Lewis Hamilton pulled off the sensation and won again at Silverstone in front of his home crowd after 2008. Team-mate Nico Rosberg dropped out for technical reasons. Valteri Bottas again surprised the crowd with second place. The battle for the world championship remains exciting.
by Bruno Fleckenstein
The qualifying surprise
The big surprise in the first qualifying session was the Ferraris' retirement. Alonso also spun on his last attempt in Q1. The tire choice probably wasn't the best, because it was the persistent drizzle that worsened the conditions. The Red Bulls narrowly made it into Q2. Sutil made it into Q2 for Sauber, but because he hit the gravel he was unable to start in Q2. His colleague Gutiérez was no better off. Although he set the best time in Q2, he slid across the track and ended up out of the race in his Sauber because he tried to make way for Ricciardo, who was pushing him from behind.
With 1:35:766 min. on the very last lap, Nico Rosberg managed to win pole. But Vettel in second, Button in third and Hülkenberg in fourth also surprised many and it showed what a difference it makes when the track dries. For a long time it looked as if Hamilton was safe on pole with 1:39:232 min. But that can change so quickly in Silverstone. Hülkenberg said: "The track dries very quickly when there are 10-15 cars on the track and I fought like a lion to get everything out again. Yesterday we had big problems with the wind, more than anyone else."
Ranking Qualifying:
1 N. Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.766
2 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:37.386
3 J. Button McLaren 1:38.200
4 N. Hülkenberg Force India 1:38.329
5 K. Magnussen McLaren 1:38.417
6 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.232
7 S. Perez Force India 1:40.457
8 D. Ricciardo Red Bull 1:40.606
9 D. Kwjat Toro Rosso 1:40.707
10 J. Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.855
11 R. Grosjean Lotus 1:38.496
12 J. Bianchi Marussia 1:38.709
13 M. Chilton Marussia 1:39.800
14 E. Gutierrez Sauber 1:40.912
15 P. Maldonado Lotus 1:44.018
16 A. Sutil Sauber
17 V. Bottas Williams 1:45.318
18 F. Massa Williams 1:45.695
19 F. Alonso Ferrari 1:45.935
20 K. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:46.684
107 percent time 1:47.406
21 M. Ericsson Caterham 1:49.421
22 K. Kobayashi Caterham 1:49.625
The race
Nico Rosberg defended his lead at the start. Sebastian Vettel lost three places and touched Hamilton in turn 3 in the battle for positions. Further back there was a major crash with Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa. Raikkonen seemed to be too fast in turn 5 and went into the run-off zone and tried to get back over the grass onto the track, took off touching the track, lost control of his Ferrari and just spun in circles on the track. Massa, who almost stopped at the start due to clutch problems and was therefore almost last in the field, tried to get out of the way, but was hit by the Ferrari, as were others hit by Raikkonen. At first safety car was indicated, but the red flag followed. For Massa the race was over. Race interruption and restart was ordered. The race organizers wanted to make sure that the parts lying around did not cause any more damage, even during a safety car phase. In the meantime, Ferrari announced that Räikkönnen had suffered a slight injury to his hip and ankle and was being checked at the medical center.
1 hour later followed the restart behind the safety car
Nico Rosberg led the field of drivers in a commanding manner. His teammate Lewis Hamilton slowly worked his way up to the Mclarens, first harassing Magnusson who made a mistake in the corner and later also overtaking his former teammate Jenson Button and so Mercedes remained dominant leaders as usual this season. Valteri Bottas continued to gain good places in now beautiful dry conditions and was soon seen in 5th place. Alonso had already worked his way up to 8th by lap 8. On lap 10 Gutiérez was too close to Maldonado and the latter drove over his right front wheel, which caused Gutierez to charge into the gravel trap a few corners later, leading to race retirement.
Lap 11: Vettel came into the pits.
Lap 13: Rosberg, Hamilton +4.5 sec., gap to Button over 24 sec., Magnusson, Bottas, Alonso (+28sec.)
Intermediate standings on lap 17: 1st Nico Rosberg, 2nd Lewis Hamilton (2.9sec) caught up, 3rd Bottas passed Button (4th) and Alonso (5th +34sec) overtook Magnusson (6th)and slowly stalked Button from 5th.
Lap 20: Bottas was informed that they wanted to run the tires "to the end of their life" and the engineer asked how many laps that might be. 8-10 laps was the somewhat vague answer Bottas, ie 1-stop strategy.
Lap 25: Hamilton changes from medium to hard tires at the pit stop and should be able to drive through with this new set. Rosberg, on the other hand, will have to come back in.
Vettel meanwhile passed Magnusson for 5th place.
Halfway through the race
Lap 26: Alonso in the pits with a 5 sec. penalty lined up again on 9 and was now on the hard tires. 1-stop strategy!
Lap 29: Rosberg slowed down, was overtaken by Hamilton, who was cheered by the crowd. Rosberg let his car coast in the turn in the green, gearbox problems seemed to be responsible for the failure.
Lap 32: Bottas switched to the hard tires and retained third intermediate place.
Lap 34: Bottas passed Vettel, who had to pit on the same lap. He came out again in 5th place, but was harassed by Alonso and Magnusson and shortly afterwards overtaken by Alonso.
Lap 38: Vettel's tires were now up to temperature and he tried to overtake Alonso again. The hard battles showed the driving skills of Alonso, who remains in front. Alonso complained over the radio that Vettel leaves the track too often with all 4 tires and nothing happens about it
Lap 41: Hamilton pits and changes to medium. Still has a 20-second lead over Bottas on the exit. Behind him Ricciardo, Button, Alonso and Vettel.
Lap 48: the battle between Alonso and Vettel intensified and Vettel definitely managed to get Alonso behind him in the corner after the start-finish straight.
Both complain about the other. Alonso said that Vettel does not respect the traffic limits all the time and Vettel said that driving the way Alonso does is not allowed.
Lewis Hamilton ultimately won his home Grand Prix unhindered and effortlessly after 52 laps, also because his teammate had to retire for technical reasons. Valteri Bottas successfully finished a race for the second time in a row. His third place in Austria was now followed by second place in Silverstone. Daniel Ricciardo finished rather inconspicuously in third place.
Ranking list Grand Prix of England:
1. l.Hamilton Mercedes
2. V. Bottas Williams +0:30.135 min
3rd D.Ricciardo Red Bull +0:46.495 min.
4th J. Button McLaren +0:47.390 min.
5th S. Vettel Red Bull + 0:53.864 min.
6th F. Alonso Ferrari + 0:59.946 min.
7th K. Magnussen McLaren +1:02.563 min.
8th N. Hülkenberg Force India +1:28.692 min.
9th D. Kwiat Toro Rosso +1:29.340 min.
10th J. Vergne Toro Rosso + 1 lap
11th S. Perez K. Kobayashi Caterham + 2 laps
12th M. Chilton Marussia + 2 laps
13th P. Maldonado Lotus + 3 laps
14th Force India + 1 lap
15th R. Grosjean Lotus + 1 lap
16th A. Sutil Sauber + 1 lap
17th J. Bianchi Marussia + 1 lap
English 
Deutsch 
Français 
Español 
Italiano