Roundup - The 2014 50th British Formula One Grand Prix

The Scene

The old Northamptonshire airfield has come a long, long way since the first ever World Championship Formula One GP was held here on 13^th May 1950.

There are some stark contrasts between then and now, apart from the obvious advances in car design.

The pits aren’t quite what they used to be…

And then of course, there’s the infamous opulence of the paddock where this weekend Williams, in conjunction with Martini, have been showing off their new three-storey motorhome...

Yes, that is actually a motor home.  Not the biggest or plushest in the paddock either, believe it or not...

With news that post-safety car standing restarts are to be introduced next season, Williams driver Susie Wolff becoming the first woman in over 20 years to take part (albeit briefly) in an F1 race weekend when she drove in Friday’s practice, and Ferrari confirming Alonso and Raikkonen  for next season, there was plenty to talk about before qualifying got underway.

The Qualifying

Max Chilton leads out onto a damp track for Q1, and everyone gets a time in.  Hamilton is lapping a full second quicker than second place with seven minutes to go.  But the track is beginning to dry out, so everyone switches from intermediates to medium slicks and all heck breaks loose.  Button whips round four seconds faster but runs beyond the white line.  With ninety seconds to go, the two Marussias are incredibly (but briefly) at 1-2.  Then disaster - a sudden few more drops of rain is all it takes, and Alonso loses it at Brooklyn’s before he can punch in a quick lap; similarly Raikkonen, Bottas and Massa are pushed down into the drop zone, and Q1 finishes with both Ferrari and both Williams drivers scratching their heads and Sutil’s Sauber in the gravel.  Amazing.

Q2 and it’s raining properly again so everyone’s back on intermediates.  No real surprises, then the rain stops and with five minutes remaining a few cars switch to slicks.  Rosberg takes a two-second chunk out of Hamilton, Bianchi in the Marussia does a 1:39 and again hits the top of the list until Rosberg does a 1:35.  Hamilton puts it together and takes 1^st place as the second Sauber of Gutierrez goes off.  Marussia is over the moon with 12^th and 13^th, although Max Chilton has a 5-place penalty for a gearbox change.

Q3 sees most drivers out on medium slicks.  The track is basically dry, until Rosberg reports drizzle at Stowe and suddenly everyone’s skidding about again with seven minutes left.  The track’s basically empty for a few minutes although the rain’s stopped. Hamilton and Rosberg are at 1 and 2, Vettel hasn’t even put a lap in with 2½ minutes to go.  Hamilton reports it’s “pretty slippery” as seven cars try for one final lap time.  On the last flying lap, the final sector is bone dry and the fastest time is grabbed by five drivers in succession as Hamilton makes a huge error of judgement and pits.  Rosberg takes Pole!  Jensen Button splits four German drivers at the front of the grid with 3^rd place, his best starting position at the British Grand Prix since 2005.

Wow.

The Race

It’s dry and cloudy but with no rain expected as 22 cars line up for the green.  Massa has a terrible start and finally gets up to speed right at the back, while Hamilton and Button get great starts and move up.

Less than forty seconds into the race, and Raikkonen runs wide then goes airborne on his route back to the tarmac, spins and slams into the Armco under the bridge on the Wellington Straight, then spins again across the track right in front of Massa whose split-second reactions avoid a full side-on collision at 150mph.

Raikkonen limps away from his Ferrari as the race is red flagged, and there’s a delay of almost exactly an hour while the Armco is repaired.

At the flying restart, Rosberg catapults away and pulls out a sizeable gap on Button in second, his McLaren team mate Magnussen in third and Hamilton up two places in fourth but not for long.  In Lap 3 Magnussen runs wide and Lewis snaps up third place.  A minute later he dives under Jensen Button at Brooklands and sets his sights on Rosberg who by now has a four second lead.  Meanwhile Valtteri Bottas, who started in 14^th, has already charged up the field to 6^th.

Lap 8 - Alonso is under investigation as he squeezes past Hulkenberg and takes 7th place.  Apparently his wheels were out of position on the grid start at 16th.  Rosberg looks comfortable with a 5½ second lead.  Ricciardo gets past Hulkenberg's Force India for 9th, while Gutierrez sloppily smacks into Maldonado who goes airborne while the Sauber ends up in the gravel.

Alonso is given a 5-second stop-go penalty which he’ll take later.  The Williams of Bottas is looking very, very strong as he catches and takes Magnussen for 4th spot, and Lewis Hamilton is trying everything in the book to reduce the 4.1sec gap to Rosberg.

Alonso gains another place, taking Magnussen at Stowe.  Hamilton nibbles off another half second.  The lead is now 3.2 seconds.  The crowd is loving this race, with so much action, positioning and plain brilliant driving going on all over the track in the first quarter.

