Hamilton wins in Britain, Vettel hit with late tyre failure

2017 British Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix to go one point behind Sebastian Vettel in the championship after the Ferrari suffered a late tyre failure.

Hamilton led from the start and was hardly troubled as he took the chequered flag in front of the British fans. It was a Mercedes one-two with Valtteri Bottas recovering from ninth to second.

Both Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were hit by left-front tyre failures in the closing laps, dropping Raikkonen from second to third and Vettel from third to seventh.

The start of the race was postponed by a lap after Jolyon Palmer pulled off at Hangar Straight on the original formation lap with an apparent hydraulic failure.

Hamilton kept the lead at the start as Verstappen jumped Vettel for third. The Safety Car was called on the opening lap when the two Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz collided at Becketts.

Hamilton pulled out a short advantage over Raikkonen, while Vettel struggled to find a way past Verstappen. The two fought hard over a number of laps before Ferrari brought Vettel in and successfully undercut Verstappen back into third.

With a one stop strategy almost universally adopted, Hamilton resumed in the lead after his one and only stop ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel.

Valtteri Bottas made his way through the field after starting ninth on the grid and caught up to third placed Vettel who was suffering from blistering Soft tyres.

Bottas passed the championship leader on Lap 44 to move up to a podium position and set about chasing down a seven second gap to Raikkonen.

Just before Bottas was within range of Raikkonen, the Ferrari driver suffered a left front tyre deflation and was forced to cruise back to the pits.

The very next lap, Sebastian Vettel suffered an almost identical but more severe failure which caused him to drop from fourth to seventh.

Max Verstappen pitted late too as a precaution but took fourth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who started 19th. Nico Hulkenberg finished in sixth for Renault, despite late car problems, ahead of Vettel and the two Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez.

Felipe Massa rounded out the points for Williams in tenth.

2017 British Grand Prix reaction

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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86 comments on “Hamilton wins in Britain, Vettel hit with late tyre failure”

  1. Why Kimi first??? He pitted later than Seb… Waiting to here from Pirelli and Ferrari

    1. I think it was more of an aggressive set up rather than Pirelli’s problem (as no one else had failures), still it’s never nice to see positions decided like that.

      1. Verstappen also had the issue.

        1. I thought that he pitted as a precautionary measure after kimi’s failure.

          1. @oversteer He didn’t

          2. @oversteer Somehow I managed to read “Verstappen” as “Vettel”, my bad

      2. What you say is true @oversteer, it isn’t good to see good racing decided by
        equipment failures at any time……but like many others I remember a recent
        incident where the driver of a bright red car deliberately collided with a serious
        rivals car and who should, by all the normal rules of motor racing, have received
        an immediate black flag disqualification for such appalling behaviour. But because
        he was who he was and whose car he was driving, he was only very mildly
        punished for a very serious offence.

        So……as you write, it’s not usually good to see races decided by technical
        issues, but justice does sometimes come late and in most unusual ways, doesn’t it ?

  2. Because it was Hamilton’s fault, he caused all this drama! He must have done something naughty for sure.

    1. You go Chavez
      16th July 2017, 14:57

      I was thinking the same thing. I think it is his double piercing that caused it or the fact he didn’t show up in London.

      1. he didn’t show up in London. But at Silverstone..!!
        YEEES..YES..YES..YES…YEEES

  3. I hope Brundle is ok

    1. Fukobayashi (@)
      16th July 2017, 16:40

      +1 it seemed very sudden, right as they were celebrating the 20 years of grid walks…

      1. No more shoey’s

    2. joe pineapples
      16th July 2017, 19:41

      It was later confirmed that Brundle had been suffering from a stomach virus, and would make a full recovery.

  4. Mega job from Hulkenberg, completely outperforming the car again, has no right to be ahead of the Force India’s, let alone about 30s ahead.
    Would’ve been nice to see if he could’ve stayed ahead of Ricciardo if he didn’t have the derating issues, but eh.

