The Good – Lap 43: Perfect Call

Lewis Hamilton won a sensationally action packed British Grand Prix, a race which highlighted all that is good about F1. After being overtaken by both Williams off the line Hamilton stuck with them until he performed the undercut and took lead of the race. Nevertheless when with the changing conditions and fresh tyres Rosberg was switched on, Rosberg overtook both Williams and was chasing Hamilton. Hamilton’s call to pit on lap 43 changed the tide and ultimately gave him victory. It was a superb call that could not have been timed any better. With Rosberg catching at two seconds per lap he would have caught and passed Hamilton on Lap 44, this would have handed Rosberg pit priority if the rain came, thus effectively handing him the win. Aware of the oncoming Rosberg and the ominous back clouds over the Hanger straight Hamilton, rather than being passed by Rosberg, made the call to pit. Almost as soon as the tyres were on his car the heavens opened and it was the perfect call at the perfect time. This allowed him to extend his lead over Rosberg and no one could catch Hamilton then.

Hamilton Quote: “For the first time in my whole F1 career, I made the perfectly right choice in coming in. I could see the rain was coming and I’ve never had that before.”

The Bad – Williams

The start from the Williams drivers was absolutely incredible, overtaking both Mercedes drivers before turn one and capitalizing on their wheel-spin. Ultimately for twenty laps a Williams one-two was entirely possible however, after such a fantastic start their three-four on the grid and one-two opening twenty laps returned a disappointing four-five placed finished when the chequered flag waved. This was a bad result for the team – especially to let Vettel perform an undercut and take third place on the podium. Massa’s electric start placed him first at turn one however the race pace of Valtteri Bottas was clearly superior, this called for the Williams pit-wall to enforce a ‘no racing’ label on the battle and, with Bottas unable to pass, drew Hamilton to the Williams cars. Hamilton would go on to perform the undercut and win the race. Rosberg would also pass both Williams’ on track and when Vettel took third out from under their noses, a day full of promise at turn one on the first lap ended with the, underperforming in the wet, Williams with a P4 and P5 result.

Rob Smedley Quote: “We want to come here and race and win and to get both cars on the podium. It hasn’t happened and so therefore of course, as we are all racers, we are all disappointed. We come here because we want to win.”

The Ugly – Turn 3, Lap 1

Although there was no further action taken on any drives after the ugly collision at turn three on lap one, it still didn’t look pretty. The collision, caused when Daniel Ricciardo, occurred when the Red Bull driver made contact with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean as Ricciardo attempted a dive down the inside. The result was Grosjean being pushed into his teammate Pastor Maldonado, causing the Venezuelan to have a brief moment in the air. In an attempt to avoid the Lotus’ collision Alonso half-spun his McLaren, unfortunately this was into the left rear of his McLaren teammate Jenson Button and consequently ending the Britons race on lap one.

Alonso Quote: “So one McLaren out, both Lotuses out. There definitely was no common sense at that corner.”