Britain Weekend Review: Hamilton fights back in thrilling home win

Racing, overtaking, strategy, rain, fantastic fans and a home hero. Formula 1’s stop in Silverstone for the 70^th time returned by far and away the greatest race of the season so far. After some stale races throughout the first half of 2015, Lewis Hamilton’s victory in front of his home fans made for a true season highlight.

An emotional Hamilton wins his 3rd home race.

Qualifying:

With minutes to go before qualifying started, Charlie Whiting issued a warning to all drivers that their times would be deleted in a zero tolerance approach should they not obey the track limits. So who could truly master the 3.6 mile track?

It was feared that Alonso would not make it out of his garage for qualifying, but he did if only to resume normal service as he qualified 17^th behind Nasr. Alonso did win the teammate battle as Button was only P18. His chances of picking up a first podium as his home event seemed less likely than ever before. Stevens was 19^th beating teammate Merhi with the Manors sporting a fitting red, white and blue livery. 

An appropriate livery for Manor.
© Octane Photographic Ltd.

As the chequered flag called close on Q2, it was Perez who was first to miss out on a top 10 spot as he qualified in 11^th. The nearly entirely new car for Force India this weekend had brought with it a noticeable jump in pace. Both Lotus drivers were out also, Grosjean P12 and Maldando P14. They were split by Max Verstappen who had been furious over his car’s lack of grip all Saturday. Ericsson qualified in 15^th.

Pole position has proven not to be essential for a race win at Silverstone, but nevertheless that is where Hamilton firmly set his sights. Q3 supposedly qualifies 10 cars, but you couldn’t have guessed judging by the crowd. Only one lap time mattered. Hamilton went out early on in order to set a banker time, and thanks to Rosberg losing out in the last sector, the man from Stevenage secured provisional pole.

With only time for one last flying lap, Lewis’ sector times were not good, worse, Rosberg’s were. As this information flashed up on his dashboard, Lewis pitted, so the crowd watched in anticipation to see if Rosberg would start from 1^st. But it was not to be. To the delight of the cheering capacity crowd, Hamilton claimed P1 with a 1:32:248 lap time to take his 8^th pole position of the year and to move 3^nd in the all-time qualifiers leader board behind Senna and Schumacher. Rosberg was still fastest for 2^nd ahead of Massa who claimed his highest ever qualifying result at Silverstone. Bottas was 4^th meaning the Williams beat the Ferraris. Kimi was P5 and outpaced Vettel. 7^th for Kvyat ahead of a flying Carlos Sainz Jr. The new Force India combined with an inform Hulkenberg was fast enough for 9^th. Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10.

The Race:

While the cars circulated the revised Silverstone layout to warm their tyres, Nasr was confirmed as being unable to start the race following a break down on his out lap.

As red turned to black, Hamilton overcame initial wheel spin and then appeared to have beaten Rosberg off the line. However, it was the Williams who looked set to stop Hamilton from winning his home race as Massa was seemingly catapulted from 3^rd to 1^st and sling-shot past the pole sitter by Abbey. Teammate Bottas followed through into 2^nd but Hamilton closed him out to narrowly regain P2 heading into Aintree as the Finn opted for too much of a defensive line. Close behind Hulkenberg was up to 5^th ahead of both Ferraris. Then, more bad news for British fans. The Lotuses tangled forcing Alonso to take avoiding action which sent his McLaren into a spin. This caused the Spaniard to career into the side pod of Button terminating the Brit’s car and race following a leap into the air. Although Alonso could carry on following a nose change, Maldonado was forced to retire without completing a single lap. Up ahead Rosberg and Bottas went wheel to wheel through the revered Maggotts Becketts complex. The opening lap signalled a relishing prospect and great things to come from this Grand Prix.

Action from start to finish as Massa launches into 1st.

The yellow flags were out as a result of the earlier incident and the safety car soon followed. As it returned to the pits on Lap 3 Hamilton dived into Club in an effort to reclaim P1. But he locked his fronts and Massa covered forcing the Mercedes onto the run off. This allowed Bottas up into 2^nd and forced Hamilton to fend off Rosberg. Verstappen’s restart was even less productive as he suffered another Silverstone spin and was forced into retirement following a long battle with his car over the previous day.

But then the modern era of Formula 1 reared its head. As the Williams team radioed in to stop the cars from racing each other, the spectacular headlines of the GP seemed to fade into debate over the political nature of the sport. Lap 14 and the politics of the sport were again under questioning as Mercedes falsely readied their pit crew trying to fool Williams into a rash strategy change, however Williams called their bluff and stayed on track. This allowed Bottas to close up to Massa, but despite the assistance of DRS, Felipe held onto P1.

