It was a busy week for the Formula One drivers this week, with the London F1 event taking place on Wednesday, just a few days after the Austrian Grand Prix. This weekend the drivers were in the UK for the famous race at Silverstone, the 2017 FORMULA 1 ROLEX BRITISH GRAND PRIX.
As the weekend started, all eyes were on Ferrari and Mercedes to see who would have the edge heading into the penultimate race before the summer break. Mercedes had the clear advantage in free practice one, with duo finishing less than a tenth of a second apart from each other, but nearly half a second ahead of the pursuing Red Bulls. Ferrari ranked lower than the Red Bull, as they concluded the top six. There were no big incidents during the session, although the talk point from the session was the track debut of the new “Shield” head protection system set to enter Formula One fulltime in 2018.
The second free practice session was relatively the same for the Mercedes drivers, with Valtteri Bottas leading the way again. Lewis Hamilton was close behind, less than five hundredths of a second behind. Ferrari was able to make some progress, having managed to outperform the Red Bull cars and close the gap to the Mercedes in front to under half a second. Kimi Räikkönen continued to lead the Ferrari teammates, while Max Verstappen did the same at Red Bull.
The final free practice session was impacted by rain, which arrived at the circuit just after the halfway point in the session. By the end of the session, Hamilton was able to take the lead of the session, with Sebastian Vettel closely behind. Bottas completed the top three, who were all within 0.074 of the pace set by Hamilton. Räikkönen finished in P4, with Nico Hülkenberg making a surprise appearance in the top five and Red Bull falling further down the order.
Qualifying was fairly routine, with Hamilton having led all of the dry qualifying sessions to earn another pole position at his home grand prix, matching Jim Clark’s record. Q1 was held in damp conditions, but it began to clear for the start of Q2. The drama of the session was Daniel Ricciardo’s mechanical failure in Q1, forcing him to start from the back of the grid on Sunday. Fernando Alonso’s ability to lead Q1 was another shock in the session. Räikkönen earned a position alongside Hamilton for the race on Sunday, with Vettel, Verstappen, Hülkenberg and Pérez making up the first three rows of the grid. Bottas qualified P4 on the grid, but dropped five grid places for a gearbox change earlier in the weekend. He wasn’t the only driver to have a grid penalty, with Fernando Alonso taking his usual assortment of penalties for a power unit change.
Two formation laps were held on Sunday, as Jolyon Palmer suffered a hydraulic failure on the first one. Off of the grid, Vettel had a slow start, allowing Verstappen to get by. While trying to make a move on Räikkönen into turn one, Verstappen was blocked, which allowed Vettel to get by again. That didn’t stop Verstappen from battling wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari and eventually taking the position. The Toro Rosso teammates collided on the first lap, with Daniil Kvyat running wide and then slamming into Carlos Sainz. This incident warranted the safety car and earned Kvyat a drive through penalty.
Ten laps after the safety car, Vettel and Verstappen were fighting for position. Vettel made a move up the inside, pushing Verstappen wide. The Red Bull driver returned the favour into the chicane, forcing Vettel wide. While all of this was happening, Bottas was able to join onto the back of the battle, falling just short of DRS range. Vettel was the first of the leaders to making his pit stop, entering on lap 19. Red Bull responded to Vettel’s undercut attempt, pitting Verstappen the following lap. Verstappen had a slightly slower pit stop than expected, allowing Vettel to jump him in the pit lane. Räikkönen made his pits stop some time after, coming out behind Bottas. Meanwhile Hamilton was able to maintain the lead when he pitted for new rubber.
The race saw a repeat of the situation from Canada involving the Force India drivers, but in reverse order. The slower Esteban Ocon was leading the faster Sergio Pérez, putting their points in jeopardy, as the Felipe Massa was rapidly closing the gap. Meanwhile, after a lot of hard work, Bottas was able to get by Vettel and limit the German Ferrari driver’s World Drivers’ Championship lead. A little further back, Hülkenberg began to struggle with mechanical issues, with Ricciardo in close pursuit. Further ahead, it was disaster for Räikkönen, as he suffered a puncture with just two laps remaining in the race. However, the disaster wasn’t over for Ferrari, with Vettel suffering a tyre puncture a lap later, decreasing his World Drivers’ Championship lead to just a single point.
With this back to back weekend over, the teams will use the next two weeks to recover. The drivers and teams will be heading to Hungary at the end of the month for the final grand prix before the summer break. The Hungarian Grand Prix will be held on the weekend of July 30.
