British GP: Max Verstappen beats Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton to ...

World championship leader Max Verstappen extended his and Red Bull's remarkable winning streaks with a dominant display at the British Grand Prix.

Verstappen converted pole position to victory at Silverstone to claim a sixth successive win of his own and a record-equalling 11th consecutive triumph for Red Bull.

Lando Norris, who led in the opening stages after passing Verstappen at the start, backed up McLaren's stunning qualifying performance to seal second at his home race.

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Hamilton, who dropped from seventh on the grid to ninth after going off on the opening lap, was the main beneficiary of a Safety Car caused by a fire on Kevin Magnussen's Haas, which enabled the Mercedes driver to gain four places on others who had already pitted.

The interruption set up a 14-lap race to the finish, at the start of which Norris produced a brilliant display of defence to hold off Hamilton, while Verstappen eased into the distance.

The victory moves the Dutchman 99 points clear at the top of the drivers' standings as he moves closer to what appears to be an inevitable third successive title, while Red Bull are 208 points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors' championship.

Norris' McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was unfortunate to miss out on a maiden Formula 1 podium having driven faultlessly after starting third, but the Australian rookie still sealed a career-best fourth-placed finish.

George Russell, who was also leapfrogged by team-mate Hamilton under the Safety Car, was fifth, while Red Bull's Sergio Perez recovered from 15th on the grid to take sixth.

Fernando Alonso was seventh as Aston Martin once more failed to produce the early-season form that made them Red Bull's closest challengers in the opening weeks of the season.

Alex Albon capped a brilliant weekend for Williams to take eighth, while Ferrari were once more left to rue strategic calls as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dropped back from fourth and fifth on the grid to finish ninth and 10th, respectively.

British GP result1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull2) Lando Norris, McLaren3) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes4) Oscar Piastri, McLaren5) George Russell, Mercedes6) Sergio Perez, Red Bull7) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin8) Alex Albon, Williams9) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari10) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

Verstappen overcomes slow start to seal inevitable win

With Verstappen having claimed a fifth successive pole position - for the first time in his career - on Saturday, it was always going to take something special to beat him on Sunday.

If there's one element of the Dutchman's performance this season that has been imperfect, it would be his starts.

Once more it proved a weakness as Norris, who has also had trouble at race starts this season, made a perfect getaway to snatch the lead.

It nearly got worse for Verstappen as Piastri, who also got away well, threatened to take second through the opening corners, but the Red Bull driver boldly fended off the challenge.

Norris impressively held the lead in the opening stages but was powerless to deny Verstappen once DRS was enabled on lap 4, with the RB19 cruising into the lead on the Wellington Straight a lap later.

From there, Verstappen steadily built an advantage while taking good care of his tyres, which ensured he - like Hamilton and Norris - was still out on track when the Safety Car interruption came.

He still had to contend with a rolling restart, but executed it perfectly to catch Norris off guard and open up a two-second lead by the end of the lap.

After that, there was little doubt about the outcome, and it is currently difficult to see how anything other than a reliability issue could bring Verstappen's dominant run to an end.

Meanwhile, the fact both Perez and Alonso, Verstappen's nearest early-season challengers, are struggling to maintain that form, means that his world championship advantage is growing at a rapid rate.

With races that Verstappen dominated last season in Hungary and Belgium to come, his lead promises to be well beyond 100 points come the sport's summer break in August.

McLaren maintain pace to prove doubters wrong

While Verstappen's march towards the title continued, McLaren's stunning pace was undoubtedly the story of the weekend.

Following a torrid start to the season, the British team sacked technical director James Key and introduced a new leadership structure.

Upgrades came in Baku at the end of April but appeared to fail to produce the desired effect, but when a further new package arrived last weekend in Austria, Norris took advantage of it to qualify and finish fourth in the race.

Despite that performance from Norris, few expected McLaren to produce the pace they did on Saturday at Silverstone to take second and third in qualifying.

Even after that, doubts remained over their race pace, but Norris and Piastri pulled away from fourth-placed Leclerc in the early stages, and appeared on course for a comfortable double podium until the Safety Car threatened to ruin their afternoon.

While Piastri lost his third place to Hamilton, the team's decision to pit Norris for hard - rather than soft - tyres under the Safety Car, looked highly questionable.

The Brit questioned his team on the choice over team radio, and perhaps spared their blushes with awesome defence against Hamilton, who was on soft tyres, which warm-up more quickly, at the restart.

The high-speed nature of Silverstone and cool conditions undoubtedly aided McLaren, and the Hungarian Grand Prix in two weeks' time will likely provide a more difficult challenge, but there is little doubt the Woking team are back in the mix.

Hamilton lucks in as Ferrari fall back

Hamilton had been left disappointed after qualifying seventh at the circuit where he holds a record eight victories, and his mood was unlikely to have been improved in the opening corners.

He ran off track and returned in ninth, but quickly set about recovering as he almost immediately reclaimed eighth from Pierre Gasly.

Hamilton then eased past Alonso to return to seventh, but was unable to make further progress with Sainz in front of him.

However, the four cars - Piastri, Russell, Leclerc and Sainz - who had been running directly in front of Hamilton all pitted before Magnussen's failure presented him with the perfect opportunity to move forward.

In truth it was a moment of great fortune for the Brit, but gave the Silverstone crowd exactly what they wanted, and saw two British drivers finish on the podium at the race for the first time since 1999.

Ferrari were unfortunate, but hopes that they had moved forward with upgrades brought in Austria were somewhat dispelled by a lack of overall pace.

Also leaving Silverstone disappointed will be Alpine, who saw Esteban Ocon retire with a hydraulic leak, before team-mate Gasly retired in the closing stages after damaging the suspension on his car in a collision with Lance Stroll.

What's next?

There's a week off for the teams and drivers before another back-to-back takes Formula 1 up to its summer break.

First, it's a return to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the Hungaroring circuit remaining one of the most popular on the calendar among drivers.

Red Bull have the opportunity to set a record streak of 12 successive victories by a constructor, while Max Verstappen will be looking to extend his career-best run of six wins.

A week later comes the Belgium Grand Prix, before the sport pauses for a month ahead of a resumption in the Netherlands at the end of August.