Hamilton wins British Grand Prix as Rosberg retires

2014 British Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix for only the second time in his career after his championship rival Nico Rosberg was forced to retire for the first time in 2014 due to a gearbox problem.

The result means that Hamilton has cut the gap in the Drivers’ Championship to his team mate to just four points at the halfway point of the season.

Valtteri Bottas claimed his best ever finish and second consecutive podium with a superb recovery drive to second place, while Daniel Ricciardo only just held on to third by less than a second from Jenson Button’s McLaren.

At the start, Rosberg leapt into the lead while Vettel was passed by both McLarens on the run to Abbey. Hamilton also had a good start and dived down the outside of Vettel at Village, with the two making minor wheel-to-wheel contact in the process.

Further back, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez collided into Abbey, while Felipe Massa dropped to last after struggling to get his Williams off the line.

But then, chaos struck along the Wellington Straight. After Raikkonen ran wide exiting Aintree, the Ferrari driver hit a bump as he attempted to rejoin the circuit, lost control of the car and was sent spearing into the right-hand guardrail before ricocheting back across the track and collecting Massa’s Williams in a violent accident.

The Safety Car was immediately deployed, but the race was soon Red Flagged when it became clear that the outside barrier was in need of repair. Kimi Raikkonen was immediately taken to the medical centre for treatment, but Ferrari later confirmed that the Finn had suffered no serious injuries.

After a delay of almost an hour, the race was eventually resumed under Safety Car conditions. After just a single Safety Car lap, the race restarted with Rosberg able to get a significant jump on Button in second, with Magnussen, Hamilton and Vettel close behind. Hamilton quickly dispatched Magnussen for third into Copse, before diving past Button into Brooklands to claim second.

Back in the pack, Fernando Alonso began to make swift progress through the field, passing Ricciardo and Kvyat with a series of impressive moves. But the Ferrari driver’s work appeared to have been undone when the Stewards awarded the Spaniard a five second stop-and-go penalty for taking the original race start outside of his grid box.

Esteban Gutierrez and Pastor Maldonando collided into Vale, with the Sauber pitching the Lotus into the air and putting the Mexican out of the race with suspension failure, before Marcus Ericsson also retired due to apparent suspension issues of his own.

Hamilton began to slowly cut the gap to his championship rival while behind, Valtteri Bottas was charging his way through the field. The sole remaining Williams passed Magnussen’s McLaren for fourth on Lap 13, before robbing Button of third with a superb move around the outside of Stowe four laps later.

Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes to pit on Lap 19 and was heard reporting a downshift problem with his gearbox over team radio. It did not seem to affect the championship leader too much, however, as Rosberg quickly began to eat away at Hamilton’s inherited lead until the Brit eventually stopped at the end of Lap 24. But once again, a relatively slow stop of four seconds for Hamilton meant that Rosberg’s advantage was back to five seconds once more.

But on Lap 30, there was a major twist in the course of both the race and the championship when Rosberg’s Mercedes began to audibly splutter under braking for Village. With the championship leader frantically trying to recover his lost drive, Hamilton was through and into the lead. Unfortunately for Rosberg, there was nothing he could do and was eventually forced to pull off the circuit for only his first DNF of the season.

With Hamilton now clear out in front, Valtteri Bottas made his one and only stop from second position, resuming in third behind Vettel. But the Williams made quick work of the reigning champion, who dived into the pits himself almost immediately, rejoining just ahead of Alonso in fifth.

With his warmer tyres, Alonso was able to drive past Vettel on the way into Copse, igniting a terrific duel between the two former world champions. But despite a number of attempts to overtake the Ferrari ahead, Vettel could not find a way past Alonso and soon became very vocal over team radio about what he felt was Alonso’s frequent abuse of track limits.

Hamilton pitted for a second time on Lap 41, rejoining with a more than comfortable lead. After several laps unable to pass Alonso, Vettel eventually passed the Ferrari driver for fifth after a thrilling side-by-side battle along the old start-finish straight.

But at the front, Hamilton simply counted down the laps to take his second British Grand Prix victory to the cheers of a delighted British crowd. Bottas ended a difficult weekend for Williams on a high with second, while Daniel Ricciardo only just held on to third by less than a second after a late charge by Jenson Button who took McLaren’s best finish since Melbourne.

Sebastian Vettel finished fifth from Alonso in sixth, followed by Magnussen in seventh and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India in eighth. The two Toro Rosso drivers rounded out the points in ninth and tenth with Daniil Kvyat finishing ahead of his team mate.

2014 British Grand Prix

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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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60 comments on “Hamilton wins British Grand Prix as Rosberg retires”

  1. Getting tired of Santander trophies. Shouldn’t it represent a cup?

  2. Did Vettel really talk about track limit abuse? That would be even more ridiculous as he was the one exceeding track limits lap after lap. I thought he was talking about Alonso’s defending.

