Lewis Hamilton equaled Mansell’s record by winning his fourth Grand Prix in the historic Silverstone circuit in a difficult wet track today. Overjoyed Hamilton acknowledged the ecstatic crowd by waving at them as he covered the full circuit after he crossed the chequered flag.
Lewis Hamilton maintained lead from the start and was never in a position where his pole position was threatened. Shower at the outset of the race that had filled the track with water prompted the safety car to be deployed for the initial five laps. This worked out as an advantage for Hamilton since cars are not allowed to overtake while following the safety car.
Afterwards, Hamilton demonstrated some flawless driving in all the three type of tires he used: wet, intermediate and medium. Save on one occasion where Hamilton’s car swerved away from the track in lap 28 due to a patch of wet surface, he had complete control of his car all throughout the race. It was an incredible feat considering that four drivers : Palmer, Grosjean, Haryanto and Wehrlien- who were out of the race and several drivers such as Alonso , Raikkonen, all of them had their cars going out of control due to the wet surface.
Hamilton, in such challenging conditions, however, preserved his characteristic cool and had widened the gap to around 10 seconds from Rosberg, behind him, with couple of laps left to go, and finally finishing first.
It was a bad day for Rosberg. He gave his best by clocking fastest in all the three sectors of the 5.08 meter long circuit, never losing control of the car and even managed to snatch the second position from Verstappen in lap 38 by going on the outside. It was one of the best moments this race. Max Verstappen had overtaken him in lap 16.
Even after finishing second Rosberg faced penalty for his communication with his team who advised him not to use the seventh gear. According to FIA rules no information unless it is of safety nature can be communicated to the driver. Following investigation he was penalized for this, though it was mistake on the part of the Mercedes team.
Rosberg was visibly upset after the conclusion of the race and the press ceremony. Raikkonen ended his race in fifth position behind Ricciardo who was once again outpaced by his teammate Verstappen.
Force India had a good outing with their drivers Perez and Hulkenberg finishing 6th and 7th respectively. Vettel could not take advantage of his fifth grid starting position and finished ninth in the race.
Mostly drivers used the three pit-stop strategy, initially running on wet tires they switched to intermediate and finally to medium tires at the later part of the race. In the race it was difficult to overtake from the inside where there were wet patches.
Moreover, mist of water clouds from the cars ahead obscured the vision of the drivers. Despite difficult conditions, the race did not witness any major accident.
Hamilton has closed down the gap to only one point from the leader, Rosberg. Verstappen with 90 points is looking to topple Vettel who is at fifth position in drivers’ standings with 98 points. Next race would be in Hungary from 22nd to 24th July.
