Britain gp post race Mercedes and Pirelli again found themselves in the spotlight at Silverstone on Sunday, but this time for very differing reasons. As Nico Rosberg confidently secured his second win of 2013, team mate and polesitter Lewis Hamilton was robbed of potential victory by a high-speed, left-rear tyre failure. With three more drivers suffering the same fate before the afternoon was out, drivers, teams and FIA alike are now eagerly awaiting news from Pirelli’s investigation into the cause of the incidents. We take a team-by-team look back at a dramatic British Grand Prix… Mercedes Nico Rosberg, P1 Lewis Hamilton, P4 Mercedes’ second win of the season indicated that they have got their tyre degradation issues under control, though the team’s executive director Toto Wolff admitted that it would be marginal if the ambient temperature went much above 22 degrees Celsius. Hamilton had the race in the bag before his tyre failure, and after that Rosberg kept Vettel honest until the Red Bull quit. He said he didn’t think he could have passed it, but Mercedes had every reason to be pleased with the W04’s performance. Hamilton’s recovery was remarkable, albeit aided by the safety cars, and the combined score of 37 points moved them into second place ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings. Altogether, not a bad afternoon, the disappointment for Hamilton notwithstanding. Red Bull Mark Webber, P2 Sebastian Vettel, Retired lap 42, gearbox Red Bull had a tough race, even after Vettel got the jump on Rosberg at the start to run second to Hamilton. That became the lead when the Englishman suffered his left-rear tyre failure, and he seemed able to maintain a small but critical 2s advantage over Rosberg until a glitch in the gearbox electronics damaged the box and brought him to a halt after 41 laps. Webber, meanwhile, had made an awful start after yet another of those odd glitches that only he seems to suffer, and then had his front wing damaged in a collision with Grosjean in Turn One. But he managed to fight back and, aided by the safety cars, got himself into contention for the win. With another lap the outcome might have been different, but second place on his last appearance in Britain as an F1 driver was a great result. Ferrari Fernando Alonso, P3 Felipe Massa, P6 Third and sixth could be counted as a huge result for Ferrari, who needed a large slice of luck to achieve that as both F138s lacked the pace that had been expected of them. Alonso made a terrible start and just avoided damage in the first corner, then fought back, lost many places behind the safety car, and fought back again to take the final podium position with a champion’s drive. He was lucky that his own imminent rear tyre failure occurred as he was coming into the pits, and then to avoid Perez by a hair as the Mexican suffered a puncture. Massa by contrast made a fabulous start from 11th to fifth, but later had his rear tyre failure and spent the rest of the race in an excellent recovery drive. Despite their finishes, however, Ferrari have fallen to third place behind Red Bull and Mercedes. Lotus Kimi Raikkonen, P5 Romain Grosjean, Retired lap 52, handling Lotus missed their chance of second place when they kept Raikkonen out as the second safety car was deployed, and on his worn rubber the Finn was powerless to fend off Webber, Alonso and Hamilton. Grosjean suffered front wing damage which destabilised his car and led to its eventual withdrawal. Force India Adrian Sutil, P7 Paul di Resta, P9 Sutil made a superb start and was always in the thick of the fight for points. Staying out on worn rubber cost him hugely in the closing stages, however, dropping him to seventh. Di Resta tried the same hard-tyre run that had brought him into the points in Canada, and though he had what he described as a scrappy race, he achieved a similar result after his qualifying dramas had obliged him to start from the back rather than from fifth place. Toro Rosso Daniel Ricciardo, P8 Jean-Eric Vergne, Retired lap 36, puncture damage Silverstone promised so much for Toro Rosso, so eighth for Ricciardo had to count as a disappointment. Like Sutil, he was always in the fight for points, but he also suffered by staying on worn rubber and dropped back in the closing stages. Vergne was one of the unlucky ones to suffer a dramatic left-rear tyre failure on the 300 km/h approach to Stowe, and the resultant damage eventually obliged the team to withdraw his STR8. Sauber Nico Hulkenberg, P10 Esteban Gutierrez, P14 Hulkenberg’s opportunism in the closing stages won Sauber the final point in a race in which the C32 continued to struggle. Unseen on camera, Gutierrez suffered a front-left tyre problem approaching Stowe, which kept him out of the battle. Williams Pastor Maldonado, P11 Valtteri Bottas, P12 Amid their 600th Grand Prix celebrations, Williams came so close to scoring their first point of the season, but Maldonado just didn’t have the performance to challenge Hulkenberg’s Sauber. McLaren Jenson Button, P13 Sergio Perez, Retired lap 47, puncture damage McLaren had another bitterly disappointing race, though Perez and Button were at times in the mix for points. The Mexican was the fourth man to suffer an explosive left-rear tyre failure, however, while fighting for sixth, and that led to his retirement. Button was left a sitting duck in the closing stages as his worn tyres prevented him from hanging on to seventh place. Caterham Charles Pic, P15 Giedo van der Garde, P18 Pic carried his qualifying speed into the race and comfortably outpaced Marussia’s Bianchi, and was even in with a chance of fighting the Williamses in the closing lap before tyre degradation proved decisive. Van der Garde was unable to stay ahead of Chilton after passing him early in the race, as he lost time with the safety cars. He crossed the line a fraction behind the Briton after a strong, clean fight. Marussia Jules Bianchi, P16 Max Chilton, P17 Bianchi had no answer to Caterham’s Pic, bit Chilton managed to repass Van der Garde after the Dutchman had overtaken him early on. He kept his cool and led him home by a tenth of a second, despite running old rubber while Van der Garde’s tyres were fresher.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:42:41 +0000
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