.

The stop paid off with an extra championship point as Verstappen ran the fastest lap of the #Event, but the drama didn't end there. Despite his teammate's trouble, Hamilton did not pit for new tires, and nearly paid the price as his left front tire came apart on the last lap. Verstappen's fastest lap and the reduced speed of Hamilton allowed the Honda driver to close the gap from 20 to five seconds at the finish, but Verstappen would settle for second place, matching his season-best finish and marking his third consecutive podium result.

The late drama paid dividends for two other Honda-powered drivers as Scuderia AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Red Bull's Alex Albon combined strong late-race performance with a pair of free spots gained when rivals suffered flat tires to finish sEventh and eighth respectively.

Gasly's sEventh-place run equaled his best finish of the season, as the Frenchman made strong moves around Sebastian Vettel and Lando Norris to get into the points. For Albon, the result was a reward for his day-long efforts that saw him escape first-lap contact with Kevin Magnussen. Albon received a five-second penalty for the contact, but came all the way back from 19th at one point to place eighth. Gasly's teammate Daniil Kvyat was strong early, gaining seven positions in the first 13 laps before he retired after heavy contact.

The result kept Verstappen in third place in the championship after four races, and maintained the Honda-powered Red Bull squad's second place position in the constructors' championship. Albon is sixth in the driver's title chase while Gasly stands 12th.

As they did in Austria earlier this year, the teams and drivers of the Formula 1 World Championship will stay in place this week and run a second race at Silverstone next week before heading off to Spain.

Toyoharu Tanabe
Technical Director, Honda F1
Max had a strong race, running in his start position for most of the afternoon, with Aston Martin Red Bull #racing managing the situation and strategy well. But then in the exciting closing stages, he managed to finish second when our rivals had problems, even coming very close to winning. For Honda it was our third consecutive podium finish and we also got three of our four cars into the points. This is a better result than we could have expected from our qualifying performance and so it is an encouraging sign for next weekend. Pierre drove well to finish sEventh producing some excellent overtaking moves, as did Alex after his collision and penalty, which meant it was not an easy race. In the other AlphaTauri, Daniil was showing a strong pace before he had that big accident which we believe was not his fault. As was the case in Austria, we now get a few days to prepare for another race at this same Silverstone circuit, so all the data we have gathered over the past three days will be very helpful in preparing for the next round, when our main aim will be to close the gap a bit more to the team in front of us."

Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull #racing Honda
Start 3rd, Finish: 2nd
"I know everyone is asking whether we should not have pitted for the soft tire because we could have won but could have, would have, should have. You can always ask these questions with hindsight but I don't regret anything and I believe we made the right decision to pit for fastest lap at the end. I'm happy to finish second as it looked like third was all that was possible and again we have scored good points. I was four or five tenths off Mercedes every lap but a second faster than the cars behind, so it was a pretty lonely race. Next week will be slightly different with the tire choice affecting the strategy and although we are realistic about the pace of the Mercedes compared to us we won't stop pushing them like we did today."

Alex Albon
Aston Martin Red Bull #racing Honda
Start: 12th, Finish: 8th
"Eighth isn't what I want but it's damage limitation after the damage to the car and penalty at the start of the race. I think the incident with Kevin was 50/50, he made a mistake and left a gap so I went for the move. When I realized he didn't see me and he closed the door I tried to get out of the way but we touched. I'm happy we've got another race here next weekend as I love this track and we can use what we've learned this week and put it into practice."

Pierre Gasly
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 11th, Finish: 7th
"It's really fantastic for us to finish P7 today! It was a very strong race and probably one of the best ones from me. We didn't expect such a result today, we knew we could potentially score points. The timing of the first safety car didn't play into our hands and I had to fight my way through the crowd. It was tough but very enjoyable and I had many great battles with (Sebastian) Vettel, (Lance) Stroll and (Antonio) Giovinazzi. I'm feeling good in the car and we know where we can improve, so hopefully we can take another step in the coming weeks."

Daniil Kvyat
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 19th, Finish: DNF  
"I think it was a very strong race despite the fact it was cut short. I had a good start, great pace and made quite a few overtakes, catching up to the cars in front. We were on for a good result today when all of a sudden at Turn 10 I lost the rear of the car. I thought it was my fault, but after reviewing the video we saw that something happened out of my control, so we will need to check all the data to understand what exactly caused the failure. It's disappointing as we could have scored some good points here today, but I will try again next week."