Posted on 10th July 2016
At the British GP at Silverstone today, Lewis Hamilton claimed his fourth win of the 2016 season, his third consecutive win at the British Grand Prix ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen in a race that was affected by the rain before the start of the race.
Before the start of the race, it was announced that Marcus Ericsson would be racing from the pit lane after going through the necessary medical checks that he needed to pass after sustaining a very nasty crash in FP3 yesterday. It’s really great to see that Marcus is okay and that he was able to race today
With the rain hitting the Silverstone circuit just before the start of the race heavily indeed; this now left many to question what tyres will the drivers start on and if they would get racing under the Safety Car. It was announced before the start by the FIA that the race will start under the Safety Car.
The race got underway behind the Safety Car and with standing water on Turn 6, the Wellington straight and the back of the circuit, the Safety Car does not look like coming in at any stage with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel feeding information to the FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting.
The Safety Car went in at the end of Lap 5 and racing began at Silverstone at Lap 6. With drivers such as Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas pitting for intermediate tyres, Lewis Hamilton led the race comfortably ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen by 3.7 seconds.
Lap 7 saw Pascal Wehrlein officially retiring from the race after finding himself in the gravel after aquaplaning off the circuit which then deployed the Virtual Safety Car as Hamilton, Verstappen and Rosberg pit for intermediate tyres at the end of the lap without losing their positions on the track.
At this stage of the race, it has worked out well for Sergio Perez who pitted for Intermediate tyres very quickly and has moved up from tenth place to fourth place without doing much overtaking.
Meanwhile in the early stages of the race, race leader Hamilton is comfortably building a lead up against his team mate as the battle for seventh between Carlos Sainz Jr, Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel builds up on the track; especially between Bottas and Hulkenberg and by Lap 11 Bottas drops to thirteenth place after losing the rear end of the Williams.
The first half of the race saw Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg battling for eighth place; with Hulkenberg starting to gain on the Brazilian driver; Max Verstappen keeping the pressure on the Mercedes drivers by lapping at the same pace as them lap after lap and catching Rosberg very rapidly.
At the end of Lap 15, Vettel is the first driver to pit for dry tyres and many will have been watching his progress during the race as many drivers a few laps later make the same move Vettel did. Meanwhile on Lap 16, Max Verstappen in an absolutely fantastic move passes Rosberg at Chapel corner for second place. Lap 17 saw Jolyon Palmer leaving the pit lane with no right rear wheel. But Palmer managed to stop in the pitlane and was able to fix the issue (even though Palmer got a ten second stop and go penalty for this during the race) as Hamilton pits at the end of the lap for dry tyres and hands the lead of the race to Verstappen.
The next lap sees Vettel spinning on the circuit after going into Turn 1 after taking too much speed into the corner as Verstappen pits for dry tyres and hands the lead back to Hamilton. Lap 19 sees Romain Grosjean going slowly around the circuit and officially retires from the race.
Before the half way point of the race, Fernando Alonso went off the circuit at Turn 1 after hitting a dry patch and was very lucky not to have hit the barrier massively and caused damage to his McLaren-Honda. This then paved the way for Bottas to pass Alonso for position but Bottas also got on the water but managed to remain off the circuit as Carlos Sainz Jr also had a spin at the same corner too.
Halfway through the British GP (Lap 26), Hamilton remained as the race leader ahead of Verstappen and Rosberg. Hamilton had a lead over Verstappen of 6.3 seconds as Rio Haryanto at Turn 1 went off the circuit, hit the barrier and officially retired from the race.
Three laps later, Vettel passes Kvyat for the final point of the race with a clean and brilliant move at Stowe corner; where both drivers respected each other and the limits of the track too. The battle between Verstappen and Rosberg began in earnest in the second half of the race; with Verstappen defending well from the German driver behind him especially on Lap 36 where Rosberg tried to pass him on the outside of Stowe corner and was successful on Lap 38.
By Lap 39, Hamilton still leads the race ahead of Rosberg by 8.3 seconds as Vettel is under investigation after the incident with Massa on the track and does receive a five second time penalty for the incident from the stewards. Lap 40 sees Jolyon Palmer officially retiring from the race with suspected brake problems on his Renault and sums up a disappointing first British GP weekend for the British driver.
In the latter stages of the race, Raikkonen is slowly catching Perez for fifth place rather quickly as Alonso manages to pass Bottas for track position, with Hamilton building up a 5.9 second lead against Rosberg by Lap 44. Three laps later, Rosberg radios his team saying he has problems with his gearbox and the team tells him to avoid seventh gear as Raikkonen passes Perez for fifth place.
With Verstappen slowly starting to gain on Rosberg in the final few laps of the race due to Rosberg suffering with his gearbox; all eyes were upon the Dutch driver to see if he could regain second place off the German driver once again. But with Rosberg now under investigation by the stewards after the race; after his team helped him to come to terms with his gearbox problems on the track which I believe is firmly stupid.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who won his fourth race of the season, his third consecutive win at the circuit which has never been done before by a British driver. Hamilton was ahead of Nico Rosberg in second place who was 6.911 seconds behind him and ahead of Max Verstappen in third place who was 8.250 seconds behind Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo finished the race in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, Sergio Perez in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place, Carlos Sainz Jr in eighth place, Sebastian Vettel in ninth place and Daniil Kvyat who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Felipe Massa ended the race in eleventh place ahead of Jenson Button in twelfth place, Fernando Alonso in thirteenth place, Valtteri Bottas in fourteenth place and Felipe Nasr in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Esteban Gutierrez finished in sixteenth place. Jolyon Palmer, Rio Haryanto, Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson, Pascal Wehrlein did not finish the race.
The classification for the British GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.34:55.831
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 6.911s
3. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 8.250s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 26.211s
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 69.743s
6. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 76.741s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 77.212s
8. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 85.858s
9. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 91.654s
10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 92.600s
11. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
12. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
14. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
15. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
16. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
17. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, Not Classified
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, Not Classified
19. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, Not Classified
20. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
21. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, Not Classified
22. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, Not Classified
[Nico Rosberg's position could be affected after his investigation with the stewards after the race.]
Nico Rosberg still leads the Driver's Championship with 171 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 167 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in third place with 106 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in fourth place with 100 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fifth place with 98 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 87 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 54 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 47 points, Felipe Massa is in ninth place with 38 points and Romain Grosjean is in tenth place with 28 points.
Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 338 points, Ferrari is in second place with 204 points, Red Bull is in third place with 195 points, Williams is in fourth place with 92 points, Force India is in fifth place with 73 points, Toro Rosso is in sixth place with 41 points, McLaren is in seventh place with 32 points, Haas is in eighth place with 28 points, Renault is in ninth place with 6 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.
Driving for Pleasure will be covering the in-season test at the Silverstone circuit this week. Keep your eyes peeled for our reports.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
