Hamilton charges to Silverstone win

LewisHamilton took a brilliant victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone today in front of a wonderfully enthusiastic crowd.

As I write I'm currently sitting on the grass just beside Copse corner having witnessed a fantastic race that was made even better by the race winner being from the country the race was held.

The atmosphere was electric, something you cannot experience when just at home.  I urge anyone who hasn't attended a Grand Prix to do so, it is genuinely a great experience. Let me tell you now, no one cared about the noise, it's not noticeable after a few laps.

Of course it helps if the race is a cracker and this one was and also a possible game changer in the championship. With Lewis winning and Nico Rosberg suffering his first retirement of the year, the points gap is down to just four in Rosberg's favour.

Rosberg led away from pole position as Hamilton, having made another hash of qualifying charged up to fourth from sixth. Barely halfway round the opening lap, the safety car was called out and then the race stopped for a horrible accident involving Kimi Raikkonen. 

Kimi went wide on to the Wellington straight and then it just got away from him and he went smashing into the barrier and back across the track to attempt to wreck the other side. Felipe Massa in his 200th Grand Prix , had made a terrible start from his lowly grid position, saw him late and spun to avoid the out of control Ferrari.

Unfortunately for the Brazilian he tapped Kimi's car, the resulting damage meant both did not take the restart an hour later as the barrier was repaired. 

Rosberg led away again stretching a gap ahead of the two McLaren's of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen. Lewis though began his charge immediately, cutting inside Magnussen at Copse and passing Jenson not long after. Immediately he set about closing the not insubstantial gap to Rosberg cheered on by the partisan crowd. Every lap they roared him on in his pursuit.

Rosberg pitted first, Lewis a few laps later, but had a slow stop. He began the chase again, destroying the gap to Rosberg. But as an awesome fight looked about to commence once again between the Mercedes team mates, Rosberg slowed and Lewis was through.

Nico pulled off the track and such was the pace of the Mercedes cars today, Lewis even had time to make a second stop 10 laps from home. He romped to victory, the roar of the crowd echoeing around the circuit.

I think he'd have had Rosberg today even if the German hadn't retired. It was probably due though after the retirements Lewis has had this year. Four points the difference, it's all to race for.

Lewis will be looking to push home this momentum and upset Rosberg at his home Grand Prix in Germany. It's game on again in this thrilling season.

Behind Valtteri Bottas excelled for Williams after being knocked out in Q1 on Saturday. On Sunday he inherited the title of flying Finn, charging through the field he gradually picked off the Red Bulls, and then the McLaren's and once Rosberg was out was in a lonely second place for a lot of the race. 

It was a truly starring role and belied the doubters who thought Williams wouldn't be strong at a track where good aero and downforce were things to have.

Daniel Ricciardo made his tyres last without a second stop to finish third unlike his Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel. Vettel made a poor start and then after the restart he was in the battle with Bottas and the McLaren's.

However as most others made only one stop it put Vettel out of position as he came out just ahead of Fernando Alonso, who had been given a five second penalty for over shooting his grid slot. What was to follow was an epic fight only resolved in the closing laps.

Alonso nailed him into Copse as Bettel was on cold tyres. Once those were heated up the Red Bull was all over the Ferrari, Alonso having to use all his nous in defence of what was only fifth place. There's a bit of needle between these two, so this battle was intense between these two world champions.

Vettel eventually cut underneath Alonso into luffield through the tightest of gaps, they ran alongside each other down the following straight but Alonso had to surrender into Copse, something he wouldn't have liked at all being the fighter he is. Great skill from both if them.

They finished fifth and sixth behind Button in fourth who drove a strong race and was only eight tenths off stealing Ricciardo's podium. It was a strong day for McLaren as Magnussen ended up seventh.

Hulkenberg started fourth but fell to eighth while the Toro Rosso's made poor starts but battled back to ninth and tenth with Daniil Kvyat ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne. 

Jules Bianchi deserves a mention for keeping his Marussia ahead of a train of cars for a long time after starting an incredible 12th in the mixed condition qualifying. His team mate Max Chilton deserves a mention for getting a stop/go yet still charging down the Caterham's which delighted the British supporters.

The crowd however weren't just supporting the Brits, they supported the racing, and there were lots if battles to get excited about raging all down the field.

It was a shame that we didn't get the intense battle for the lead we surely would have had, but it doesn't take away from a great drive by Hamilton. The championship lead is back within his grasp and what better place to take it than at the next race in Germany, Rosberg's home race.

But make no mistake, Rosberg will be determined to give his home fans the victory Lewis gave his.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

British Grand Prix Forecast

Andy Murray’s been knocked out of Wimbledon, the England Football team were long since knocked out the world cup, ok Chris Froome has a distinct possibility of doubling up his Tour de France win, but if you want almost guaranteed British success then look no further than the British Grand Prix.

I’m not just talking about the high probability that Lewis Hamilton will triumph or at least be fighting for victory, but his team Mercedes may be racing under the German flag, but as with seven other teams, they are based in Britain. Not enough is made of the success story that is British motorsport.