On lap 17, Bottas drives superbly round the outside of Button at Stowe to take 3^rd. Hamilton is fastest on the track, so Rosberg gets orders to push hard.  Lewis is on a charge.  The lead is down to 2 ½ seconds… 2.3 seconds... and then Rosberg pits.  The Mercedes pit crew get him into a used set of intermediates in 2.7 seconds and he re-joins in clean air and 2nd place.

So Lewis is still out, leading, and keeping great pace while Alonso is hunting Button.  Rosberg reports a gearbox problem on the downshift, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting his speed.  On lap 22 he’s still the fastest man in the middle sector.

 Lewis Hamilton finally comes in for hard tyres on lap 24 but he gets a slow (4.1s) pit stop as the left rear takes longer to secure so he comes back out 5.6 seconds behind Rosberg.  But Lewis is focussed, as we hear when over the team radio he asks for a better pit stop "next time".

Alonso comes in and takes his 5-second stop-go penalty, changes tyres and roars back out into 10^th position with a point to prove.  Hamilton is starting to reel Rosberg in, taking chunks out of his lead   as Alonso gets back to 8^th past Hulkenberg. 

At lap 29 the gap between Rosberg and Hamilton is less than 2 seconds and then – disaster for the German.  He’s stuck in 5^th gear! Lewis Hamilton sails past him to take the lead, and the 120,000 fans at Silverstone go completely ape.

Lap 31, and Lewis is sitting pretty with a 31 second lead back to Bottas who hasn’t even pitted yet.  The Red Bulls are 3rd and 4^th.  Bottas finally makes his single pit stop and re-joins in 3rd behind Vettel, whom he overtakes a lap later.  The Red Bulls are just no match for the rocking Williams.

With 17 laps to go, Vettel pits and comes out just ahead of Alonso’s Ferrari and Magnussen’s McLaren.  Alonso goes around the outside of Vettel at Copse at 170mph – one of the gutsiest moves you’re likely to see all year - and takes 5th place, the Ferrari showing impressive pace.  Seventeen cars still running, but Vettel, with tyres younger by 10 laps, is sticking close behind Alonso although the Ferrari's straight line speed is keeping him ahead.  And so the duel of the day commences, with fantastic competitive racing from the two World Champions.

 From now to the end of the race, it’s wheel-to-wheel stuff as both drivers express frustration on their team radios about the other “exceeding track limits” while continuing to drive out of their skins.  The stewards decided to let it lie, which in itself was a great call because it allowed the racing to continue – and the crowd to be entertained.

Lewis is way out ahead and pits on lap 42, coming out still in the lead with Bottas, Ricciardo, Button, Alonso and Vettel filling out the top six.  Button can’t seem to make inroads into Ricciardo’s eight second lead.

Four laps to go, some amazing racing and Vettel finally gets past Alonso on the final straight as Christian Horner yells “Good Boy! Now make him stay there!”  Jensen Button is 4.5 seconds behind Ricciardo with 3 laps to go..  Can he make the podium?

The penultimate lap, and Maldonado’s Lotus retires.  Nothing new there, sadly.

AND THE WINNER is Lewis Hamilton! Six years to the day since his first British GP win, his 27th career win to match Jackie Stewart.  Will he beat Nigel Mansell's 31 wins before the end of the season?  Bottas takes a hugely impressive 2nd, Ricciardo 3rd less than a second in front of Button in 4th who matches his best ever result at the British GP.

Despite a rocky start to the weekend, Williams are BACK and have now jumped past Force India to 4th in the Constructor's Championship.  Bottas is a lad with talent, stating from 14th yet taking his second straight podium finish.  The whole team is grinning and back-slapping in the pits despite Massa’s misfortune.

Ricciardo beats Vettel again, which means that for every race they’ve both finished this year, Vettel has yet to best his team mate.  Sebastian showed today that he’s lost none of his world class skills, which means that the young Australian Daniel Ricciardo is a prodigy that Red Bull is bound to cherish for some years yet.

Lewis has a deeply satisfied smile on the podium and points proudly at the Union Jack as the national anthem is played.  Yesterday he was 29 points behind in the Drivers' Championship and starting 6th on the grid.  Today, he's four points behind but standing tall as the winner of Siverstone's 50th Grand Prix.  Frankly, he, the fans and the whole of Britain couldn’t have been given a better result.

What's with the trophies though? They looked like something off the back of a lorry.  Even Lewis complains that his is “falling to bits” and asks “Where’s the gold trophy?”  Good point, Lewis.  But perhaps you shouldn’t have gone on to say it looked like it cost a tenner to make.  Lord Burns, the chairman of Santander UK who presented the trophy, looked pretty shame faced..

But – what a race.  It had it all.  Drama at the start, ever-changing positions in the first quarter, some of the best wheel-to-wheel you’ll ever see, some incredible passing manoeuvres and... A British winner.

Bring it on, Hockenheim.