A delight to see Williams in the lead at their home race.
© Octane Photographic Ltd.

Lap 19 and this time it what not a dummy run, Hamilton pitted for the harder tyres where he was stationary for a barely perceptible 2.4 seconds. He joined in 4^th ahead of Hulkenberg following a phenomenal in-lap to maximise the effect of the under-cut. A lap later and both Massa and Rosberg made their first stops. The slower stop of the Williams mechanics brought the cars out side by side in the pit lane. However, in a measure of ‘ballsiness’ Massa crept up the inside of the pit exit to re-join in 3^rd. But crucially, Hamilton was already passed the pit exit and back into P2 having jumped Massa. Bottas was P1 but yet to pit. And as he did, a 6 tenth slower stop and the cheers of fans signalled that Hamilton’s strategists had earnt their pay packet as Lewis was back in 1^st.  

Lap 21 and Ricciardo’s car was being wheeled into retirement leaving just 14 remaining cars. But in brighter, or should that be better news, the clouds were coming into play as rain threatened to add another element to the race.

The sporting cliché of being ‘in the zone’ is often banded around, but it was evident in Perez’s lap 32 excursion. He was hunting down Carlos Sainz for 9^th, and as the Spaniard messed up his braking so did the Mexican forcing him wide as he had been automatically following Sainz’s lines in the preceding laps. But by the end of the lap Sainz had pulled his car off track and into retirement. However, having left the car in the middle of the run off area of Club corner the attending marshals were left at unnecessary risk, thus bringing out the Virtual Safety Car for the second time this season to slow the field.

By lap 35 the obligatory shots of fans donning rain coats and umbrellas were broadcast to signal the arrival of the rain. Over the next 3 laps both Vettel and Rosberg we seen struggling through what used to be the old 3^rd sector. It was Merhi who was first to pit in the changing conditions for intermediate tyres whilst Hamilton opted to stay out before running wide through Copse.  The rain gradually fell over the next 10 minutes. This was to the detriment of Williams who design their cars with a low downforce ethos. So as the rain fell they lost more pace allowing Rosberg to overtake Massa for second place on lap 41. However, such is the size of Silverstone that the rain was inconsistent, falling mainly on the northern part of the track whilst the rest remained dry.

Nothing like dull, grey clouds to brighten up a race.

The uncertain conditions were suiting Rosberg as he closed to within 2 seconds of Hamilton. This forced the Brit on worn tyres to pit in for intermediates. The crowd held its breath as many thought Lewis had thrown away his victory with 9 of the 52 laps to go. Vettel followed also to exit the pits in 6^th. But as Rosberg also made the call to his team for inters, it looked as though Lewis was back on for a race win as the rain fell harder and over the entire circuit. And so it panned out as Rosberg resumed in 2nd. An inspired decision by Hamilton, it was not to be a repeat of Monaco.

With Williams once again opting for a conservative strategic approach, they dropped to 4^th and 5^th as Vettel moved up to the last podium spot with 6 to go. Ericsson having been forced to make an extra pit stop, ensured Alonso moved into P10 and looked to score his first point of the season.

After 52 laps Hamilton claimed back to back home wins to the sheer delight of the British fans enjoying a typically British summer’s day. The eventful race and excellent come back from fourth mad victory all the more enjoyable. Rosberg was 2^nd from Vettel who regained positions well in the latter stages of the race. Williams failed to capitalise on their flying start with Massa P4 from Bottas. Kvyat was a strong 6^th ahead of Hulkenberg who went unnoticed to a remarkable 7^th place. Perez was 9^th showing how strong the new Force India looks in its first untested outing. Raikkonen split the teammates. Alonso was 10^th ahead of Ericsson and Merhi. A late pit stop for a new nose meant Will Stevens finished in 13^th. Sainz, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Grosjean, Maldonado and Button all failed to finish, whilst Nasr failed to even start.  

A victory for the fans!
© Octane Photographic Ltd.

Finally, a race worthy of positive superlatives in front of a sold-out Silverstone crowd. With the growing scrutiny of Formula 1, it was a refreshing change for the on-track action to take centre stage and deliver the goods. Hamilton’s performance and final pit stop decision was nigh on faultless following the Safety Car restart. Sincerest thanks to the Williams team and the British Weather from all F1 fans alike! Hopefully Hungary can follow suit in 3 weeks’ time.