Hamilton was emotional and ecstatic after his win and over yesterdays quali
Sun, Jul 7th 2014 – Britain’s Lewis Hamilton won his home Grand Prix for the second time in his career as team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg exited the race with gearbox trouble. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas took his second podium finish in a row with second place. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo finished third after switching to a nominal one-stop strategy late in a grand prix that was red-flagged for an hour due to an accident involving Kimi Raikkonen just after the start.
Lewis Hamilton-”Winning in front of your home crowd is just the best feeling. We really do have the greatest fans here and thank you so much to everyone for your patience after yesterday. To see the support all around the track is just amazing. I said before that I’d never give up but it was a tough qualifying and I really needed to dig deep and come back positive this morning. A huge thank you to my family and all of the fans for pushing me on – I couldn’t have done it without them. Nico had a pretty big gap at the beginning of the race but I kept pushing and was happy with my pace. After extending my first stint, we switched to the prime tyres and I honestly couldn’t believe the pace that I had and was closing up to Nico. Of course, he then had a problem and I saw him pull over. It’s a shame for the team and I never want to see a team-mate fall behind – I always want to battle it out – but I’m sure we will get to do it again in the future. It’s been a rollercoaster weekend and to come away with the win after a day like yesterday is fantastic, so thank you to everyone in the team for all their hard work. I’m proud to have done it for them here – so close to our factories in Brackley and Brixworth.”
When the lights went out for the start, pole position man Rosberg held his lead but second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing got away poorly.
Behind the leaders, though, the collisions were more serious. Kimi Raikkonen was forced wide at the start of the Wellington Straight and went off track. The Ferrari driver attempted to rejoin but hit a bump on the edge of the circuit. That sent him into a violent spin and he hit the barriers hard before being flung back on track. Felipe Massa tried to take avoiding action but he collided with the spinning Ferrari.
Massa was able to crawl back to the pits but the damage was too severe for the Brazilian to continue – a disappointing end to the Brazilian’s 200th grand prix.
Raikkonen, meanwhile, was helped from his car but limped away to the medical car. It was later reported by Ferrari that the Finn had suffered some bruising to his an ankle and knee but was otherwise unhurt. The incident naturally brought out the red flags and there was a one-hour delay until the action resumed again, behind the safety car.
On the new grid, which mirrored the order at the last point available, as the safety car left the circuit at the restart, Rosberg made the perfect getaway, building a large gap to Button behind as the safety car headed for the pit lane. Hamilton, though, was determined not to be left behind and on lap three he forced an error from Magnussen at Copse and stole third place. He soon went one step further, muscling past Button at Brooklands on the following lap to take second place, five seconds behind his team-mate.
Alonso was also on the move, he was soon making his way through the pack from 13th place. However, his race was somewhat compromised soon after when he received a five-second penalty for being out of position on the grid at the original start, the Ferrari driver having overshot his grid slot.
Fernando Alonso: “I think today’s race was very spectacular, certainly for us it was extremely hectic, first with Kimi’s retirement and then with the penalty for being out of position at the start. Then there were also my duels with Button and Vettel. When Sebastian came up behind me I was saving fuel and battery power and had a problem with the rear wing so I knew that sooner or later he would have overtaken me. I think both Red Bulls deserved to finish ahead of us, because they were quicker. Now we must analyse our performance and try to improve for the next round in Germany: if we want to make up ground in the Constructors’ Championship, we must try and do our utmost at the track, working on strategy, set-up and especially we must try and be more astute than the others, when it comes to grabbing any opportunity to score points.”
Kimi Raikkonen, DNF: “Unfortunately, my race today ended on the first lap, after I had managed to get away well, making up enough ground to be fighting for eleventh place. At turn 5, I went off the track and while trying to get back on, I must have hit a kerb. I then lost control of the car and ended in the barriers. It’s a real shame because yesterday, the feeling I had on track had improved and I was determined to do my utmost to bring home some points. I am really very disappointed with how things went and just concentrate on the next race in Germany.”
Bottas was also on an incredible charge. The sole Williams driver took the restart in ninth but by lap 16 he’d scythed his way through the pack to reach third position, powering past Button around the outside of high-speed Stowe corner.
At the front, Hamilton closed to within three seconds of leader Rosberg before the German made his first stop on lap 18, taking on used medium tyres. That allowewd Hamilton to take the lead. Rosberg rejoined in second place, ahead of Bottas, Button, Alonso, Magnussen and Vettel.