    1. They were bitching a lot and each other off track a lot .
      Excellent racing though

      1. +1 Really excellent racing just made all the spicier with the radio scrap!

      2. Yeah, just seen the interviews. Alonso enjoyed it and Vettel said it was very clever driving from Alonso.

    2. They were as bad as each other in terms of whining about the other going off the track, and then promptly going off the track themselves. Battle would have been so much better without the complaining!

      1. No the complaining spiced up the battle, I think, in a good way.

  3. Gotta hand it to you Keith
    Your quick mate ,

    1. That’s Will! ;D

    2. @greg-c Well you can write it as the race goes on… it’s not that hard lol

  4. What a great race! Battles in every single lap! I thought the battle between Vettel and Alonso at the end was just an absolute cracker! I really hope Alonso is as aggressive for the rest of the season. He was the main source of entertainment this race. Feel for Rosberg. Well, at least he and LH are even steven now.

  5. Can anybody tell me whether or not Kimi is injured?

  6. How many races old was Rosberg’s gearbox?

    1. Only 9 races in, he hasn’t already taken a penalty for an unscheduled change, this one can’t be old enough? Could be a five place penalty in Germany as well?

    2. They have 5 races before they change the gearbox so I assume it was 4 races old, but since Lewis didn’t race in Australia and only did half the race in Canada, he probably had one a bit younger due to that fact.

      1. It is true Hamilton’s gearbox is younger, but that’s all I know

    3. @andy-m
      3 races they changed it in Montreal i believe , Gearboxes should last 6 races from 2014
      and if you retire in the previous race you can change the gearbox freely as you got a damage already in the previous race

      1. Ah, free change due to retirement then, thanks, that’s settled it!

  7. Alonso has to be driver of the day. Great fight with Vettel.

    1. @aimalkhan Bottas really did a better job. Being over the line at the start is amateurish mistake by Alonso.

      1. Bottas wasnt involved in nearly as many overtakes and battles as Alonso.

        1. Do you have the number of passes somewhere for the whole race for those 2 drivers? Without that, we can see Bottas gaining 12 positions (15 if you count from the 1st start positions) and Alonso gaining 8 positions (10 if you count from the 1st start positions) during the race.

      2. Oh true that, that might actually decide it for me, as I was not sure to go for Alonso or Bottas with my DOTW vote, but forgot that restart mistake. Bottas didn’t really put a finger wrong in the race and got good starts on top of that. That’s for the reminder! :)

  8. Loved Hams crack at the trophy :)

  9. jochenrindt78
    6th July 2014, 15:52

    why was Alonso allowed to serve his penalty during a pit stop??

    1. Because all driver are, with the 5 second penalties. They’re no 10 second stop and go penalties.

    2. New rules for this year.

      With 5 second penalty’s you serve them during your pit stop or 5 seconds will be added to your race time after the race (Which happened to Bianchi at Monaco).

  10. Difficult to say who was the driver of the weekend between Alonso and Bottas. Both drove terrifically (as did pretty much everyone!). I’ll have to give this a thought for the next couple of days!

    1. Neither. They were great in the race day, but qualifying was an absolute disaster.

      1. Quali wasn’t down to driver mistakes though; that was team strategy screw-ups

        1. Still, the drivers should see everyone going out and posting times, and urge their engineers to let them go too. In my opinion, at least, I cant keep the drivers completely innocent.

          1. By the time the drivers will see the last runs part3 times, it’s way too late to react to that, you have to make the call a few minutes earlier already to be there if there was something to be gained. They wouldn’t have had time to get out of pits and do out-lap in time by that time. So it’s really the team’s strategists and those guys who watch the weather data 24/7 and decide the right moments, that should’ve made the call.

    2. I’m thinking exactly the same, Alonso or Bottas for DOTW, since there wasn’t anyone else who excelled in both days and as @raceprouk said, the quali result wasn’t due to driver error or anything to do with their driving. Ferrari seemed as the 3rd quickest car today (after Merc and Williams) as the way Alonso passed RBR, McLaren, FI and others earlier. In that respect I was suprised Button was able to stay ahead nevertheless. Bottas was just obliterating the guys he passed up until he was behind Mercs. Hard to say without Massa (and Raikkonen tbh) how much they extracted from the cars potential since there’s no straight comparison to do, just other teams cars and noone knows how much it was due to cars speed and how much drivers “goodness”. But Bottas or Alonso is the DOTW anyway for me, just have to decide between them.

      1. Bianchi.

        1. Well, Bianchi was also in my mind, qualifying weather conditions just made it hard to really see who did a good lap, it was more of the case, did you go out at the right time. In the race, Bianchi won the battle of the “4 last drivers” but that isn’t suprising. He did a solid job, that’s for sure.

        2. how long for Bianchi to drive the other Ferrari? after Kimi goes in 2016? or when Kimi is forced to go, in 2014?

