That concludes the British GP for another season, and one that came within 0.8s of featuring a double podium for the home crowd. Unfortunately once again we were denied an epic battle for the win due to more mechanical dramas. But that didn't mean the race turned into a dull affair by any means, some electrifying performances kept the event alive with their recovery drives from difficult qualifying results yesterday. Yet even in that department we were robbed of two recovery drives on the opening lap. You could say that although the race delivered so much in isolated segments there was so much more that we could have enjoyed had events not played out quite the way they did.
The Race.... Attempt One
On the first start there were several drivers struggling to get off the line - Grosjean, Massa and more importantly Sebastien Vettel all lost positions. Massa dropped to the bottom of the field as the clutch on his Williams failed to engage. Hamilton jumped up to fourth place after banging wheels with Vettel in turn three. Perez was ultimately the big looser after contact with Vergne dropped the Force India to the back of the field. Yet all of this became rather academic as the field started the Wellington straight. Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari ran wide in Aintree and hit what might have been a drainage gulley when driving back onto the track at top speed. This bump unsettled the car pitching it into a severe slide - Kimi attempted to save the slide but the Ferrari fired into the inside barrier and exploded showering the track in debris. Chilton had a tyre carcass bounce off the nose of his car. What was left of Raikkonen's car bounced across the track forcing Kobayashi into immense avoiding action. Massa had to virtually handbrake the car to avoid T-boning the Ferrari and just clipped it with his rear wheel. Both Raikkonen and Massa were ultimately eliminated.
The red flag was thrown to repair the hole in the barrier Raikkonen's car had left after the impact - exacerbated by the angle of the Armco. Both Chilton and Kobayashi had receive new nose cones. Max pitted under the red still under the shock of his close call with bits of Ferrari and received a penalty. Kimi was bruised by the huge impact but sustained no significant injuries - mostly due to Massa's avoidance skills.
The Race.... Attempt Two
It took an hour for the marshals and maintenance teams to remove the damaged barrier segments and replace them with new ones. It was a conventional safety car single file rolling restart, which Rosberg stormed away from the rest of the field - almost as if Button was asleep. Hamilton immediately pounced on the pair of McLarens in front of him - first it was Magnussen. Lewis eased the car down the inside of Copse and Kevin out-braked himself making it very easy for the Mercedes driver. On the following lap Hamilton then simply drove past the second McLaren of Jenson Button on the Wellington straight. So we had a Mercedes 1-2... where have we seen that before...
If Hamilton was on a charge, Bottas was defying the laws of physics in that Williams - in the five corners that made up the first start Valtteri passed five cars. That irrepressible force remained on the restart of the race - and his weapon of choice was a unstoppable pass on the outside line of Stowe corner. It was super effective. Some of these passes were easier than others, dealing with the likes of Ricciardo, Hulkenberg who were involved with their own personal battle. Alonso was attempting to follow the Williams through the field but the Ferrari didn't have anything like the straight line speed advantage of the Williams - Fernando having dispatched Gutierrez caught up to the back of the Ricciardo/Hulkenberg battle. While Daniel was distracted in trying to pass the Force India - Fernando went round the outside of Vale and picked the place from the Red Bull driver.
The action was back at Vale when Gutierrez tried to make an optimistic pass on Pastor Maldonado - and in a reversal of the Bahrain incident it was the Venezuelan that was thrown into the air. This time around no-one was flipped and somehow the Lotus was able to keep going - Esteban however sustained too much damage and had to pull the Sauber over and out of the race in the gravel on the exit of turn two. There was some suggestion that another safety car intervention was needed but, Gutierrez was far enough offline for a recovery tractor to retrieve the Sauber under local yellows.
Bottas was still on the charge in the Williams, he hadn't ran out of cars to overtake quite yet and closed in on Kevin Magnussen's McLaren. Like so many other victims before, there was only one place to make the pass - round the outside of Stowe corner. Considering this was the place Massa crashed the car by going a little too wide, running this close to the edge is very risky. A few laps later Alonso took a more conventional approach when it came to dealing with the Dane - using the inside line through Stowe to take the place.
It was business as usual at the very front of the field - Rosberg and Hamilton were leaving Bottas behind to the tune of over 20s - another day, more dominance. But all was not going to plan, Nico reported back to the team that there was a slight issue with the gearbox. At first it seemed as if the issue was under control and after the first round of stops the car wasn't loosing too much time back to Hamilton. The gap was closing, even though Lewis had switched to the harder compound tyre While the Mercedes were trying to sort out the technical gremlins the tale-telling had begun further back. It seemed a little silly to be honest but that is era of sport we are dealing with these days. As Button was trying to hold off the attacks of Alonso, he was on the radio to the McLaren team pointed out that the Spaniard was running outside of the white lines at the edge of the track.