    1. An underrated driver – in my opinion he is on level if not better than Sainz. Kubica (I know I’m getting my hopes unrealistically high) and Hulkenberg would be a monster driver line up if it happened next year

    2. GtisBetter (@)
      16th July 2017, 16:39

      How can you outperform a car. Did he finish ahead of it?

      1. @passingisoverrated Yes, to outperform the car he jumped out just before the line and crossed it before the nose of the car did. Incredible scenes.

      2. @passingisoverrated

        You outperform your car by having an teammate that makes you look fantastic.

        1. And being the only one of the pair to have the upgrades!

          1. …and having a car that makes the distance, rather than one that doesn’t even complete the formation lap

          2. If you have a driver with 18 points, and a driver with 0 points, and you only have 1 of a new upgrade, who would you give it to?

  5. That was an interedting tire issue on Ferraris.. But even without that, Mercedes are clearly winning the development race, every weekend they edge further from Ferrari.

    1. Why wasn’t Vettel penalised for pushing Verstappen and Bottas off track. And his constant whining on the radio all weekend is so annoying. I guess like Berger said he was eventually punished by God with the tyre failure.

      1. Fukobayashi (@)
        16th July 2017, 16:41

        Im actually glad that those battles werent investigated, they were hard and exciting!

        1. When Hamilton does it he is called all sorts of derogatory terms under the sun, but if it’s Vettel it’s hard and exciting? Oh, ok I get it now……

          1. Double standards at it finest.

          2. @blackmamba only redbulls race their heart out, everyone else are dirtbags… if u didnt realize by now… Vettel clearly bumped Ver off track, but again, he is a WDC stuff, so they dont wanna mess with him anymore… if you give vettel penalty, which he got one last year without even touching… anyways… Ferrari rules with their International Assistance… oh well, we are just Ham fans… All others are armchair commandos…

          3. It’s when Hamilton does it against his team mate. Big difference.

          4. Ricciardo bumped Kimi out of turn 2 at the start in Austria yet nobody complained, what are you talkin’ about?

          5. Fukobayashi (@)
            17th July 2017, 14:05

            @blackmamba actually i’m a Hamilton supporter, I just didn’t see anything wrong with Vettels driving today, sorry for having the ability to be impartial!

      2. @blackmamba Aren’t you doing exactly the same you’re accusing other of? You want to see Vettel penalised (which he shouldn’t be) but probably jump in front of everyone who says the same about Hamilton,… You’re calling others a hypocrite but are happy to jump on the train yourself.

      3. It was exciting wheel to wheel racing which is what the sport is supposed to be about but it was interesting that they were both not investigated given that Oliver Rowland was given a 5 sec time penalty in GP2 for “forcing another driver off the track” and he was not as close to his opponent as Seb and Max were in those two turns.

        Personally I am glad it wasn’t investigated, maybe will see more action like that if the stewards lighten up and let people race.

  6. Not entirely accurate. Bottas was still 5 secs behind Raikkonen when the puncture happened with 3.5 laps to go. He would never have got “within range” if not for the puncture.

    1. i agree,i think kimi would have got third for sure

      1. you probably mean second?

        Although with the Merc super-special quali mode you never know, Bottas might have edged Raikkonnen just by the flag, a la Baku

        1. That super special quali mode is called Hamilton is it not?

          1. Fukobayashi (@)
            17th July 2017, 14:11

            +1

  7. Poor Kimi. Drives a faultless weekend and still the bogey man strikes on his tyre again. With Seb’s failure I think it might have had something to do with his lock up and obviously this being Silverstone, the left tyres take a good pummelling. I am one of those who have always thought the British GP was a bit short but what happened today with the Ferraris and even Verstappen proves those lap limits are about right.

    1. Actually on second thought about the Softs and GP limits- just remembered Bottas did 30 odd laps on them on heavy fuel and he managed to look after them. Maybe it was something to do with an aggressive Ferrari setup.

      1. Blazzz, there were drivers further down the field who drove even longer stints on those tyres – Ericsson, I believe, ran a 36 lap stint on softs.

        Looking back to how those teams ran their race weekends, Ferrari brought far more of the supersoft tyres – three sets more than Mercedes – and seemed to spend far more of their race weekend focussing on runs on the supersofts instead of the softs, to the point where Vettel apparently managed to blow his entire allocation of nine sets before the final qualifying session. By contrast, many other teams, and Mercedes in particular, focussed on soft tyre runs, with most teams believing that would be the preferred race tyre.

        Now, I believe that the working temperature range of the supersofts is also higher than that of the softs, so a set up more biased towards the supersofts would probably be too aggressive for the softs. Vettel did complain over the radio that he’d been blistering his tyres for almost his entire stint before they gave way, with Kimi also complaining that he’d wrecked his front tyres, suggesting that they might have overcooked the tyres – couple that with a few large lock ups, especially for Vettel, and that probably pushed the tyres over the edge in their case.

        1. Thanks! Very good and insightful comment.

        2. Good comment, appreciate your insight.

        3. As others have said above, insightful comment. It just goes to show how these teams are pushing the performance boundaries. Ferrari, today pushed beyond the limit. +1

        4. Thanks for this great piece of info.

    2. I am not a huge Kimi fan but I felt for him yesterday ….. he was delivering the goods big time and yet again his luck ran out.

      I wonder though if this was down to the Ferrari pit wall pushing too far, wouldn’t be the first time it has happened.

  8. After watching Mercedes dominance is starting again in recent races, i will never watch F1 any more.
    Well don’t FiA and FOM. You can’t even make Honda situation better. Poor governing.

    1. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out :)

    2. You’ll be back for Hungary. Keep your knickers on.

    3. Your not much of a fan are you? It’s racing, someone has to win. I went through the Ferrari dominance with Schui, and Red Bull with Vettel, not once did I say I won’t watch anymore. A true fan just wouldn’t, but it’s your choice. . . Bye then.

      1. A true fan just wouldn’t

        @t1cee To be fair if F1 turns IRL-CART I personally wouldn’t really see the point of following both for the bloody sake of it.

        Different matter though, I guess

        1. Why? At least in IRL the race isn’t decided within the first lap like today and most races…yahn

    4. @type056
      ‘Waaahhh, waaaahhh. My team didn’t win. Hamilton won. Waaah waahhh sob!’. I’ve heard it all now.

    5. good riddance

    6. I’m sorry but what the hell can the fia do to help honda? Please explain? The fia didn’t force honda to use f1 as a place to let the work experience kids build an engine. Do you want the fia to force mercedes to send their engineers to Japan to fix their engine? I need to know how the fia can fix Honda’s engine? I need you to know this, it is the fia’s fault honda don’t know what they are doing.

  9. So turns out the Bottas’s strategy going on harder tyre in opening stint was the right one after all. Very eventful race at the beginning and end else it was quite boring in middle.

  10. Gwaaaan Hamilton my son!

    1. Plus one Lawdamassy!

  11. Maybe at Red Bull management they need to start considering making some changes in their two F1 teams. Both are clearly underperforming beyond the Renault deficit. Swapping team bosses? Acquiring a new technical talent to succeed Newey?

    1. Drivers will be Ricciardo and Kubica at Red Bull, and Verstappen and Kvyat at Toro Rosso once Maxs Ferrari deal is announced.

  12. Really hope Mercedes keep both Lewis and Valtteri together next year! Starting to look like a dream partnership!

    1. Lewis was trying to drag Valterri with him after his stop. Mercedes tag team!!

    2. Fukobayashi (@)
      17th July 2017, 14:15

      I agree. When Lewis said over the radio he would take Bottas with him instead of letting him through I felt that was a nice touch.

