Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton secured victory on the Silverstone track in England, while his teammate was left on the curb with a broken gearbox. On the other hand, Daniil Kvyat was able to score points this time!
The FIA World Motor Sport Council have approved changes to the regulations for the 2015 season, however, they were not to everyone’s liking. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) was among the first to express his discontent: “I don’t like the idea of standing restarts — I would have cancelled this decision, if I could. As far as I know, the majority of drivers are against this innovation. I shall give more experienced drivers the floor to speak, but in my opinion it was not a good idea”. However, not everyone is concerned with the new regulations at the moment.
One of the most popular topics of discussion is signing contracts for the next year as the season has come to its mid-point. The current situation is much more important for some of the drivers, like, for instance, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari). His team is going through major changes right now, there are new staff members, a new chief and even the engine boss was fired. Therefore, Alonso is busy thinking about scoring some points this season: “I'm not thinking too much on longer term because there are bigger priorities at the moment. I want to help the team and I want to score as many points as possible. We need maximum effort, and maximum concentration and team work to improve the car for next year. The future after 2016 is something that at the moment is not the main priority, but we will try to see what is the best solution”.
The major rivalry of this season unfolds inside the Mercedes team — Lewis Hamilton’s gap to teammate Nico Rosberg is now 29 points with almost half the 2014 season gone. However, everything might change. Four-time champion Alain Prost thinks that “any trifle could determine the fate of the rivalry”.
What concerns the Russian driver Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), looks like chances are against him, though nobody doubts his talent. During three previous Grand Prix, he qualified twice in top ten but, unfortunately, did not finish: “When looking back, I think I’ve gained a better insight into myself and my car, learnt a lot of new things, which is always beneficial in the course of the season. I think things are going well; however, I don’t have a feeling of approaching season’s mid-point. Anyway, we will do our best to achieve good results in remaining races”.
Well, the drivers were in a fighting mood for the British Grand Prix. The atmosphere on the track added to that mood as during the World War II this circuit (and at that time it was an airfield) was used as an Air Force bomber station and then later as aviators’ practice ground. Then came the time of racing drivers. Pilots replaced pilots.
First Formula 1 race was held here in 1950. There was a lot of hype around it. Moreover, the event was graced by the presence of King George VI. Track configuration has been changed several times. Right now, its length is 5,891 metres. The drivers will have to cover the distance of 52 laps.
In 2013, Mercedes pilots topped the timesheets in qualifying and occupied the first row on the grid. It’s a home track for Lewis Hamilton and even though he managed to outperform Rosberg by almost half a second in 2013 qualifying, Nico was still faster in the race.
Nico Rosberg: “Silverstone is another special one for me, as I managed to win there last season. It was actually very close to my birthday and I had a really cool experience after the race”.
Daniel Ricciardo: “Silverstone is great. It's just a great, great racing circuit. It's fast, it's flowing and you really get to rag your car for all it's worth. There's nowhere better at letting you know how very, very good an F1 car is than Silverstone”.
Daniil Kvyat: “I really like this track, with plenty of great sections… Track conditions, wind, it's England. It's a bit of a home race for me as I have a flat in Milton Keynes, which is where I spend most of my time. I won't stay at home for the race weekend though, as it's better if I can stay closer to the track. It means I won't have to cook my own breakfast and do my own laundry”.
During the previous Grand Prix in Austria FIA cancelled 14 lap results due to drivers going outside the track limits. Same rules apply to Silverstone. Sauber were penalised twice during the free practice sessions for speeding in the pit lane — Esteban Gutiérrez and Giedo van der Garde were too eager to go into action and could not restrain themselves from breaking the speed limit of 80 km/h.
Everyone expected it to rain during the free practice; however, the track was almost dry during the first one. And that was very tricky. Alonso and Ericsson went off the track; Button showed best lap time but was disqualified for taking all four wheels off the circuit. It started raining. In the end of the session, Sutil stopped on the gravel and yellow flags came out. It all repeated in the second session. Hamilton showed best lap time of 1:34.870.
It was raining during qualifying. Not all drivers left the pits and maybe that was not the right decision. Hamilton complained to engineers that the track was slippery and reduced the speed. However, the rain was over before long and the track was dry again. Nico Rosberg took pole in qualifying with the time of 1:35.766, Vettel (Red Bull) was second, then came Button (McLaren) and Hülkenberg (Force India).
Nico Rosberg: “Wow, what a qualifying. It was so tricky out there this afternoon with the rain and the conditions changing so quickly. With regards to the championship, it's good for me that Lewis is down in sixth. It will take him some time, I think, to come through, but I do expect him to come through quite quickly and very likely we will be fighting again”.
Jenson Button: “I’m happy like you could not believe. It’s only third but for us after the last 18 months, we had no chance of getting this result. It was a very special qualifying session in terms of the conditions, I felt that we read them very well, chose when to go out at the right time and got the tyres working in every lap that I did”.
