Red Bull hail Hamilton 'strength' that beat Verstappen

Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko was quick to praise Lewis Hamilton after the Mercedes driver ended his two-and-a-half year victory drought at the British Grand Prix.

It was a frenetic and entertaining race at Silverstone, where dynamic weather conditions threw added variables into the middle of an already-tight fight between the Mercedes', McLarens and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

Through the dry-wet-dry race, Hamilton prevailed to clinch his first win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was closing the seven-time drivers' champion in the closing stages, making good use of the more durable hard compound Pirellis, which he was able to lean on whilst Hamilton was forced to manage the red-walled softs.

However, the chequered flag came just too soon for the Dutchman, who finished the 52-lap race just under one-and-a-half seconds behind the now 104-grand prix winner.

"You can only congratulate him [Lewis Hamilton], because he held on brilliantly on a dry track," Marko conceded on Sky Sports Germany. 

"You then see his strength in terms of tyre management. Lewis did a great job and that just shows how much speed and experience he still has."

'Two laps short of beating Hamilton'

Verstappen struggled for pace during the opening stint and once the field at large had moved onto the intermediate tyres. 

However, by pitting the Dutchman first as the rain intensified, and again when it was time to move back to dry tyres, Red Bull gained valued time on what was clearly the optimal time to stop on both occasions.

Marko was quick to highlight this when assessing Verstappen's race, contending that had the grand prix been just two laps longer, the triple-world champion could have passed the Mercedes.

"We lost the race in the first stint, because Max suffered from a lot of graining on mediums," the Austrian explained. 

"Moreover, he lost an awful lot of time on a wet track, whereas that is normally his strength. The tyres didn't work, but I have to thank our people for the pit stops and strategy. 

"Everything was right, including the hard tires in the last stint. We were two laps short of beating Hamilton."