Hamilton closes Championship gap with great Home win

Hamilton wins British Grand Prix as Rosberg retires.
Lewis Hamilton finally gave British sport fans something to cheer about this summer, with a fine win at Silverstone.

Hamilton who started a lowly sixth following an uncharacteristic mistake in aborting his final qualifying lap, had a lot of work to do to win at his home grand prix, especially with his team-mate Rosberg on pole. As the lights went out, Hamilton made his way up to fourth after the first four corners. The race was then quickly red-flagged following a heavy crash involving Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen got out of shape as his ran wide through Turn Four and spun as he rejoined. The Ferrari spun across the track, and Raikkonen speared into the barriers. Not before clipping Massa's Williams, bringing to a premature end the Williams drivers 200th Grand Prix.

The race was stopped for close to an hour to repair the barriers damaged by the heavy crash and remove the damaged Ferrari, and Raikkonen was taken to the nearby medical centre, where he was diagnosed with bruising to his ankles.

The race re-started behind the safety car, with Rosberg building a healthy 5 second lead over the chasing pack with Hamilton now in 3rd behind Jenson Button (wearing a specially designed pink crash helmet in memory of his father John).

Hamilton finally made his way past the McLaren on lap 9. The gap to Rosberg was 6 seconds. Hamilton set about the task of closing down his team-mate as otherwise his championship dreams would be fading lap by lap.

By the first pit stops Hamilton had closed to within 3 seconds of Rosberg who stopped 6 laps before Hamilton. Lewis was hoping for a much shorter final stint to the race to enable maximum opportunity to push Rosberg for the race win.

When Hamilton finally stopped, he rejoined 6 seconds behind Rosberg after yet another slow pit stop for the Mercedes driver, after a problem with a rear tyre, something Hamilton made the team aware of over the team radio.

As the race developed Hamilton again set about clawing his way back at Rosberg and after a couple of great laps, had managed to take 3 seconds out of the leader. Rosberg came over on team radio to report gearbox issues.

A matter of laps later Rosberg lost all of his gears. He tried everything possible to reset but was unable to and was forced to retire from the grand prix.
The crowd gave a huge cheer as Hamilton took over from the lead with Bottas, who had an incredible first half of the race, and who had raced superbly through the field from 14th on the grid.

Ricciardo, who was on a one stop strategy for Red Bull completed the top three at this stage having made up places after starting eighth. Impressively managing his tyres beyond what anyone could have imagined possible.
A great battle for the points was taking place between Vettel and Alonso. An incredible wheel-to-wheel battle for over 10 laps ensued with the world champion finally getting ahead of Alonso in the closing stages.

The Spaniard had fought through the field from a poor qualifying session for the Ferrari from 16th on the grid, but a five-second stop-go for having only half his car in his grid slot at the original start severely hampered his chances of getting near the podium.

A late incident between Maldonado and Ericsson brought an end to their races within touching distance of the chequered flag.

With Rosberg retired, there was no one who could match the power at Hamiltons disposal and he cruised round to take a famous victory and the first for a Brit on home soil since his win in 2008.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was second from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. With Jeson Button just missing out on what would have been a great podium, following a late surge for the McLaren driver.

The win brings Hamilton right back into the title race. He trails team-mate Rosberg by only 4 points going into the next race in Germany.

‘Silverstone’ celebration by Grahamandleigh.co.uk

British Grand Prix result 2014

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2:26:52.094
2 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +30.1
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault +46.4
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +47.3
5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault +53.8
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +59.9
7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +62.5
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +88.6
9 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault +89.3 secs
10 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault +1 Lap
11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +1 Lap
12 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +1 Lap
13 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari +1 Lap
14 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari +1 Lap
15 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault +2 Laps
16 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +2 Laps
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault. Exhaust

Retired
Nico Rosberg Mercedes Gearbox
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault Suspension damage
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari Accident
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes Accident
Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari Accident

Note
GUT qualified 14th, dropped 15, unsafe release (10), g’box change (5);
CHI qualified 13th, dropped 5, g’box change.
MAL excluded from qualifying, fuel infringement. ERI, KOB failed to meet Q1 107% requirement, race at stewards’ discretion