Max sixth in Silverstone sprint: 'We're just too slow'

Published on 04 July 2026 by Misha van der Kroon

Max Verstappen finished sixth in the sprint race at Silverstone. Starting from third on the grid, Max had a bad start and dropped to sixth into the first corner. The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver fought his way back to fourth in the early stages, but gradually came under increasing pressure and was unable to fend off George Russell and Charles Leclerc, ultimately crossing the line in sixth. Kimi Antonelli claimed victory for Mercedes, ahead of home favourites Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari and Lando Norris in the McLaren.

Reflecting on his start after the race, Max says: “I released the clutch and had wheelspin. Then you have to wait until the grip comes back, so that wasn’t ideal. In the end you recover to a more normal position, but then you can clearly see that we’re just too slow, both in the slow and the fast corners. We had more tyre degradation than the cars around us and I just couldn’t keep up with them. I was sliding more because I was trying to keep up with them, and that only made the tyres wear even faster.”

Asked whether he had learned anything ahead of qualifying later in the day, Max replies with a smile: “At least I learned how not to do it.”

The style of racing also failed to impress the Dutchman: “That’s just how it is. You can overtake on one straight, but then you don’t have any battery left for the next one. I’m not going to say anything more about it.”

It is 23 degrees Celsius under bright sunshine as the seventeen-lap sprint race at Silverstone gets underwat. Almost the entire field lines up on the medium compound tyres, with only the backmarkers Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll opting for the softs. Twenty-one cars take their place on the starting grid, Alexander Albon begins the race from the pit lane in his Williams.

Max gets away poorly from third on the grid and drops to sixth by the first corner, while Lewis Hamilton maintains the lead, ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris. At the end of the opening lap, Verstappen passes Oscar Piastri to move into fifth. The Dutchman continues to overtake George Russell. He also dives down the inside of Norris at Turn 3, but locks up under braking, allowing the McLaren driver to reclaim third place.

On lap eight, Antonelli takes the lead from Hamilton. Behind them, Russell attacks Verstappen. Max initially manages to fend off the Mercedes driver, but a lap later Russell completes the move on the Hangar Straight. Verstappen then comes under increasing pressure, with Charles Leclerc overtaking the four-time World Champion for fifth place on lap eleven.

Out front, Antonelli steadily pulls away from Hamilton and takes the chequered flag 2.7 seconds clear of the Ferrari driver to secure his first sprint race victory. Hamilton finishes second, with Norris completing the podium in third. Russell takes fourth ahead of Leclerc, while Verstappen comes home in sixth. Piastri finishes seventh, with Liam Lawson claiming the final point in eighth for Racing Bulls.

Qualifying for the British Grand Prix gets underway at 17:00 Dutch time.

Results sprint race Great Britain: