Hamilton thrills home fans

An incredible 140,000 spectators, the most since Nigel Mansell was racing in his pomp in 1992, crammed into an overcast Silverstone to witness home favourite, Lewis Hamilton, burst through the clouds to deliver what the majority of fans at the English track had been hoping for.

By securing a thrilling victory, that was ultimately harder than his pole position suggested it might be, he became the first British driver to win from pole since Damon Hill in 1994 and the first to achieve back-to-back victories since David Coulthard in 2000.

By securing his third win at this iconic racing venue Hamilton moves to within two of the all-time record held by Jim Clark.

Perhaps more impressively he also claimed one of Formula 1’s longest-standing records. By holding the race lead for the 18th consecutive race he overtook Sir Jackie Stewart who set the record in 1970 after driving for Matra and Tyrrell.

Mercedes also became the first team to get two cars on the podium in nine successive races since Ferrari in 1953, albeit with only a four-car line-up!

The British Grand Prix, one of only two (alongside the Italian) to have been ever-present on the race calendar, served up a race as topsy-turvy as the weather with a series of racing decisions that would have better suited the card tables of Monaco.

Despite having a reputation for housing some of the greatest corners in racing, including the sweeping bends of Becketts and the super-fast Copse, these also make overtaking difficult.

Yet the race-start and the weather served up one of the most exciting events ever seen since Silverstone hosted the very first GP in 1950.

Felipe Massa shot from third on the grid as if his car had been prepared by NASA with teammate Valterri Bottas close behind, meaning that Lewis Hamilton had been beaten into the first corner from pole position for the second race running.
 
It was only some nerve-wracking wheel-to-wheel action in the next couple of bends that saw him retain second. He did, however, relinquish that position immediately after the withdrawal of the safety car as he ‘overcooked’ a dash for first and ran wide.

This led to one of the more intriguing phases in the race as Bottas tried to pass Massa, having initially been instructed not to by his team, while Hamilton looked for an opening. 

While he could not find a way past on the track, he did in the pits, coming in one lap earlier than Williams with his first ‘clean air’ lap resulting in the lead. From that moment the possibility of Williams securing a first home win since 1997 seemed a remote possibility.

During the first rainfall those who ‘twisted’ and came in for the intermediate tyres, better suited to wet track conditions, lost out as the clouds quickly came and went.
 
Kimi Raikkonen, about to be passed by his teammate, Sebastien Vettel, came in – to his own cost. As the heavy rain did not materialise he was left with slower tyres that quickly overheated without the rain to cool them, meaning that he started to lose approximately five seconds per lap. Fernando Alonso was another to pit for intermediates although he managed to make them work well enough to secure McLaren another point this season.

During a weekend in which fans were discussing the decision by the FIA to entrust the drivers with more control over their decisions, the slippery surface also lent weight to one of Bernie Ecclestone’s recent suggestions to introduce sprinklers to every circuit, adding unpredictability to a race, albeit in a contrived fashion!

It was 50 years ago that British drivers achieved the top five positions (Jim Clark led Graham Hill and John Surtees onto the podium) in an era that resulted in many of today’s teams being based within the vicinity of this Northamptonshire circuit with several receiving calls from their nearby factories warning of impending rain.
 
As the field changed position behind him, Hamilton was nearly left ruing an earlier decision not to extend his advantage while leading the race while Rosberg was stuck in fourth behind the two Williams. 

He decided not to push too hard with the aim of simply finishing the race and driving conservatively yet as the light rain fell and Rosberg started to close at nearly two seconds per lap, Hamilton’s earlier decision looked as though it would come back to haunt him.

However, the second time the rain came those who pitted first were by far the better off. Lewis Hamilton made the gamble to pit having felt the rain start again and later referred to his decision as ‘gold-dust’. While Rosberg sailed down the main straight he found too much water on the track and quickly lost position as he slithered around the circuit leaving Hamilton, a master in wet conditions, to make history under Silverstone’s rainbows.

Earlier there had even been the opportunity for Mercedes to bluff as they faked a pit-stop in the hope that they could entice the Williams cars into making a tyre-change of their own although this historic racing team showed too much experience to fall for the move.

As Silverstone celebrated the 60th anniversary of Sterling Moss becoming the first British driver to win a home grand prix as he beat teammate Juan Manuel Fangio by a matter of yards in the outskirts of Liverpool (Aintree), Hamilton’s win made it 23 British victories in total – a fitting finale!