After a late safety car, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes tried to pass Lando Norris’s McLaren, but Norris beat them off and finished second, giving the 160,000 fans a double home podium to cheer about.

With Verstappen’s eighth win in 10 races this year, Red Bull tied the record set by McLaren in 1988, when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost drove for the team.

Oscar Piastri’s fourth-place finish made it a great day for McLaren. He beat George Russell’s Mercedes, which was in fifth.

Once Verstappen passed Norris for the lead on lap five, he couldn’t be caught. The McLaren had gotten ahead when the world champion had too much wheel spin at the start, so Verstappen couldn’t be caught.

But the race really got going after the safety car was called when Kevin Magnussen’s Haas caught fire on the Wellington straight.

Different tire choices made the last 14 laps dangerous and interesting for everyone else.

McLaren was on track for a podium sweep with Norris and Piastri. At the last race in Austria, they gave Norris a big upgrade that worked well, and at Silverstone, they gave it to Piastri as well.

But the safety car changed everything and gave Hamilton the chance to not only pass Piastri but also briefly challenge Norris.

The seven-time winner, who started in seventh place, drove steadily in the first laps and waited until Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which had passed him on the first lap, had passed him again.

He moved up as the cars ahead of him started to stop. First, Charles Leclerc stopped his Ferrari from fourth place, then Carlos Sainz, George Russell in his Mercedes, and Piastri in his Ferrari.

Then, Hamilton did well by stopping under the safety car and putting on soft tires instead of the hard ones that McLaren had picked for both of their cars.

Norris worried on the radio that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Hamilton, but he handled a stormy start after the restart with ease and then pulled away to keep second place.

Piastri, who also got hard tires at his pit stop, was just as good, and as Hamilton pulled away from Norris, the Australian rookie put pressure on the Mercedes. He crossed the finish line less than a second after Hamilton.

Russell was the only driver in the top 10 to choose soft tires instead of medium tires for the start. He also moved up a spot at the start, putting Leclerc in danger of losing fourth place.

But he lost because he stopped before the safety car, so he finished fifth and Sergio Perez moved up from 15th to sixth after a bad qualifying practice.

After a good start, Ferrari’s day went downhill. Leclerc was slow in the first part of the race, so he stopped early for hard tires, then stopped again under the safety car for medium tires.

But he had trouble again and lost eighth place to Alex Albon’s strong Williams, which had chosen soft tires when the safety car came out.

Sainz didn’t stop when the safety car came out, so he was left on hard tires. After the restart, Perez, Leclerc, and Albon all passed him, leaving him in 10th place, which was a disappointment.