From overtaking Oscar Piastri behind the Safety Car to spinning on the restart, Max Verstappen says the two incidents were not related, it was just cold tyres that sent him spinning.
Verstappen lined up on pole position for the British Grand Prix having snatched top spot from McLaren team-mates after Red Bull gambled on a Monza-style rear wing to give him a speed boost.
Max Verstappen went spinning behind Oscar Piastri
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
It did so expecting a dry Grand Prix with the weather prediction on Saturday forecasting a 20 per cent chance of rain in the morning, followed by a dry race.
Mother Nature had the last say.
Verstappen lined on pole position on a damp Silverstone circuit, before he was overtaken by Oscar Piastri and then Lando Norris. Swapping to new inters as the rain bucketed down, Red Bull put in a quick pit stop to overhaul Norris with Verstappen rejoining the race behind Piastri.
And that’s when the drama really unfolded.
Leading the race behind the Safety Car as it pitted, Piastri suddenly hit the brakes hard as he took over controlling the speed of the pack once the Safety Car lights went out.
This sudden application of brake pressure saw his speed drop from 218km/h to just 52km/h.
F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers
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Verstappen was caught unaware and went sailing by before dropping back into line for the restart. The restart, though, came with problems of its own for the Red Bull driver.
Trying to stick with Piastri as he accelerated, Verstappen spun through Stowe and dropped from second to 10th.
He, though, says that wasn’t a consequence of Piastri’s hard-braking moment, it was his RB21’s cold tyres and extreme set-up.
“Not with that wing!” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com of the tricky wet conditions. “It’s unfortunately how it goes.”
Asked if Piastri’s antics behind the Safety Car had exacerbated his issues, he absolved the McLaren driver of blame.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean, I just tried to go on throttle, but the car has been really difficult already. Up until that point, we were just trying to find a nice rhythm, and it just caught me out on cold tyres.
On a Sunday in which he started first, dropped to tenth, and ended fifth, Verstappen concedes Red Bull’s set-up did him no favours.
It was a decision based on Saturday morning’s forecast which predicted early morning showers would give way to a dry afternoon. A maximum 20 per cent chance of rain was predicted by the FIA’s weather forecast.
“The weather forecast overnight just changed a lot,” Verstappen said. “Because up until yesterday, the weather was getting better. Like it was just actually just raining a bit in the morning, and then it would be fine.
“Last night, suddenly, yeah, it just shifted into more severe rain. That can happen.”
Fifth on the day, Verstappen trails Piastri by 69 points at the halfway mark of the F1 2025 season.
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