It was the weekend of Lewis Hamilton, as he managed to top every session in the weekend and it was his race to win. The classic Silverstone circuit was the scene for the British Grand Prix, following last weekend’s Austria Grand Prix. The circuit will also be hosting a two day test in the days that follow the Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton started the weekend on the top of the leaderboards, as he topped both sessions on Friday. Nico Rosberg was the runner up in the first free practice session by only 0.033 seconds to his teammate. Sebastian Vettel reported gearbox issues near the end of the session.. Charles Leclerc make his Formula One practice debut for Haas. Rosberg was unable to complete any laps in the second free practice session, as an issue kept the car locked in the garage for repairs, allowing Red Bull to finish behind Hamilton at the end of the session.
Saturday was another day dominated by Hamilton, as he topped the final free practice session and qualified for pole position. Marcus Ericsson was the story of the third free practice session, bringing out the red flag and being transferred to the hospital for medical checks following a massive crash near the end of the session. Sebastian Vettel again reported gearbox issues near the end of the session and the team was forced to change the gearbox and take a grid penalty. No one could get within a second of the pole position set by Lewis Hamilton. The pole sitter had some issues getting his Q3 times posted to the board, as they were discarded for exceeding track limits. The qualifying order was Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari respectively, although Sebastian Vettel dropped lower on the grid after his gearbox change penalty was applied.
With some rain falling before the start of the race, it was started behind the safety car. After five laps, the race was started, as many teams dove into the pits to change off of the full wet tyres. Both Manor cars took a spin early on in the race and Valtteri Bottas soon followed, losing a lot of a positions. Jolyon Palmer had some issues in the pits, as he drove away with a right-rear tyre being attached, resulting in a ten-second stop and go penalty for unsafe release. Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to go onto the slick tyres and he spun on the water remaining in turn one shortly after. Romain Grosjean pulled over just short of 20 laps into the race and his race was over. Fernando Alonso took a big spin in turn one, almost hitting the barriers. This led to a battle between the Spaniard and Bottas. Bottas ran wide a few corners later when he hit standing water and allowing Felipe Nasr to challenge for Bottas’ position and overtake him. Carlos Sainz also spun because of water. Rio Haryanto also spun into the gravel, joining his teammate in the garage. Shortly after half way through the race, the top three drivers closed the gap on each other when Hamilton and Verstappen both ran wide due to water in turn one. Verstappen was very close to Rosberg, but wasn’t able to get by and remains on the bottom step of the podium, as Hamilton takes is fourth race victory at Silverstone.
The teams will remain at Silverstone for the two day testing session that will begin on Tuesday at the circuit. After that, the teams will travel to the Hungaroring on the weekend of July 24 for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
