Verstappen hails ‘incredible’ 11th consecutive win for Red Bull as he joins elite club alongside Schumacher and Ascari

The numbers are tumbling like a one-armed bandit for Max Verstappen in 2023, as he praised the work of his Red Bull team after claiming his sixth straight victory, this time at the British Grand Prix.

A lacklustre getaway from pole position saw Verstappen initially lose out to the impressive McLaren of Lando Norris, who streaked into the lead of his home race from P2 on the grid, leaving the world champion to dice with the sister McLaren of Oscar Piastri on the opening tour.

READ MORE: Verstappen heads local heroes Norris and Hamilton to claim British Grand Prix win

Back in front on Lap 5, Verstappen wasn’t headed again, but had to resist pressure from behind at a Safety Car restart before going on to claim his second win at Silverstone – but his maiden British Grand Prix victory, that first one having come at 2020’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

That was also Red Bull’s 11th win in a row – stretching back to Abu Dhabi 2022 – and Verstappen’s sixth in a row, the Dutch driver becoming only the fifth F1 racer in history to achieve that feat, alongside fellow champs Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.

“Of course, very happy that we won again,” said Verstappen. “I mean, 11 wins in a row for the team, I think that’s pretty incredible, but it wasn’t straightforward today.

READ MORE: Norris praises ‘amazing job’ from McLaren after recent updates net Silverstone podium

“I was doing a bit of drifting on Thursday with marketing, and it felt like I was doing that also in the start, which wasn’t very good.

“We’ll look into that, because I think the last few starts were actually a lot better, and today wasn’t that great. But at least it made it a bit more exciting, I had to push for it. Lando didn’t really put up a fight [on Lap 5], he was very nice to me, but then he actually came back again in the DRS, so he had a lot of pace today – he did very well today.

“Once I’d passed Lando, it took me a few laps to cool down the tyres, and after that I think we had good pace,” added Verstappen. “I think the last 10, 15 laps on that stint, we were nine seconds in the lead again, which I think was very good.”

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive a nail-biting British Grand Prix as Norris and Hamilton join Verstappen on the podium

The Safety Car – brought out mid-race after Kevin Magnussen was forced to stop his Haas out on track – gave Norris and the chasing pack another chance to get after Verstappen.

But despite the Dutchman admitting to struggling on the soft tyres in the latter stages, the red-walled rubber had at least given him the extra bite needed to gap Norris, Verstappen eventually coming home 3.798s to the good over the McLaren driver, as Lewis Hamilton completed the podium for Mercedes.

“Of course because of the Safety Car again, everyone was back together and we had the soft tyre to the end which seemed to overheat a little bit more than I thought, so it was a bit more difficult to keep the pace up,” reckoned Verstappen. “But luckily the first two or three laps of that stint, I had already quite a big gap, so I could just manage it to the end.”

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In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen now moves a whopping 99 points clear of team mate Sergio Perez – who recovered from his fifth straight failure to make Q3 to climb from P15 to P6 at the flag – while Verstappen’s current tally of 255 points would be enough on its own to give Red Bull P1 in the constructors’ standings over Mercedes, who they currently lead 411 points to 203.