The British Grand Prix saw one Mercedes driver retire from the race, and the other win it. There were several retirements, particularly after a one lap crash that saw Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa out of the race. It also added an hour’s delay to proceedings after the barriers had to be repaired. When the racing was going, however, there were overtaking moves galore, and tense fights for position from start to finish. The rain affected qualifying, but held off for the action on Sunday.

Event overview

Qualifying took place in wet conditions, with final practice also suffering under a deluge of rain. Many drivers opted to stay in the garage rather than risk an accident ahead of qualifying. Max Chilton picked up a grid penalty after Marussia were forced to change his gearbox before qualifying got underway.

A bad strategy saw both Williams and Ferrari drop out in the first session, all four drivers on track at the wrong time to get the best from their tyres and the conditions. That allowed the two Marussia drivers up into Q2, with Jules Bianchi picking up 12th on the grid. The top ten shootout saw Nico Rosberg in pole positoin, with Sebastian Vettel third. Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg secured places on the second row. Lewis Hamilton opted to abandon his final lap to save tyres, seeing him down in sixth place.

The Mercedes driver had a small issue with the brakes on his way to the grid, but was able to start the race without problem. Sebastian Vettel had a terrible start off the line dropping back to fifth place, whilst Rosberg surged forward to retain his lead. The race was almost immediately stopped, however, after a big crash between Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen. Initially the safety car came out, and then the race was red flagged. Räikkönen had gotten out of shape coming out of the first corner, and weaved his way on and off track before contacting the barriers on one side and spinning through the traffic to the other. He collected Felipe Massa on the way, and made contact with Max Chilton as well.

The race was halted for over an hour whilst barrier repairs were completed, and then the action began again behind the safety car. Eventually, the green flags were waving, allowing Rosberg to lead the pack away. Jenson Button was directly behind him but not for long as the McLaren lost out to Hamilton who moved up to second.

Fernando Alonso was making good progress through the field but found himself the subject of a stewards investigation after being out of position on the original starting grid. He was given a five second stop/go penalty which dropped him back after the first round of pit stops.

Meanwhile, Pastor Maldonado made contact with the rear wheel of Esteban Gutiérrez. The Lotus was launched up into the air, coming back down to earth with a bump. Maldonado managed to continue but Gutiérrez picked up a puncture and eventually ended up beached in the gravel off track.

Rosberg retained his lead after his first stop, particularly as Hamilton’s visit to the pit lane was a relatively slow one. After just a few laps, Rosberg was reporting a problem with the gearbox, though, and he slowed right down, pulling off track and out of the race. Hamilton moved into the lead, with Valtteri Bottas briefly behind him – the Williams leaving his first stop very late. Vettel and Alonso found themselves on track together, fighting tooth and nail for position, and both reporting each other over the radio for exceeding the track limits and generally not driving fairly. Neither was investigated by the stewards however. Vettel managed to make the move towards the end of the race, but he had work to do to catch his teammate.

Hamilton led the way through the second round of pit stops comfortably, and took victory at his home circuit. Valtteri Bottas finished in second place, a rise of twelve places from where he started on the grid. Daniel Ricciardo secured the final podium position, with McLaren driver Jenson Button less than a second down the road in fourth. Lewis’ win and Nico’s retirement closed the gap between them in the championship standings to just four points.