Red Bull salvage top 5 finish at eventful British Grand Prix

Red Bull salvaged a top 5 finish at the British Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen recovered to finish 5th after an error.

The Dutch driver had taken pole and was running second in a race held in mixed conditions when he had a slide on the restart following a safety car, which dropped him down to 10th. Verstappen was however able to recover to take a 5th place finish.

Meanwhile, teammate Yuki Tsunoda had another difficult afternoon, with the Japanese driver finishing 15th in the Red Bull and being the only driver to be lapped by race winner Lando Norris.

Events at the British Grand Prix took the 2025 F1 season to the halfway mark, with Verstappen sitting third in the Driver’s Championship standings after 12 races. The Dutchman has 165 points, with the total seeing him sit 61 points behind second place Norris and 69 behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Tsunoda sits 17th in the championship, having scored 10 points so far in 2025.

Red Bull occupy fourth place in the Constructor’s Championship table, with the Milton Keynes-based team up to 172 points. They are 38 points behind third placed Mercedes, 50 points behind second placed Ferrari and a full 288 points behind runaway leaders McLaren.

As Red Bull made the short hop from Milton Keynes to Silverstone, the team arrived on Sunday hoping to capitalise on taking pole position. Verstappen had been able to pip the McLaren pair to qualify on pole on Saturday, with the Dutchman hoping to take a third win at the British Grand Prix track. Tsunoda meanwhile started 11th, aiming to get his first points since the Imola race in May.

While multiple other drivers opted to pit at the end of the formation lap for dry tyres, Red Bull’s pair opted to stay out. Verstappen held the lead from Piastri early on, while Tsunoda was involved in early drama.

The second Red Bull went three-wide into turn 4 with Esteban Ocon and Liam Lawson, and the net result saw Ocon strike Lawson, putting the former Red Bull driver out of the race.

This triggered a virtual safety car, which would then shortly be required again after Gabriel Bortoleto spun his Sauber and crashed out.

Red Bull had tried a low-downforce set-up which worked in the dry conditions of qualifying but gave Verstappen more of a challenge in the wet. Although he initially maintained the lead, he would be bypassed by Piastri on lap 8.

Verstappen was then passed again 3 laps later by Norris, but the two pit to change to new sets of wet weather tyres and a much quicker stop for Verstappen allowed the Red Bull to re-pass the McLaren.

The safety car was then called on lap 14 as visibility deteriorated, with the safety car then called again on the lap where it was initially brought back in after Isack Hadjar crashed into Andrea Kimi Antonelli when blinded by the spray of the Mercedes in front.

A curious moment happened on lap 22 when the race restarted after the end of a safety car period, as Piastri slammed heavily on the brakes and Verstappen initially went past the McLaren before letting him back through.

Piastri would later receive a ten second time penalty for this, but long before the stewards delivered their verdict, Verstappen had fallen away from a position to capitalise as the Dutchman spun on a damp part of the track when trying to head out of Stowe corner, dropping him all the way down from 2nd to 10th.

Things got worse for Red Bull as Tsunoda also hit the Haas of Oliver Bearman, earning himself a ten second time penalty for that misdemeanour.

For a long swathe of proceedings after that, Verstappen remained stuck in 10th sandwiched by the two Williams cars. But as others began to pit for dry tyres, Verstappen timed his stop right to jump other cars, with overtakes on Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll helping him take the car up into 5th position by the time the race concluded.

Tsunoda wouldn’t have the luck to try and rescue his day with a points finish, with the second Red Bull finishing a lap down on the race winner and last overall.

Red Bull will now seek to move on from the British Grand Prix, with the team having two weekends off racing before F1 resumes with the Belgian Grand Prix in late July.