Hats off to the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team that rounded off the 2013 British Grand Prix in beautiful style, with Nico Rosberg taking the win ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari. It wasn’t quite a perfect weekend, but it’s evident that the team is in imperious form heading into the second half of the season.
The team from Brackley (which is minutes away from the Silverstone circuit) looks to be the class of the field – quickest over a single lap and the pace setter in the race too. Eventual winner Rosberg was reeling Sebastian Vettel in for the lead when the Red Bull’s gearbox decided to call it a day and ground to a halt. After that, the Monaco winner was unchallenged to the end.
Of his second victory of the year he commented, “This is a great moment for me and our team to win in the home of motor racing at Silverstone. We have such great momentum in our Silver Arrows team and I’m very proud to be part of it. Now we can look forward to another home race next weekend at the Nürburgring.”
British hero and pole sitter Lewis Hamilton was robbed of a near-certain home win when he suffered a tyre blowout just eight laps into the race while leading comfortably. Having to limp back into the pits one wheel short for three quarters of the track meant that he started the next lap dead last, the leading pack long gone.
He then started a brilliant comeback drive worthy of a champion that he is, blazing through the pack to end up fourth at the end, less than a second off the last podium step. “Of course, I’m disappointed by the race and I would have loved to deliver the win this afternoon for all the British fans here at Silverstone.
“Everything considered, fourth place is pretty good after having been last on lap 10 and we’ll take that. We’ve now moved up to second place in the Constructors’ Championship, which is a nice reward for everyone at the factories just down the road from here,” said Hamilton after the race.
In fifth and sixth positions lie equally disgruntled Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. The Lotus ace complained incessantly about a wrong team call to leave him out on old tyres at the end, costing him a possible second place finish. Massa on the other hand fell foul of Pirelli’s misbehaving tyres while running strongly ahead of his teammate.
Behind the Brazilian, Adrian Sutil just about held off Formula 1’s rising talents Daniel Ricciardo, Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg in a mad dash to the end after the race’s second safety car period. di Resta especially delivered a good recovery performance after being sent to the back of the grid for being underweight in qualifying.
It’s an absolute shame that powers beyond the teams and drivers affected the race the way it did. Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa’s races were badly hampered, costing the former a likely victory and the latter a fair shot at a podium finish.
What’s worse is that Pirelli and the FIA did have a clear warning of an impending tyre issue. Sergio Perez had a similar complete left-rear tyre blowout as early as Friday, but the tyre supplier just brushed the incident off, claiming it was caused by damage from debris. Four more very public blowouts ensued on raceday, and Pirelli is deep in the kitty litter now.
Race Director Charlie Whiting admitted to nearly stopping the race on safety grounds, but instead chose to have the safety car out for a lengthy period while race marshals rush out to clear the entire track of any passible damage-inducing debris. That was an unprecedented move and ultimately a good one, but the entire sport was lucky that nothing more serious was caused by this very embarrassing and needless drama.
Also sad to watch were Williams and McLaren, who all finished outside the top 10 in their home race. The Woking team showed some promise at least, dicing with the big boys right till the end before Button and Perez’s tyres gave up, while Williams was disappointing all weekend in their landmark 600th race.
On a more positive note, both championships have now come alight. All the title contenders came closer to Vettel’s points tally, and the title fight is now ripe for some close action. Mercedes AMG Petronas too got closer to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, which is now no longer a foregone conclusion.
How will Red Bull and Vettel retaliate to Mercedes AMG Petronas’ recent gains, and how soon can Lotus and Ferrari find form again? The Formula 1 championship continues next week in Germany so we only have a short wait to find out.
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Webber could have won being on faster rubber with just a few laps. Would have loved to see the gentleman racer win his last British Grand Prix. But anyways, not bad for a ‘Number Two’!
What a dramatic race. Most team radioed their racers to avoid kerbs esp at high speed, but it seems like no one listens.
Mercedes and RBR were flying. Should Kimi pit for new tyre set on final safety car period, he could have fight for podium.