Lewis Hamilton wins dramatic British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, his first win on home turf in six years after last winning here with McLaren in 2008.

Starting from sixth on the grid after a disastrous qualifying session yesterday where he was forced to abandon his final fast lap, Hamilton endured a race re-start and his teammate retiring due to a gearbox fault to take the chequered flag first, almost two and a half hours after the initial race start.

Valtteri Bottas placed second, handing Williams Racing another podium finish after a well fought race which saw the Finn stop just once for a change of tyres. Daniel Ricciardo finished third, handing the Australian another podium finish and another race finish ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel who could only manage fifth place ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Jenson Button finished fourth after a better afternoon for the McLaren outfit with teammate Kevin Magnussen also finishing in the top ten in seventh. Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso duos of Kvyat and Vergne made up the final drivers scoring Championship points today.

The lights went out to start the British Grand Prix with all drivers getting off the line cleanly. Nico Rosberg led down the straight and into the first corner whilst second placed Sebastian Vettel struggled with his start and fell back down the pack. Jenson Button quickly jumped Vettel for second place before Magnussen then passed Vettel too. Lewis Hamilton was next, passing Vettel into turn 3 and making the move stick, moving from sixth to first by the end of the first four corners.

However, Kimi Raikkonen got out of shape on the Wellington straight running wide onto the grass and then losing control of the car when trying to rejoin the track. Raikkonen destroyed his car in the barriers before collecting Williams’ Felipe Massa under the bridge. Raikkonen was slow to get out of the car and seen limping into the medical car, whilst Massa was able to recover to the pit lane. The lap was yellow flagged calling for the Safety Car before the FIA red flagged the race to allow for safe and proper cleanup.

After just one lap, all cars and drivers then lined up on the grid once again to wait for the restart, a frustration for the McLaren’s, Hamilton, Bottas and the Marussias who got their race off to a strong start in the first place. Massa, who managed to return to the starting grid to allow mechanics to look at the car, eventually was forced out of the car and the car was taken to the pit garage, brining an abrupt and early end to Massa’s 200th career Grand Prix.

Due to the impact level of Kimi Raikkonen’s car, the guardrail was damaged enough to force the track to repair the guardrail in full, leaving the red flagged race in situ for over an hour. When the race did restart at 14:05 local time, it was under the Safety Car for the first lap before the cars returned to racing. During the stopped session, stewards also handed Max Chilton a drive through penalty for entering the pit lane under the red flags.

Rosberg timed the restart perfectly, leading by 1.5 seconds from Button by the time the pack hit the start/finish line to start lap 3. Hamilton also moved into third behind Jenson Button as Magnussen outbreaked himself causing the car to run wide and leaving the door wide open for Hamilton to run through. Hamilton then attacked Jenson Button running into Brooklands a lap later, making the position stick and moving into second place, just five seconds back on Rosberg.

Alonso continued to move his way through the pack after a poor qualifying session yesterday. The lone Ferrari went on the attack from P10, quickly moving himself up the grid and into seventh position before the stewards announced they were investigating Alonso for being out of position on the grid for the first start of the race.

Maldonado and Gutierrez came into contact on lap 11 causing another yellow flag. Gutierrez collided with the rear of Maldonado forcing the Lotus of the top of the Saubers front wheel. Maldonado got away unscathed and continued to race but Gutierrez was forced off track and into the gravel track with considerable damage to the front wing. The crash allowed Jean-Eric Vergne to move up into 13th place ahead of the queue backed up behind 12th place Jules Bianchi. Meanwhile now sixth placed Fernando Alonso was lapping quicker than all the cars ahead bar the Mercedes and Caterhams Ericsson limped back to the pit garage to retire with front suspension problems.

Fernando Alonso was then handed a five second drive through penalty for his earlier out of position on the grid, all but undoing the hard work he had done to move into the position he had and dropping him back down the pack. Bottas was another driver finding some pace at Silverstone in the early stages of the race, moving his way past the likes of the McLaren’s to ultimately move into third place by lap 17 after successfully breezing by Jenson Button.

Rosberg’s first stop on lap 19 was picture perfect, lasting precisely 2.7 seconds before rejoining the circuit in second place and allowing Hamilton to momentarily inherit the lead with a 16 second gap. Hamilton stayed out longer than just one lap to build on the gap ahead of Rosberg whilst his teammate reported gearbox problems on the downshift to the team, though the team could not find any reason for it.

Hamilton finally pit at the start of lap 25 for the harder compound tyre, though the stop was slower than usual at 4.1 seconds, leaving Nico Rosberg to sail back into the lead, albeit on degrading tyres which just a lap before Rosberg reported were starting to drop off.

Rosberg’s luck ran out on lap 29 when he found himself stuck in sixth gear, slowing and informing the team he had problems with the upshift now. Trying to get back to the pits, Rosberg limped around the track with almost no speed at all before pulling the car off track and stopping the car at Becketts and leaving Hamilton to lead the British Grand Prix with Bottas in second and Vettel in third, much to the delight of the British crowd.

The DNF was the first for Rosberg this season who came into this Grand Prix leading the Championship standings by 29 points.

Bottas stopped for his first and only stop of the afternoon on lap 32, making his tyres last longer than any other driver today and expecting the change of tyres to last until the end of the race. Bottas rejoined in third place before Bottas quickly overtook Vettel to move back into second place with no further expected stops. Vettel rejoined just ahead of Alonso in fifth place leaving Alonso to attack the four times World Champion. Vettel tried to defend but Alonso was fast coming out of Luffield, easily blowing past the Red Bull leaving Vettel to then run wide out of Becketts. The dog fight between the two World Champions continued for several laps more with Alonso holding position until Vettel made the move stick on lap 48.

Hamilton pit for the final time of the afternoon with 10 laps remaining, this time a smoother and quicker stop. Hamilton rejoined in the lead, leaving the Mercedes driver to simply make it to the end without incident in order to win the Grand Prix on home turf.

Ultimately, Hamilton would go unchallenged in the final laps of the race, allowing him to cruise home to victory and scoring much needed Championship points in his fight for the title with Nico Rosberg. Maldonado retired on lap 51 with what appeared to be an engine problem and Vettel complained of a burning smell coming from the car.

Nico Rosberg continues to lead the Drivers’ standings after the British Grand Prix but only by just four points as Hamilton’s race scored him the maximum 25 points whilst Rosberg failed to score a single point. Mercedes dominance of the Constructors’ standings remains intact.

The Grand Prix calendar resumes two weeks’ from now for the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2014 in Hockenheim.