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Written by Vijay Pattni
With 15 minutes to go before the British GP kicked off, Silverstone played its hand: a torrential downpour meant one of the greatest, hardest and most historic tracks on the Formula One calendar was soaked. Ah, the Great British Summer played havoc with the grid, meaning every single driver switched onto Pirelli"s full wet tyres and started behind the safety car (the AMG GT, of course. Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to keep that thing in a straight line?So, lights out, and everyone tiptoed around, Lewis Hamilton leading Nico Rosberg off the line and for five laps it remained as thus. Then the safety car went in, and the racing began. And Hamilton practically sprinted off into the, erm, sunset. He led every single lap of the race, pitting first on lap seven for intermediate tyres when things starting drying off, and then finally on lap 17 for the mediums, which lasted until the very end, where he finished first. His accomplishments at Silverstone put him on par with Nigel Mansell - he"s now won here four times.The battle behind him however, was thrilling, with Max Verstappen in third eventually catching second-placed Rosberg, passing him around the outside of Becketts on lap 16. The knowledgeable Silverstone crowd thundered their approval with a wall of applause for the ballsy youngster"s move. It would take Rosberg until lap 38 to take back the place, though ultimately in vain. On lap 47 of 52, Rosberg"s Mercedes had a gearbox problem (he was stuck in seventh gear), and the advice given to him over the radio by his engineer was later deemed by the stewards to have contravened the regulations. He was handed a ten-second penalty post-race, meaning his final position was third, bumping little Max up to second.Ricciardo finished fourth - some 26 seconds adrift of Hamilton at the end - followed by Raikkonen who had quite the calamitous race: he lost control at Abbey a number of times (there was a wet patch), but managed to recover. Perez, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Vettel and Kvyat rounded up the top ten, with Massa in 11th.It wasn"t just Kimi who went off at Abbey though - Hamilton, Verstappen and many other drivers were caught out, hammering through the grass and cutting back onto the track.Including Fernando Alonso too (who by the way, at one point nearly totalled Vettel after the German stormed out of the pits, lost control and lay helpless in the middle of the circuit momentarily), the Spaniard eventually finishing 13th behind team-mate Jenson Button.Hamilton though, was in a class of his own all afternoon, on home turf, and now just one point behind championship leader Rosberg following his post-race penalty. "Well I was very, very, very comfortable at the front and there was never a point where I felt like I was under [pressure]," he said afterwards. "I was just watching the times of the guys behind and every time they stepped it up I was able to answer and had more, so in those conditions you don"t want to go too early and risk it so it"s better to wait an extra lap or so. There"s no advantage. There"s more risk than there is advantage by going a lap or two earlier, so that"s what we did on the inters, made them last as long as possible and there was no real rush to come in," he added. His celebrations were suitably fitting: with Silverstone going nuts at every single move he made, Hamilton decided to address the crowd personally once he"d received his trophy with a spot of crowd-surfing to a rapturous reception. This really is Hamilton"s home.It was a star-studded event trackside too, with the likes of Sir Patrick Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Frank Bruno, John Surtees and TG"s good friend Anthony Joshua all watching on. Reckon Hamilton"s got the momentum going into the rest of the season?
Date written: 10 Jul 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 4218
With 15 minutes to go before the British GP kicked off, Silverstone played its hand: a torrential downpour meant one of the greatest, hardest and most historic tracks on the Formula One calendar was soaked. Ah, the Great British Summer played havoc with the grid, meaning every single driver switched onto Pirelli"s full wet tyres and started behind the safety car (the AMG GT, of course. Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to keep that thing in a straight line?So, lights out, and everyone tiptoed around, Lewis Hamilton leading Nico Rosberg off the line and for five laps it remained as thus. Then the safety car went in, and the racing began. And Hamilton practically sprinted off into the, erm, sunset. He led every single lap of the race, pitting first on lap seven for intermediate tyres when things starting drying off, and then finally on lap 17 for the mediums, which lasted until the very end, where he finished first. His accomplishments at Silverstone put him on par with Nigel Mansell - he"s now won here four times.The battle behind him however, was thrilling, with Max Verstappen in third eventually catching second-placed Rosberg, passing him around the outside of Becketts on lap 16. The knowledgeable Silverstone crowd thundered their approval with a wall of applause for the ballsy youngster"s move. It would take Rosberg until lap 38 to take back the place, though ultimately in vain. On lap 47 of 52, Rosberg"s Mercedes had a gearbox problem (he was stuck in seventh gear), and the advice given to him over the radio by his engineer was later deemed by the stewards to have contravened the regulations. He was handed a ten-second penalty post-race, meaning his final position was third, bumping little Max up to second.Ricciardo finished fourth - some 26 seconds adrift of Hamilton at the end - followed by Raikkonen who had quite the calamitous race: he lost control at Abbey a number of times (there was a wet patch), but managed to recover. Perez, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Vettel and Kvyat rounded up the top ten, with Massa in 11th.It wasn"t just Kimi who went off at Abbey though - Hamilton, Verstappen and many other drivers were caught out, hammering through the grass and cutting back onto the track.Including Fernando Alonso too (who by the way, at one point nearly totalled Vettel after the German stormed out of the pits, lost control and lay helpless in the middle of the circuit momentarily), the Spaniard eventually finishing 13th behind team-mate Jenson Button.Hamilton though, was in a class of his own all afternoon, on home turf, and now just one point behind championship leader Rosberg following his post-race penalty. "Well I was very, very, very comfortable at the front and there was never a point where I felt like I was under [pressure]," he said afterwards. "I was just watching the times of the guys behind and every time they stepped it up I was able to answer and had more, so in those conditions you don"t want to go too early and risk it so it"s better to wait an extra lap or so. There"s no advantage. There"s more risk than there is advantage by going a lap or two earlier, so that"s what we did on the inters, made them last as long as possible and there was no real rush to come in," he added. His celebrations were suitably fitting: with Silverstone going nuts at every single move he made, Hamilton decided to address the crowd personally once he"d received his trophy with a spot of crowd-surfing to a rapturous reception. This really is Hamilton"s home.It was a star-studded event trackside too, with the likes of Sir Patrick Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Frank Bruno, John Surtees and TG"s good friend Anthony Joshua all watching on. Reckon Hamilton"s got the momentum going into the rest of the season?
Date written: 10 Jul 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 4218