      Bottas is fast becoming one of my favourite drivers, he’s damned humble but undoubtedly very talented with a lot yet to show.

  13. Hopefully Mercedes margin was a one-off.

    1. I don’t think it is. Mercedes dominated in Canada, had a massive advantage in Baku in qualifying and Hamilton would have strolled to victory in Baku and even austria bottas build up a big lead. It really seems like mercedes are getting faster and ferrari are going backwards. The depressing thing is I’ve seen this before. Ferrari couldn’t keep up with redbull and their development and it cost alonso 2 titles.

  14. During the trophy presentation over here in the states, on NBCSN. Jackie Stewart who was handing out the team trophy, to Lewis’s race engineer Bono, and then shakes his hand. Bottas who finished in second place also received a congratulatory handshake from Stewart, but when he came towards Lewis the race winner. The camera cutaway, leaving me to wonder if had shook his hand, and offered him any congratulations. The reason why I wonder, because of a similar circumstance at the 2017 Australian GP, when Stewart ignored Hamilton who came in second to Vettel, and shook hands with all the other trophy recipients, all except Lewis.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcPI92mji9k

    1. They say Stewart does not like Hamilton. It sounds like he dislikes him based on articles and stuff lately and in the past…

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        16th July 2017, 22:46

        @samouri @krichelle I can’t believe the camera cut away:-) I so wanted to see what Jackie S was going to do! Does anyone know if he shook Lewis’ hand or just moved to Kimi?

    2. I think Stewart may have done it again! The camera is quite shaky and the podium is quite small, but if I see it correctly I think he hands the constructor’s trophy to Peter Bonnington and then shakes his hand, then shakes Bottas’ hand, walks past Hamilton and finally shakes Räikkönen’s hand.

      Watch from 2 minutes 35 seconds, which is just after Hamilton received his trophy:
      https://youtu.be/bmmvO-Jfvg4?t=2m35s

      1. The previous comment with the video on Jackie Stewart and Hamilton was for @samouri @krichelle @freelittlebirds

      2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        17th July 2017, 14:46

        @mike-dee Awesome!!! Thank you for sharing that video!

        I can’t believe it but it seems like he walked right by Hamilton to Kimi… The race director must have anticipated it …

        I understand that Stewart dislikes Hamilton but he is not behaving like a grown up, much less a legend of the sport.

        If the tennis umpire at Wimbledon disliked Federer, does that mean he can avoid shaking his hand at the end of the match? How ridiculous would that have looked yesterday!

    3. Fukobayashi (@)
      17th July 2017, 14:17

      Stewart’s dislike of Hamilton is, I feel, something other than because of his personality or achievements.

      1. Whatever the reason. It doesn’t say much for Stewart as a man, and so-called legend in the sport.

  15. Looks like having a strong team mate is not so bad after alll. I mean, as long as you are quicker than him.

    Bottas is costing vettel big time.

    1. after all*

    2. Bottas indeed is helping Hamilton, but he’s in it for himself as well. He’s been outpointing Vettel in the past four races. A few more 1-2s will strengthen Hamilton’s and Mercedes’ cases for the title, but Bottas is also there if Hamilton ever slips up and he’s shown he can match Vettel at certain times.

      1. I have a feeling this championship will end up being a two horses battle between the Mercedes’ drivers.

  16. Poor little Jackie Stewart must have had a nightmare of a weekend, Lewis shining like that…

  17. NairobiF1fan
    16th July 2017, 22:59

    Looks like Ferrari have lost out to Mercedes on the in season development battle. Such a shame because it really was looking to be a memorable season.

  18. All you maMAphackas that have been saying LH is this and that because he didn’t show up in London – YOU can go ZACK a c00k!!
    HAHAHAHAHA

  19. Both Ferraris got unexpected punctures. No other cars were affected. My feeling is this has to do with how the team operated the tyres.
    It cost them massively, but boy how it brought the race back to life!

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