It’s a good time to highlight it as it is the 50^th Anniversary of Silverstone’s hosting of the British Grand Prix. Among the events going on will be demonstrations of old cars that have raced around this famous track which has changed so much over the years yet always remains familiar. Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jackie Stewart amongst others are all taking to the track in various cars over the weekend in celebration of a great venue.

One of the major people taking to the track is Susie Wolff for Williams. She will be driving in first practice on Friday morning as she becomes the first female to take part in an official Formula 1 session since Giovanna Amati in 1992. Wolff is the team’s test and development driver and took part in the young driver test at Silverstone last year as well as the test after the Spanish Grand Prix.

She lapped competitively and so it’ll be very interesting to see how she goes up against the regular drivers of at Williams and the rest of the grid. She has hopes to gain a race seat one day but at 31 maybe that time has already passed her? Then again Damon Hill didn’t make it to Formula 1 until he was 32 and he didn’t do too badly. There’s a lot more to be written about women in Formula 1 but that’s for another day.

Wolff may well have to contend with some pretty appalling conditions as rain is forecast for Friday. Saturday is little better while race day is clear and fine, although other weather services say there is a chance of rain then too. There are two DRS zones, one on the hanger straight and the other on the Wellington straight, separated by about half the track. Pirelli have brought the Hard and Medium compound. Medium should provide decent grip while the hard might last well but not give up much grip, depending on how well a car works the tyres and the temperature.

The British Grand Prix is almost the halfway point of the championship and after looking invincible in the early races it is only now that the dominant package of Formula 1 is beginning to show signs of vulnerability. Mercedes have suffered problems in the last two races, it says a lot about their advantage that they still got a 1-2 and a second place out of it. Nevertheless it’s still encouragement for their rivals to perhaps sneak an opportunity.

A lot of their problems seem to have come from overheating which has then affected the brakes, particularly on Hamilton’s car. But Silverstone isn’t a track to cause the brakes too much concern, so Mercedes may have a trouble free weekend, and if anyone needs that it’s Lewis Hamilton. He’s suffered a few problems over the last couple of races, some of which were his mistakes, but generally it’s been the car.

Hopefully he can have a clean weekend. I expect the Mercedes team to return to a front row lock out this weekend and have victory once more. Last year Lewis was much quicker than team mate Nico Rosberg and he’ll definitely want to be in that position again as he fights to close that 29 point gap in the championship. Hopefully for Lewis he won’t be suffering any tyre blow outs like 2013 which cost him the race leaving Rosberg to mop up the victory after Sebastian Vettel also retired. He can’t afford any more retirements and what better place to launch a comeback than his home Grand Prix.

I think Red Bull will replace Williams as Mercedes’ main challengers this weekend. The previous two races have suited Williams. They are extremely quick in a straight line thanks to their Mercedes power unit and slippery nature of their car; they can handle the slow corners but when it comes to the faster turns they don’t have enough down force to cope. Silverstone is full of medium and fast corners, so I expect Williams to fall back slightly although they’ll still be competitive, but maybe not race winning speed like they were in Austria.

Red Bull has a great car sadly let down by their Renault power unit. On a track like Silverstone they should be back to being the main challengers. Daniel Ricciardo has tasted victory and was clearly a little disappointed to then be fighting for eighth place at the very next race. This weekend should see him back up fighting for the podiums and if there is a sprinkling of rain you never know… He will definitely be the one to take advantage should Mercedes slip up again.

Vettel would like to get in the way of that, but at the moment he just doesn’t seem to have an answer for Ricciardo. Once Red Bull sort the car out to his liking then he should be back where he belongs, but other drivers might have compensated around the problems. It would be nice if he just had a clean weekend, for more than anyone apart from the Lotus drivers he has suffered with reliability. Vettel has gone well at Silverstone before so maybe he’ll get one over on Ricciardo but having said that this is where Ricciardo convinced Red Bull to hire him in the young driver test last year. His pace and consistency were very favourable when compared to Vettel.

Fernando Alonso isn’t looking forward to the race, last time they raced on the hard tyre in Spain he was lapped. I think Ferrari have given up on this year already which means Alonso is staring at a winless campaign for the first time since 2009. I hope his motivation continues to be high as his current performances continue to impress, but he should be fighting for wins. Let’s also see if Kimi Raikkonen can finally get to grips with this years cars.

Caterham have been sold to a Swiss consortium advised by former HRT boss Colin Kolles. We won’t see an immediate improvement but hopefully this group will inject some cash into the team and they can join Marussia as point scorers too.

Keep an eye out for Force India too especially as the rivalry between Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg begins to heat up. Nico in particular seems like he’s becoming frustrated with the performance of Perez over the last few races when he’s been outraced fairly comprehensively. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat continues to be the rookie of the year. He may have retired in the last three races but when he’s still showing great qualifying pace to line up seventh in Austria, you know he’s still one to watch.

