HOW RUTHLESS VERSTAPPEN EXPLOITED A MERCEDES WEAKNESS

There can be no doubt that the Mercedes W11 is the class of the 2020 Formula 1 field. But, for several key reasons, the moment it showed the slightest weakness, Max Verstappen and Red Bull were able to punch straight through the defences of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to win the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

It had been business as usual in qualifying (see page 21), where Bottas took pole 0.928 seconds clear of Nico Hulkenberg in a sensational third place for Racing Point. But the grid-setting session is a crucial place to start when it comes to the reasons for Mercedes’ defeat.

It wasn’t the top-10 shootout segment that ultimately mattered, even if Verstappen did make things a smidge tougher by losing third to the returning Hulkenberg. It was Q2 where Red Bull first gained an advantage that played a pivotal role in getting the team its first win of the season, and quashing any chance of Mercedes sweeping every race win in this most bizarre year.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said Verstappen “had to buy into” another attempt at an alternative strategy ploy, just as the team had tried and lost in the Austrian GP season opener when Verstappen’s power unit failed. But putting the hard tyres on in Q2 was a bold but logical call given the strength of that compound of Pirelli, which had been the medium for the previous weekend’s British GP at the same venue, and the fact that Red Bull feels it has no choice but to try something unconventional to overcome Mercedes’ pure pace advantage. “Our best