SUTTON

Dominant Mercedes defeated by tyres and a tenacious Verstappen

The sheer pace of the Mercedes W11 – and the truncated nature of the 2020 Formula 1 campaign – had raised the prospect of a clean sweep of the season’s races by the black cars. McLaren famously only lost one race in 1988, Ferrari won 15 out of 17 grands prix in 2002, and Mercedes also lost twice in the 21-race 2016 championship.

In terms of absolute speed – normally best seen in qualifying, depending on the weather – so far this season Mercedes has an average advantage of 1.019%. That is the biggest margin since the Williams FW15C was 1.706% clear of the opposition in 1993. But, fortunately for neutrals, racing throws up many more variables.

As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our report on page 16, last weekend’s shock Silverstone result was largely down to two main factors. The first was Max Verstappen, who has been utterly superb so far this season and is primed for any opportunity that comes his way. And the second is the factor that gave him that chance: the capricious nature of the Pirelli tyres combined with the characteristics of the W11.

You could argue that having the best racing car in the world hamstrung by its rubber isn’t really in the spirit of F1, but we’ve been here before (2012 anyone?). And last weekend’s result was a boost for F1, underlined the sense of changing the compounds from the week before, and set up a new storyline for the hot races ahead.

Kevin Turner Editor kevin.turner@autosport.com

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COVER IMAGE Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

PIT & PADDOCK 4 Racing Point penalty angers teams 6 No spectators at this year’s Le Mans 8 Blomqvist to get 24 Hours debut 9 Spanish GP preview 11 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas 13 Opinion: Gary Watkins 15 Feedback: your letters

RACE CENTRE 16 70th Anniversary GP report and analysis 32 Storming da Costa seals Formula E title 42 Turkington on top as BTCC rivals wilt 50 World of Sport: Formula 2; Formula 3; Porsche Supercup; Euroformula Open; GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup; NASCAR Cup; Super GT; MotoGP

CLUB AUTOSPORT 68 Herbert to go historic F1 racing 70 Jordan plots more Mini outings a er win 73 Opinion: Stephen Lickorish 74 National reports: Brands Hatch;

Oulton Park; Snetterton

FINISHING STRAIGHT 78 What’s on this week 80 From the archive: 1950 British GP 82 Autosport 70: Ferrari in 1982

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13 AUGUST 2020 AUTOSPORT.COM 3