  11. That fight between Alonso and Vettel was intense! Some of the hardest stuff I’ve seen in a long time. If it was for the lead, like Alonso – Schumacher in Imola, it would’ve been an all time classic.

  12. Quite an exciting race

    What a drive from Alonso and Bottas from the back. That silly grid starting position error cost Fernando the podium today. The scrap with Vettel was pure class, despite the constant crying from Vettel ;)

    1. @todfod) Alonso was pretty good at crying as well.

      1. @HUHHII. You seem to have a personal issue with Alonso. Dont worry, Kimi will bounce back somehow.

        1. @aimalkhan doesn’t seem like @huhhii has anything against Alonso, he was just saying that Alonso similarily cried as did Vettel. If you want to turn it around, @todfod might have something against Vettel for not mentioning Alonso’s part in his post ;) It’s all in the viewers eyes…

        2. @aimalkhan Do I have a personal issue with Alonso? Well, I despise him, but I respect a good drive when I see one no matter if it was my favourite driver or not. As @lari said it was far from a perfect day with Alonso. Stupid mistake at the start plus the crying in the fight vs. Vettel. They both are being fault at stupid radio messages, but Vettel was the winner this time around.

    2. They both “cried” as we all heard. And it was all good fun as they both said afterwards when interviewed. And I think it just spiced up their fight, was great fun to watch.

    3. If you criticise one, you have to criticise the other ;)

      1. @vettel1

        Yeah they both complained a lot..

        I just made that statement to rattle up vettel fans ;)

  13. As Rosberg and Hamilton continue through this season back and forth on points another thought comes to mind again. If one or the the other wins at Abu Double and thereby wins the WDC *only because of the double points*, it will be a travesty.

    1. like Senna winning 1988 WDC with way less points than Prost

    2. I’ve been saying this from day 1 of this new rule’s instigation. Sure BE will be assured of a full audience to the end, but at what cost. There must be a desperation after 4 years of SV/RBR and what a shame. The winner will have won ‘just because…’ and the loser will have been robbed. I think BE knows this which is why he admitted it wasn’t fair, so obviously F1 must be desperate for the ratings. This is why I also agree with what Horner had to say on the matter. If we must have double points, make it for the last 3 races, not just one final lottery race. That way, if a bloke lucks into some big points in the third last race, at least the one(s) being robbed have a few more races to answer to it.

      It’s going to come down to NR and LH for the title. The penalty if one of them gets tapped and spun in the first corner of the last race, and relegated to mid-pack could be hugely unfair…as you say, a travesty, and hugely anti-climactic after a stellar season-long teammate rivalry.

      1. What’s even worse about the FIA’s “desperation”, is that 2 of those 4 yeas went to the final round anyway. One of them even had 4 drivers in contention going to Abu Dhabi without double points.

      2. RBR have a disasterous start to the year and Horner thinks double points should be introduced in last 3 races, what a surprise. Maybe that’s what Helmut is talking about.

    3. Michael Brown (@)
      7th July 2014, 0:03

      Double points doesn’t address an existing issue. The championships since 2006 have been exciting with the exception of 2011 and 2013. The issue is the racing is getting uninteresting because of DRS and Pirellis. Double points won’t fix the fact that Mercedes is walking away with both championships.

  14. I thought that Alonso and Vettel were as bad as each other. Very glad that the stewards didn’t get involved in the end, because it was one of those scraps that we will probably be talking about for a long time!

    1. Fight of the year. One of the two passes has got to be pass of the year too.

    2. Agreed, great fight and fairly equal testing of the track limits. Glad it was decided by the drivers rather than the stewards. That quality of racing deserved to to be left intact.

      1. Amen to that, glad the occasionally overly zealous stewards let them race it fair&square.

    3. Mr win or lose
      6th July 2014, 21:09

      It was a great fight, not ruined by DRS. Although Alonso had no chance to win this battle, his defensive skills were really impressive and he nearly made it. I can fully understand why Vettel was so annoyed during the race. ;)

    4. Yes, it would have been a shame to penalise, bringing both (as they would of had to) in for a drive through would have just ruined the best real racing we have seen for years.

  15. Driver of the weekend will have to depend entirely on the race as it’s hard to choose from the weekend.

    1. Good point @ultimateuzair

      I’ll probably ignore qualy when voting for DOTW. Whether that approach is right is a moot point. All I’ll say is the topsy turvy grid doesn’t reflect raw, driver ability: many of the grid positions were due to good/bad luck and timing by the team strategists.

      For me it’s a toss up between Alonso and Bottas for DOTW but that’s based upon the race only.

  16. how much credit dows Ross Brawn deserves for this W05? If this thing is his brainchild, i wouldnt be surprised at all if Lewis take the Ferrari or McLaren way. I mean, by themselves (Macca and Ferrari) they were quite good, with no brawns or neweys, so any of those teams (plus, being both works team for his engine supplier) is a good option. Besides, if he don’t win right away, he can always says it’s a long term project…

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