Lotus were getting better up until the similar tracks of Canada and Austria so let’s see if they return to a more competitive state too. McLaren have been promising much for a while now then not delivering. I don’t think Jenson Button will be challenging for much more than a few points but the crowd looks set to be turned pink in tribute to his late father penchant for wearing pink shirts.

Hamilton will certainly be challenging for more than a few points, it has to be this weekend when he starts bring the points gap down to Rosberg, the championship is still very open, but another result for Rosberg and Lewis could find it very hard to mount a comeback. So where better place to start a charge than at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Silverstone 50: The Best British Grand Prix

It’s that time of year, Wimbledon is into its second week, a major Football tournament is going on, Tour de France is about to start, so it must mean the British Grand Prix is on its way. It has such a great atmosphere come rain or shine, or actually usually bits of sun and very windy! The crowd is enthusiastic and friendly, the racing is usually pretty decent, the Grandstands and general admission mostly give a good view of the track and the weather always gives it that air of unpredictability.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend several Grand Prix at Silverstone since 1995, many of them have been exceptional races, so as this year it is a celebration of Silverstone’s 50^th Grand Prix I’m going to give my five best races that I’ve attended. Just so you know I’m not deliberately leaving races out which should be regarded as classics so here’s the years I’ve attended; 1995, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2003, 04, 07, 10, 11, 12.

There’s a few good races I’ve left out, but here’s my five that were the best to me at least.

2004

It wasn’t the best race in the world, but it was a decent one. As a Schumacher fan back then I enjoyed it immensely, mainly because it was an uncontroversial win and he just drove the car hard all the way to the flag despite some intense Kimi Raikkonen pressure.

Schumacher started fourth on a full tank of fuel. Back then you qualified with your race fuel load, his had been more than anyone’s. At the start he circulated in fourth just behind the pole sitting Kimi, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. As one by one they came into the pits, Schuey was released and put the hammer down. You could see just how hard he was pushing. He exited the pits in the lead. But it wasn’t the end, a late safety car put Kimi back onto him, and he harried Schuey to the flag.

It was a year Schumacher won pretty much everything, he was in the middle of a seven race winning streak, I’d have felt a bit cheated if he hadn’t managed Silverstone too!

2010

‘Not bad for a number 2 driver’. Yes, I thought about whether to put this or 2012 in, but I preferred this one. Mark Webber had suffered in qualifying after having his newer front wing taken off his car and given to his team mate Sebastian Vettel.

At the start Webber charged ahead of Vettel forcing him wide. Lewis Hamilton made minor contact with Vettel giving the German a puncture. He fell to the back of the field and was only three seconds ahead of Webber on the road before a safety car allowed him to catch the back of the pack.

What followed was a fantastic charge through the pack to end up seventh, with some particularly forceful moves going on. At the front Webber held off Hamilton by just over a second as they fought to the flag. But it was the way Webber battled against the suggested favouritism that Red Bull showed Vettel. It was a stirring drive full of Aussie Grit and a satisfying riposte to the events of the previous day.

1995

We were at the height of the Schumacher and Damon Hill rivalry here. Hill lead away from pole position while Schumacher fell to third behind Jean Alesi. Hill tore away from Alesi but was on a two stop strategy. While everyone came into the pits, Schumacher marched on until half distance and took the lead when Hill made his second stop. Hill quickly caught Schumacher and attacked him for several laps, the tension was immense. It ended when Hill dived for a gap that was always going to close taking them both off.

Behind, the Benetton and Williams battle continued as David Coulthard fought with Johnny Herbert, a penalty dropped Coulthard out of contention, and it was a popular first win for Herbert at his home Grand Prix.

Right in front of me though was a spectacular accident between Mark Blundell and Rubens Barrichello on the last lap as they battled for fifth, which ended the race in a lively fashion.

1998

Rain, lots of rain. It’s always fantastic to see Formula 1 cars in the wet even if the weather conditions don’t exactly make it the most comfortable viewing conditions. Sitting on the top of the hill by Club corner, we had a spectacular view as the drivers strove to keep the cars on the track, their hands dancing on the steering wheel.

Mika Hakkinen lead at the start, but spun off allowing Schumacher to take the lead. He edged away but was handed a stop go penalty for overtaking under yellows. He attacked to pull out a gap, but Ferrari were smart and pulled Schumacher in to the pits to serve his penalty on the last lap. He crossed the line to win before taking his penalty. It was in the rules and this crazy win was allowed.

But what really makes this special is the ability of these drivers controlling 800bhp cars in pouring rain. It was incredible.

2003

Rubens Barrichello won a dramatic race which had so many drivers out of position due to an early safety car as a mad catholic priest ran out on to the track. The two Toyota’s of Olivier Panis and Christiano da Matta lead for a long time as the big guns tried to fight back through the field.

It was Rubens day though, his passing was incisive and fast and he rose to the front of the field brilliantly to lead from Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya. Schumacher had got back up to fourth but it was his Ferrari team mate who stole the day with a fantastic performance.

There was action all the way down the field, not a single driver was left to race on his own as the entire grid put on a show to remember.

all photo's taken from autosport.com apart from 1995 GP taken from grandprix247.com