There had been plenty of speculation in the build-up as to how well Hamilton’s
Mercedes would cope with the expected tyre degradation at Silverstone’s
super fast circuit.
Hamilton had practically gone backwards at the similarly high-speed Circuit de
Catalunya in May, but in the meantime Mercedes had managed to fit in 1000 km
of highly controversial testing with Pirelli and everyone within the paddock
was intrigued to discover just how useful it had been.
So when Hamilton’s rear-left tyre buckled and then suddenly exploded as he was
charging down the Wellington Straight on lap eight, no one knew quite what
to make of it.
While it looked suspect, it was in theory possible that it was a result of the
additional stress Mercedes were putting on their tyres compared to their
rivals.
It took just two further laps, when Ferrari’s
Felipe Massa suffered a near identical failure at almost precisely the same
spot, to blow that theory out of the water. And by the time Jean-Éric
Vergne’s Toro
Rosso suffered rear-left tyre failure on lap 15, this time
approaching Stowe, we had a full-blown crisis on our hands. And a safety
car.
There would be two more tyre failures, to McLaren’s Sergio Perez – his second
of the weekend – and Sauber’s Esteban Gutiérrez, before the race was over.
But what a race it was. With the two safety car periods bunching the field,
there was some thrilling wheel-to-wheel action, the excitement heightened by
the ever-present danger of another tyre blowout at any moment.
Vettel, who had profited from Hamilton’s misfortune, looked to have the race
sewn up only to suffer a gearbox failure with 10 laps remaining.
It was his first retirement since Monza last year and cleared the way for
Rosberg to claim his second win of the season.
Behind him, Mark Webber, who had suffered a disastrous start, dropping from
fourth to 15th after a collision with his nemesis Romain Grosjean – a man he
memorably described as a “first-lap nutcase” last year – fought back to
claim second.
The Australian, at his final British Grand Prix, finished just seven tenths
behind the Mercedes.
Hamilton, meanwhile, fought his way back from last on lap nine to finish
fourth, overtaking Lotus’s
Kimi Raikkonen with a lap remaining to garner 12 useful points.
In fact, for all the controversy over the tyres, this was an encouraging day
for the championship in general.
Hamilton, who closed to within 43 points of Vettel in the title’ race, said he
was confident that he would have won his second British Grand Prix trophy
but for the tyre failure.
“I don’t think It would have been a problem (to win the race),” he said. “I
had a lot of damage on my car at the end, on the floor and was losing a huge
amount of downforce so surprised that we still had that kind of pace.
I have no doubts that we would have had a one-two today.
“Aside from all the talk about the tyres there are massive positives to take
away from this weekend,” he added. “Nico won. We got some good points.
We are improving. Moving forward are really think we can be more competitive.
“We were matching the Red Bulls today. I don’t think we have overtaken them,
but we have closed the gap maybe in terms of the tyres.”