Hamilton chose to stay out, too, waiting until lap 24 to make his stop. He took on hard tyres but it was a slow stop and he lost time to his team-mate. Rosberg swept back into the lead, with the gap again up to five seconds.
The gap was erased a few laps later, however. Just after his pit stop Rosberg complained of a problem downshifting. The issues seemed to subside but on lap 29 he was back on the radio, reporting a problem with upshifting. He slowed gradually and Hamilton flashed past into the lead. Rosberg attempted a reset but he ground to a halt at turn 13.
Nico Rosberg, DNF – It’s a pity what happened today as I lost a lot of points in the Championship. We are always aiming for 100 % reliability but unfortunately that didn’t work out for me today. I had a small issue in the installation lap but the car felt great in the beginning. By lap 20, though, the gearbox started to become a serious problem and from then it got worse. I tried to get it into some safety settings, let Lewis through and just keep going until the end of the race. But there was nothing we could do so I had to stop the car. All I can do is accept that these things happen and work with the team to find out what went wrong. It’s a shame for the race in a way, as it could have been a great battle against Lewis, but congratulations to him for the win. Now we are heading to Germany with the quickest car and I’m looking forward to a home Grand Prix for both Mercedes-Benz and myself.
Elsewhere, Alonso, made his first pit stop, taking on more medium tyres and serving his five-second penalty. He rejoined in ninth place.
The top-five order, on lap 31 was Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Ricciardo and Button. Bottas made his sole pit stop on lap 31, and rejoined in third behind Vettel, who needed another stop.
Vettel made that pit stop at the end of lap 33, rejoining behind Button in fifth place, ahead of Alonso. The Ferrari driver piled on the pressure and stole the position through Copse on lap 35.
Valtteri Bottas 2nd – : 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. I really felt for Felipe today in his 200th race, and it was so nice of him to come to the podium with the team; I really appreciated that. We are a stronger team than we were in the first few races and it won’t be easy to stay near the top but we are doing a great job of it at the moment.
Felipe Massa, DNF : It has been a really difficult weekend. 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. Luckily I turned as it could have been a worse accident. I hope Kimi is ok but it’s a weekend to forget for me personally; not the 200th Grand Prix I had planned.
The pair would spend the rest of the race in a thrilling dogfight, Alonso defending with everything at his disposal as Vettel pushed hard to force an error. Much of the battle was fought on the radio, with both drivers complaining vociferously that the other had exceeded the track limits on numerous occasions. Vettel, though eventually won out, passing Alonso in a heart-in-the-mouth move along the pit straight and through Copse, just inches separating the combatants. Once past, Vettel stretched away, taking fifth place ahead of the Spaniard.
At the front Hamilton continued to open the gap to second-placed Bottas. Prior to his second stop on lap 41 the gap stood at 41 seconds, comfortable enough for the Mercedes driver to make his stop, take on a final set of hard tyres and rejoin in the lead, ahead of one-stopping Bottas.
Third was Ricciardo. The Red Bull Racing driver was on a set of ageing medium tyres but in a good position and with 15 laps to go and 10 seconds in hand over Jenson Button, who was on fresher tyres, he opted to try to make it to the chequered flag.
Daniel Ricciardo: 3rd-“I feel good! 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. We used the cards that we had and played the game well, so I was really happy to make a one stop work. For the last two laps, I saw Jenson coming and thought I was probably going to be a bit vulnerable but we held on. The one stop wasn’t planned. We pitted quite early on the Prime because we were quite slow and it wasn’t working, so we came in for the Option and, at one point, my engineer pretty much said alright four laps to go on this tyre then let’s box. I said the pace seems OK, the tyres aren’t getting any worse and let’s try and stay out or at least think about keeping me out there and he said OK we’ll look at our options. Then, a few laps later he said do you think you can go to the end, there’s 15 or 20 laps to go, and I said, at the moment I think we can give it a crack. And so, yeah, we did and it paid off!”
Inevitably, the gap began to come down as Button closed in. By lap 47 it was down to seven seconds and by the final lap it was down to 1.8s as Ricciardo struggled to keep his 36-lap old tyres alive. The Australian managed it, finishing just eight tenths ahead of the hard-charging Button.
At the front though, Hamilton’s win was comfortable, the Briton taking the chequered flag for his second British Grand Prix win ahead of Bottas, who took his second podium finish in a row.
With Button fourth and Vettel in fifth ahead of Alonso, the remaining points positions went to Magnussen in seventh, Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Vergne.
