Marko: Verstappen 'risk' almost cost victory

Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko has revealed a 'risky' strategy for Max Verstappen was a matter of laps from costing him victory at the British Grand Prix.

F1 championship leader Verstappen secured his sixth consecutive victory at Silverstone to extend his lead at the top of the standings to 99 points over teammate Sergio Perez.

The Dutchman, however, was forced to manage Soft tyres following a late-race Safety Car - deployed to recover Kevin Magnussen's stricken Haas - with McLaren's Lando Norris instead running Hard tyres.

Whilst the softer compound paid dividends immediately after the restart, all those running the red side-walled Pirelli tyres began to struggle with degradation as the race came to a climax.

"In retrospect, the tyre choice was a risk," Marko told ORF.

"Max took good care of the tyres, but you could see with him and Hamilton that the Soft tyres were wearing out.

"We were glad the race was over. Norris needed another lap or three or five and he would have had a big tyre advantage."

Risk taken

Verstappen lost the lead to Norris off the line and was forced to defend from Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren.

But after recovering, the two-time champion took only five laps to make his move on the Briton before managing the gap between the pair.

"At the beginning of the race, Verstappen paid good attention to his tyres in the fast corners," explained Marko.

"But then when we got up to speed, we were actually faster than McLaren in every area. At the end of the race we couldn't have asked for anything more from the tyres."