Red Bull back on top with quickest pit stop at Silverstone

Despite failing to win the British Grand Prix, Red Bull left the midpoint of the 2024 F1 season with the quickest tyre change. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo analyses the teams' work in the pit lane.

Things just didn't go according to plan for Red Bull at Silverstone. Friday practice sessions indicated that the Silverstone track played to the strengths of the RB20, and Sergio Perez also looked in good shape following his recent struggles.

However, Saturday turned into a disaster for the Mexican after he beached his car in the gravel trap in the opening qualifying session. It meant that he started from the back of the grid, and a strategy mistake meant that Perez could not really make inroads in the wild race of Silverstone.

His team-mate looked to struggle for pace during his first two stints, but he suddenly tranformed his pace in his third stint to come tantalizingly close to an unexpected victory.

At least the championship runaway leader had no reason to get upset about the Red Bull pit stops this time.

With a 1.99-second turnaround for the defending title holder and 2.00 seconds for Sergio Perez, the Austro-British team recovered from the debacle in Austria to once again assert supremacy in the pit lane.

Verstappen commented : "It didn't look bad over one lap, but the race pace" was slower than what the leaders managed to display. "With the tire degradation, I was unable to keep up with the others."

Alpine’s race was a complete nightmare with Pierre Gasly failing to take the start with a gearbox issue and Esteban Ocon struggling for pace. However, the French outfit was quick in the stop, having serviced Ocon’s car in 2.18s.

RB scored a point courtesy of Yuki Tsunoda, and completed a quick 2.21-second stop. The sport’s other Italian team, Ferrari the fifth and sixth quickest tyre stop (2.27s and 2.32s).