Great Britain – Race: Vettel Shows His Strength!

Surprising scenario for a crazy race, marked by Sebastian Vettel’s victory, his fourth personal win. Threatened before the start, Hamilton is defeated on his home turf after four consecutive victories at Silverstone. However, the local hero had not imagined such a scenario for a defeat.

90 minutes earlier, the start was given, still with summer weather conditions, 26 degrees in the air, and 51 on the track. A kickoff with seventeen cars on the grid, and three from the pits: the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley, accidented since FP3, and the two Williams struggling with major aerodynamic problems at the rear wing, yesterday in qualifying.

Räikkönen pushes Hamilton off at the start!

Poorly launched, Lewis Hamilton immediately lost the advantage of his pole. Overtaken by Vettel and Bottas on the inside line, the Brit was hit by Räikkönen’s Ferrari, spinning him at the braking of the third corner. Dropping to seventeenth position, the four-time world champion let Vettel take the lead and found himself forced to run a combative race in the pack. The Finn, in turn, was penalized by the stewards with a ten-second penalty during his pit stop.

#BritishGP 🇬🇧 | T 1/52 [REPLAY]

The Räikkönen/Hamilton contact at turn 3 💥👀#F1 pic.twitter.com/AKaUVb6Gf1

— Secteur F1 🏎️ (@Secteur_F1) 8 juillet /f1/actualite/22819-grande-bretagne-essais-libres-3-hamilton-meilleur-temps-toro-rosso-et-un-crash-qui-inquiete.html

Behind Vettel, Bottas and Verstappen took the top 3 positions. Following them, in this order: Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Hülkenberg, Leclerc, Ocon, Sainz, and Magnussen. Notably, the incredible comeback of Carlos Sainz, who gained seven positions in the first lap!

The start was chaotic overall, also marked by Pérez’s spin, who, after touching Alonso, ended up on the trajectory of the two Williams cars just coming out of the pit lane! Under investigation by the stewards, Romain Grosjean was held responsible for another collision with his teammate Magnussen. The Frenchman dropped back to 14th position.

The initial laps of the race were focused on Lewis Hamilton’s comeback, as he returned to the top 10 by the 6th lap. Motivated in front of his home crowd, the Mercedes driver made overtakes with ease, notably passing two drivers in two laps at the same Stowe corner, Leclerc and Hülkenberg. The Briton claimed sixth place by the end of the 10th lap!

Works Renault v works Mercedes – and it looks like the Renault is at half throttle, so easy for Hamilton to blast past
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Hamilton’s comeback in the spotlight

The culprit of his descent into hell was in the pit: Räikkönen swapped his soft tires for medium ones on the 13th lap. He rejoined in tenth position. Full attack as he returned to the track, the fastest driver at the moment successively overtook Ocon, Leclerc, and Hülkenberg: “Iceman” was in sixth place by the 20th lap. Perhaps overtaken by his future 2019 car, Charles Leclerc encountered a setback during his pit stop. Forced to stop his car on the way out, the Monegasque fell victim to a poorly secured rear wheel. End of the nice series of results for Leclerc, after three consecutive points finishes.

At the front, Sebastian Vettel made his tire change on the 20th lap. Unsurprisingly, he opted for medium tires. In a small paradox, he emerged three seconds ahead of Hamilton, who was still on his first stint. The German champion regained the lead of the Grand Prix on the 21st lap after Bottas’s pit stop. The Finn benefited from team orders, with Hamilton letting his teammate pass in pursuit of Vettel.

The driver with the number 44 was waiting for the 26th lap to make his pit stop. He rejoined in sixth position, a spot already well secured, with a 40-second lead over the seventh place of Nico Hülkenberg, who was battling with Ocon. A curious gamble for the Renault driver, the only one running on hard tires (the blue-banded ones)… along with his teammate Carlos Sainz, who was contending with Magnussen for the tenth place.

20 laps from the finish, Hamilton had gained a position after Daniel Ricciardo’s second -unexpected- stop, during which he switched to soft tires.

A crash, a collision, and an exciting Mercedes-Ferrari showdown

New twist in this British race, with Marcus Ericsson’s spectacular crash at the first corner, the famous DRS zone. Chasing Pérez for 13th place, the Swede hadn’t turned off the DRS: the rear of the Sauber violently spun out, resulting in a crash that fortunately left the driver uninjured. But the safety car took to the track!

Vettel took the opportunity to pit and put on a new set of soft tires. But Bottas didn’t come in, so the Finn took the lead behind the safety car. Verstappen, Räikkönen, and Ricciardo also changed their tires, unlike Hamilton, Ricciardo, or Hülkenberg.

— Secteur F1 🏎️ (@Secteur_F1) [8 July /f1/actualite/22819-grande-bretagne-essais-libres-3-hamilton-meilleur-temps-toro-rosso-et-un-crash-qui-inquiete.html](https://twitter.com/Secteur_F1/status/1015961025311539207?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

As a consequence of the accident, Hamilton found himself behind Vettel at the restart on lap 37. But the Briton was mainly watching his mirrors, with a threatening Verstappen… and a very brave Räikkönen attempting an overtake, unsuccessfully. However, this beautiful maneuver was overshadowed a few seconds later by a collision between Grosjean and Sainz at Copse corner. At first glance, the Frenchman was at fault, losing control of his Haas and then spearing into the right rear wheel of the Renault. The safety car returned to the track.

A bold maneuver and Vettel towards victory!

Valtteri Bottas restarted the race once again on the 42nd lap. Immediately, Sebastian Vettel attempted an overtaking maneuver in the left-hand curve at Brooklands. The Finn barely resisted. For fourth place, Räikkönen got the better of Verstappen on the straight towards Stowe. The 2007 world champion was rapidly closing in on Hamilton, with the top four cars fighting for the win!

For Vettel, it was necessary to act on his threats before the degradation of his tires became too significant. The 47th lap was the right one! Tucked into Bottas’s slipstream, the German maneuvered at the perfect moment on the straight before Brooklands. A magnificent overtake, mirrored a lap later by Hamilton. The leaders of Ferrari and Mercedes took the top two positions of the race!

For Bottas, the ordeal continued to the end: struggling with his tires, he lost third place to Räikkönen. The quartet remained unchanged until the finish: Sebastian Vettel clinches a spectacular victory, Ferrari’s first at Silverstone since 2011! With this 51st victory, the driver catches up to Alain Prost in the Formula 1 record books.

Siiiiiiii!!!! #Seb5 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/1vihiDHbuS

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 8

The race classification unfolds as follows, marked by Verstappen’s retirement at the end of the Grand Prix. Two French drivers score points, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, although the Toro Rosso driver will have to explain his maneuver against Pérez in the 51st lap to the stewards. Fernando Alonso once again takes full advantage of the race scenario, finishing in eighth place.

🏁 CLASSIFICATION (LAP 52/52) 🏁

Your full results* from a Silverstone stunner!

*Incident involving Gasly and Perez under investigation#BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/rqx4aYL3VM

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In the overall standings, Vettel now totals 171 points, eight points ahead of Hamilton and 47 ahead of Räikkönen in third place. Among the constructors, Ferrari is widening the gap and now has a 20-point lead over Mercedes: 287 against 267 points for the two teams. At 68 points, Red Bull is lagging behind. The trends are shaping up for the end of the season…