At the front of the field those gearbox issues proved terminal for Rosberg's car, just as he lapped Chilton's Marussia the car started to haemorrhage speed and power. Finally coming to a halt on the inside of Becketts - game over for Nico and leaving Hamilton with a huge and unassailable lead over Bottas. It also meant it was game over for a titanic battle for the lead which were denied. With this things calmed down for several laps as the remainder of the drivers completed the pit stop cycle.
But it wasn't for long as an almighty battle was brewing between Alonso and Vettel, watched from a safe distance by Kevin Magnussen. The first round went in favour of the Ferrari driver as Alonso made round the outside of Copse getting very close to clipping the Vettel's front wing. This of course didn't mean that this particular conflict was done - Sebastian chased down the Ferrari and battle resumed. However instead of many laps of intense position swapping and millimetre wheel-to-wheel action the first salvo was once more fired over the radio. Both Vettel and Alonso were constantly on the radio making sure that every time their opponent put their inside wheels on the wrong side of the white line the whole world knew. It got to the point when Vettel was effectively counting each and every infraction that Alonso made. The German was even less pleased when Alonso closed off the outside line in Brooklands as the Red Bull driver attempted a pass. On the following lap Vettel gave up on complaining and reverted to action, finding the smallest of spaces on the inside of Luffield. It was the closest two cars could get without contact - running two wide through Woodcote Vettel claimed the place on the inside of Copse.
Ricciardo had to keep an eye on the gap he had over the car behind, as Jenson Button was chipping away at the deficit in an effort to take the final podium position away from the Australian. Hamilton was so far out front he was able to take an optional second stop just to make sure he was on a newer set of tyres at the end of the race. Bottas was all alone in second place, which in itself was a miraculous achievement considering how well qualifying went. The only remaining battle was for third place as Button started to increase the amount of time he was taking out of Ricciardo up to one second per lap, with four laps remaining and a five second gap the task seemed impossible. Yet the British public hoped for an iconic double podium result for the home crowd.
In the end they got half of their wish as Hamilton crossed the line to mark out a dominant victory for Mercedes. Bottas delivered an almighty recovery drive to secure his best result from a terrible grid position. Ricciardo continues his ability to defeat his quadruple champion team-mate and claim another podium in the process. Jenson Button had to settle for 4th place eight tenths away from third place. Sebastian Vettel managed to pull away from Alonso to take 5th with the one remaining Ferrari in 6th. Magnussen brought the second McLaren home in 7th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India while Toro Rosso rounded out the points with Kvyat and Vergne in 9th and 10th.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Today was an eventful one - and could have been a lot more so had the initial accident not taken place and Rosberg kept running. But nonetheless there were still plenty of people to give points to
- 25pts - Valtteri Bottas - From 14th on the grid to second place - five of those spots in the first five corners, definitely deserves full points
- 18pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Again smashing Vettel en route to another podium finish
- 15pts - Jenson Button - So very close to a podium spot, so here are some podium points for the effort
- 12pts - Lewis Hamilton - A home win and moreso for the post-race doughnuts those always equal points.
- 10pts - Felipe Massa - Deserves some points for avoiding what could have been an enormous accident
- 8pts - Alonso/Vettel - Despite the grumbling that was a brilliant battle
- 6pts - Chilton/Kobayashi - Have points for their evasive manoeuvres at the start of the race
- 4pts - Nico Rosberg - Pushed enough buttons on the steering wheel he was bound to have achieved the high score on something or other
- 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - Two Points for that little hop at Vale
- 1pt - Kimi Raikkonen - Not only for still having legs but for winning the Sky lawnmower race
The Penalty Points Championship
There has been little to penalise this season but todays batch of tell-tales warrants some penalty points this time around
- Sebastian Vettel - The prime offender, regularly tallying off the individual instances when Alonso ran wide... just man up and get on with it
- Jenson Button - Another one who was immediately on the blower complaining about Fernando's driving
- Fernando Alonso - While being guilty of misusing the track limits fairly often he also made sure he put the boot in with the others.
- Nikki Lauda - It may seem like blasphemy to penalise Lauda, and he often makes very valid and accurate points - but suggesting leaving the barrier alone was a little odd
- Sergio Perez - This one dates back to Friday after FP1 when he decided that he'd resent being beaten by a woman on pace and he'd rather they'd be in the kitchen than ahead of him...
Looking ahead to Germany
The Mercedes internal battle moves away from Hamilton's home turf and onto Rosbergs. I assume that Nico will be very eager to recover from the mechanical failure that prevented victory today and exact his revenge. Inevitably this will ramp up the tension and pressure even further - which can only be a good thing.
While Silverstone is a cathedral of speed and power - Hockenheim no longer harbours quite the same intensity as it once did. The home of the German GP used to be an immense and ridiculously powerful blast through the dense forests where the spray and the mists clung to the trees in the full speed corridors of power. If only that brilliant legacy of the past was on display in a fortnights time - instead we left with a mutilated sprint circuit lying in the carcass of its own former glories. That said the new version isn't too bad... really.
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