United Kingdom: post-race analysis

Bloody good race. Dramatic start, dramatic end, crashes, strategic cock-ups and two green bets. Huzzah! Once again, Great Britain shows the world how to do this sporting malarkey.

Nasr’s car failed even before the start, unfortunately. Of the rest, only Verstappen started hard.

Off the line both Williams were off like a scalded cat, Massa claiming the lead and Bottas (after briefly and brilliantly fending off Hamilton) nabbing the second spot. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg got a very good start as well and was fifth by the end of lap 1.

But the drama didn’t end there. Before the first lap concluded the two Lotuses struck one another, and both were out, also collecting Button and Alonso (Button was out, Alonso managed to keep going).

Hamilton managed to pass Bottas, but then a safety car came out so that the assorted debris could be cleared. When the safety car came in, Hamilton tried to aggressively pass Massa but locked up, which enabled Bottas to get past him.

Bottas did appear faster than Massa at this stage of the race. After a brief delay whilst Williams decided what to do, the cars were allowed to race but Massa was not instructed to let his team mate through. The Finn got close, but Massa didn’t crack, and the top four circulated in order, close together, for the rest of the initial stint.

After the initial pit stops Rosberg remained stuck behind Bottas, and Hamilton emerged ahead of them. The Briton was flying, and when Massa pitted he emerged in second place, with Hamilton leading.

The Ferraris had clawed past Hulkenberg, who had slid down the order after his great start, but were a mile and a half behind the leading quartet, Raikkonen ahead of Vettel. Ricciardo was forced to retire due to a reliability failure, Verstappen also exiting the race after crashing.

A Virtual Safety Car emerged at one point. This allowed Sainz’s car, which he’d rather unhelpfully parked some way from the marshals, to be collected. The VSR also lets gaps stay basically the same because cars drive within a certain limit, rather than congregating behind a physical safety car, and it can be ended sooner because it doesn’t take a lap for the safety car to return to the pits, nor do cars unlap themselves (which is a nonsense).

And then the British weather intervened.

It started raining. Enough to annoy drivers, but not enough to necessitate new tyres. And then it rained some more. A few drivers (Raikkonen, who had just been passed by his team mate, Alonso and perhaps Ericsson) came in for inters. The Williams suffered in the slightly damp conditions, and Rosberg swept past Bottas and then Massa.

Raikkonen was lapping about eight seconds a lap slower than others. It was a gamble which had failed.

Rosberg, now second, was 10s or so behind Hamilton, but catching him by 2s a lap, until he was 1.7s behind. Hamilton complained of no grip from his tyres (both on medium). And the British rain saved the day. With inspired timing, Hamilton pitted for inters. It seemed too dry, or at least too soon. It wasn’t. Hamilton had timed it to perfection, and as the rain fell and Rosberg pitted, the tiny gap had grown all the way to 10s again, and this time there was no closing it.

Vettel also pitted that very same lap, leapfrogging the two Williams (who must feel a shade unfortunate after such a strong race actually seeing them go backwards from the grid) to get yet another podium, his sixth (I think) of the year.

Raikkonen had worn out his inters, having pitted too soon, made another stop for some fresh ones (he was far enough ahead of Perez not to lose a place), and trailed home a disappointing 9^th. At the end, Kvyat’s superior downforce was helping him against the struggling Williams and very nearly passed Bottas. In the end, the Finn kept 5^th and the Russian was a good 6^th.

Hulkenberg got 7^th, and Perez 9^th, which is reasonable. The Force India B-spec car does look to be an improvement, but with so many retirements (7/20) it’s hard to be certain just how much better it is. The Red Bull was faster (definite in the wet, perhaps also in the dry), and the Toro Rosso seemed roughly comparable. Impossible to say how the Lotus stacks up against the new Force India, however.

And who got the final point? Some chap called Fernando Alonso, who scored his first point of the year. Nice to see McLaren enjoying a tiny bit of good luck.

Here are the updated driver standings:

Hamilton 194

Rosberg 177

Vettel 135

Whilst Vettel’s not quite out of it, it would take either a lot of reliability failures for Mercedes (they’ve had zero, I think, so far) or for the Ferrari team to put two engines in the back of Vettel’s car.

Constructors’(4^th to 8^th):

Red Bull 63

Force India 39

Lotus 29

Sauber 21

Toro Rosso 19

Very good day at the office for Force India, who see their lower-placed rivals score nothing, and they scored equal points as Red Bull, maintaining the gap ahead but extending it over those chasing the team. The old Force India was handy in a straight line but struggled with aerodynamic stuff, which matters quite a bit at Silverstone. Retaining 5^th is important because, as Allan McNish pointed out recently, the 5^th place gives a team a decision-making seat (because F1 makes no bloody sense only five teams get heard, and several of those appear to be for financial/historical reasons). If Toro Rosso get it, that’d give Mateschitz et al. two seats.

For those who’ve followed my tips for a little while, this is the best (going by hedged) race weekend since Monza 2009 when I offered something mad like 5-6 tips and more than half came off (including an 8.8 winner, I think, on a Brawn victory). This season’s been weird for betting, flat-lining red for ages, and a few good races just now.

After complaining of some bad luck earlier this year, I’ve certainly had some good fortune of late.

For my record-keeping, this is the mid-season point, so a review or two will be thrown up between now and Hungary, which is in three weeks.

Morris Dancer