Meanwhile, Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) was disqualified from the results of qualifying for being unable to supply a fuel sample.
Daniil Kvyat showed ninth time in qualifying — 1:40.707: “We were fighting for really high positions today, but then towards the end we made the decision not to go out anymore. At that time it seemed to be the right decision because it was hard to imagine that anyone would have improved times. But anyway, this is the way it is and in the end, P9 and P10 are good positions to start the race from. We will definitely fight hard tomorrow!”
Hamilton was in sackcloth and ashes having sixth starting position.
Time for the race. Rosberg kept the lead, Vettel lost a few positions, Hamilton broke through in fourth. Pérez (Force India) went off the track after a collision with Vergne (Toro Rosso). Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari went spinning on a straight section as he returned to the track over the grass. His car hit the barrier and spinned back to the track where it was hit by Massa.
The race was halted. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Kimi’s car. Fortunately, he was able to get out of the car on his own and the ambulance took the driver away.
Ferrari spokesman Renato Bisignani: «He got a bit hit but we all saw him get out of the car on his own which is a good sign. He has some bruises to his leg and is now in the medical centre. He is with the Ferrari doctor, his physio and the FIA delegate”.
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone: “Things like that generally happen at Silverstone. We are lucky no one got hurt. It’s the most important thing. It was a serious crash. Well, at least it will warp everyone from the problem with sound”.
Massa went to the pits; his car could not continue the race: “It was a bad start but after that I could catch up everyone and pass cars in the first few corners. The car felt great. Then there was the accident. Kimi came across the track and I never really had a chance to miss him, and sadly the damage was too much to continue. I hope Kimi is ok but it's a weekend to forget for me personally; not the 200th Grand Prix I had planned”.
But that was not all for dramatic events. Max Chilton (Marussia) took to the pit-lane creating a dangerous situation. Mechanics started working on his damaged race car, which ran into the debris. By the way, the driver was very lucky as during Kimi’s crash one of Ferrari’s stray tyres flew a few centimetres over his helmet.
The race was halted for one hour to carry out repairs to the barrier. After the restart, Rosberg kept the lead and had a 5.5 sec gap over Hamilton.
Next accident happened to Gutiérrez (Sauber) after a collision with Maldonado. As it usually happens to Pastor, photographers made excellent shots with his car flying off the ground. Esteban went off the track and left the race. This time it was Gutiérrez found guilty by stewards.
Pastor Maldonado: “There was contact from Esteban Gutierrez, the result of which I’m told looked spectacular, but in the car it was over very quickly and we kept on racing. We’re not sure if this added to the cause of my retirement, certainly the rear wing was moving about more than normal so we don’t know yet what other damage there was”.
Esteban Gutiérrez: “After the restart I was fighting with Pastor (Maldonado). When I tried to overtake him in turn 16 he braked and did not leave me enough space. I was already beside him and could not avoid a collision with him. I feel very sorry for the team, as this is not the way a race should end. However, we have to look forward to the next races.”
Ericsson (Caterham) also dropped out of the race. Alonso was given a five-second stop/go penalty for starting too far in front of his grid slot.
Rosberg complained to engineers about gearbox problems emerging when downshifting. Hamilton headed the pack, while Nico left his car stuck in sixth gear on the curb: “I could put up with losing the lead, letting Lewis through, however I still had a chance to score some points. But there was nothing I could do. The team were not able to find a solution how to save transmission”.
Bottas overtook Vettel and won back second position. Maldonado’s car stopped on the track a few laps before the finish with an exhaust problem.
Lewis Hamilton was the first to cross the finish line: “Obviously you never want to see a team mate fall behind. We wanted to really work and get those one-twos. But at the end of the day I really needed this result so I’m very grateful for it. Right now I’m only 4 points behind Nico in the overall standings”.
Bottas came second: “We knew that this race would be good fun. We knew we had a quick car and maybe it surprised us it was so quick. The first stint we went through the field fast and that needed a bit of risk. I am so happy for the team, they have worked on race pace and it shows. We were thinking about points today not the podium, and the strategy guys did a great job”.
Daniel Ricciardo was third: “This is the best third place I've ever got. I'm not normally ecstatic with a third but I really am today, obviously to redeem myself from yesterday and also the fact that I don’t think we had an awesome race car today, but we made it work”.
Daniil Kvyat has finally scored some points and taken ninth position: “This was a very intense race, especially towards the end when I was pushing to catch Hülkenberg. I was actually quicker than him and I was definitely getting very close, but unfortunately I was not able to pass him in the end. Overall, I am quite happy with this race weekend and I very much enjoyed driving this track with its high speed corners. And after having had a few difficult races, it is great to see that all the hard work has paid off and that we were able to get both cars into the points”.
Well, someone will have to get his own back in Germany, looking forward to the next race.
