British Grand Prix, it was a disaster for Ferrari and one of the best races for Mercedes. The silver arrows secured another 1-2 for this season and Lewis Hamilton won his fourth consecutive British Grand Prix, with this victory the British driver matched Jim Clark’s record (five wins).
Lewis Hamilton showed from the beginning that he will not allow anyone to challenge him, from the pole till the chequered flag, Hamilton was calm and comfortable while he was driving his Mercedes. His team-mate, Valtteri Bottas started the race from the ninth place, after a five-place grid penalty which he got due to new gearbox, but after an amazing drive he moved up to the second position.
Kimi Raikkonen, who was the third person on the podium, had mixed feelings at the end of the Grand Prix. With two laps to go, Kimi had a problem with his front left tyre which cost him time and dropped him out of the podium, because he had to pit for new tyres. A few corners later, Sebastian Vettel suffered a puncture on the front left tyre, the German managed to find his way to the pits and after a quick stop he finished the race seventh.
That incident gave the chance to Raikkonen to finish third and score a podium.
Lewis Hamilton had a quick and clean start, followed by Kimi Raikkonen, whilst Sebastian Vettel lost his position from Max Verstappen and dropped down to fourth. A collision between the Toro Rosso drivers forced the safety car to make its appearance on the track.
At the restart, on lap 5, Hamilton increased his lead from Raikkonen to 3.1 seconds. Sebastian Vettel pressured Verstappen for the third place. Sebastian, took the inside on Stowe but Verstappen managed to hold his position. The German attacked once again on Verstappen on Vale, he took the inside, passed Verstappen, but the Dutch didn’t want to give his position without a fight, Verstappen pushed Vettel to go wide into the chicane and re-gained his position. A few laps later, Ferrari called Vettel into the pits and switched to soft compounds. A lap later, Verstappen pitted, but a delay which caused by an issue with a wheelnut cost him the third place.
Bottas started the race on softs, he was the only driver in the top ten who was on softs, pitted on lap 33 and switched to a fresher set of super-softs. After the pit-stop, the Finn was flying and he was closing to Sebastian Vettel for the third place. His first approach on Vettel was not successful, but one lap later the Finn took the outside after the Hangar Straight and he easily passed Vettel.
A smart strategy and a good drive from Ricciardo moved the Australian up to the fifth place. Daniel, after a series of penalties, started the race from the 19th place, whilst Max Verstappen finished fourth behind Kimi Raikkonen. Great race for Nico Hulkenberg and Renault, the French lost the fifth place from Ricciardo during the final laps of the race, but he finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
Eight double points finish in 10 races for the pink panthers. The two Force India drivers finished eighth and ninth, both ahead of Felipe Massa who scored one point for Williams.
For me Daniel Ricciardo was the driver of the day, even when he pitted for the first time and re-joined tenth, managed to pass the two Force India and moved up to fifth position.
Lewis Hamilton closed the gap on Vettel, in drivers’ standings, to just one point, with one race to go to the summer break. The next race will take place in Hungary on 28-30 July.
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