Disastrous Weekend for RedBull at Silverstone GP | Formula1

RedBull had a couple of great weekends at the RedBull Ring which meant that they have 5 wins in a row. If any team was more confident coming to Silverstone, RedBull was certainly one of them. Talking of confidence we all know Mercedes always back themselves at Silverstone to win especially with Hamilton behind the wheel. 

Mercedes have somehow managed to beat RedBull here at Silverstone and bring the deficit down to just 4 points in Constructors and 8 points in Drivers Championship. RedBull walks out without a point from Silverstone which can hurt them in long run this year.

How it began for RedBull at Silverstone

With a new format to Negotiate, Teams needed to come up with a program that can extract the most out of the only hour of the practice on the first day. This was also the only session where they were allowed to optimize the car for the weekend as no changes were allowed after it. Priorities for FP1 was to test the short run pace on soft tyres as the usual Qualifying session was to follow, Balance of the car, fuel load and the temperature that they have to put into tyres for optimum performance.

Negotiating all that, The weekend started on a good note for RedBull with Verstappen leading the FP1 session except for the power issue at corners which was rectified pretty quickly. Verstappen P1 and Perez did decent laps in FP1 finishing P8. He would have been relaxed as the tyre choice in Q2 had no impact on what tyre sets they choose for Sprint.

Friday's Qualifying

Hamilton extracted most out of his car and stood on the pole for the Sprint Qualifying. 

Verstappen (P2) encountered some issues and felt weird in the Car not being 100% for his liking. Verstappen later explained it as his inability to work the front tyres at optimum temperatures and understeer not enabling him to attack corners as much, being the prime reasons for the drop in lap times. 

Perez being half a second down from his teammate throughout the day meant he was left at P5 after his lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 15. 

RedBull ended Friday on the backfoot hoping to have a better outing on Saturday.

Mixed Results on Saturday for the Bull's

FP2 was again a good outing for them, Verstappen being on top of the timesheets. Perez P5. Mercedes drivers finished P8 and P9.

Sprint Race- A race to decide the grid for Sunday with points for the top 3.

Verstappen had his front left brakes on fire at the start but it held on and helped Verstappen take lead at the start of the race. Verstappen defended well in the first lap and held his position to beat Hamilton to win the first-ever Sprint race. It also meant he would start Sunday's race on Pole, which was a great advantage considering how strong Lewis is at Silverstone.

Perez spun and did not finish the race with some damage to his car. It meant Verstappen was left alone to fight in the main race on Sunday against two Mercedes drivers. It was a setback for RedBull and race to forget for Perez.

Max is on top but not a good overall day for the RedBull team.

A Fierce half Lap Battle on Sunday

Max was starting Sunday on pole ahead of Hamilton and Perez starting the race from the Pit stop due to the changes done to the car overnight.

Max had an average start and hamilton with a good start, the stage was set for a great battle. They both knew it was only the first few laps that would decide the outcome of the race.

They were wheel to wheel several times before Max's rear right tyre caught the front left tyre of Hamilton and sent Verstappen into the Barriers apparently with 51g force. Shortly after this, the race was suspended to repair the Barrier. 

Fortunately, Verstappen came out of the car unhurt and immediately went with the Medical team for initial checkups.

Hamilton was later handed a 10 second time penalty, But it is speculated whether he deserved that penalty or not or even more. Some render it to be a race incident that doesn't attract any penalty. Some accuse Hamilton of not giving enough space to Verstappen to go on the outside. 

Well, the final result for RedBull was disastrous as both drivers were out of points and Mercedes have clawed their way back into the championship.