Hamilton voted top driver of British Grand Prix

2013 British Grand Prix

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It was heartbreak for Lewis Hamilton in the British Grand Prix when a tyre failure cost him the lead of his home race.

Despite falling to the rear of the field he fought back to finish fourth – a performance F1 Fanatic readers decided was worthy of winning Driver of the Weekend.

Mark Webber had a similar recovery drive to second following a poor start and Fernando Alonso’s efforts in bringing his Ferrari home second was also recognised.

But race winner Nico Rosberg ranked eighth in the poll with just 2% of the vote.

1. Lewis Hamilton

Started: 1st
Finished: 4th

Hamilton set pole position with a superb lap and we looked set for a gripping battle as Sebastian Vettel edged closer to him early in their first stint. Then Hamilton’s left-rear tyre exploded and after crawling to the pits he fell to last place.

Despite the disappointment Hamilton got his head down and passed several of his rivals in the final stint, just falling short of finishing on the podium.

Absolutely storming pole lap, and an immensely impressive recovery from some rotten luck. Given his pace, if he hadn’t suffered the tyre letting go he would have easily picked up the win, even if Vettel hadn’t retired.
Lewis McMurray (@Celicadion23)

Half a second quicker than the second place on Saturday, was leading convincingly on Sunday until his tyre gave up. Probably would have won the race.

On the last restart he was in ninth place and with old tyres came up to fourth and with a few more laps would probably pass Alonso. Great race by him.
@EdMarques

A fantastic qualifying lap, and he had a great race as well, initially edging away from Vettel and Rosberg, later fighting his way through the field. It would have been a perfect drive for him if he had managed to get by Di Resta in the second stint, which would have moved him onto the podium I believe, but at that point he had the oldest tyres of anyone on track.
@Adrianmorse

2. Mark Webber

Started: 4th
Finished: 2nd

Webber got closer to out-qualifying Vettel than he has all year – just nine thousandths of a second separated the pair on the second row. But he threw a good grid position away with a poor start and also damaged his front wing.

Even before changing his front wing he’d already started to make up places. Once he had it replaced Webber used a late-race tyre change to great effect, making his way up to second. He fell short of catching Rosberg by less than a second.

A good race with a lot of good overtakes and could have won if it wasn’t for the length of that last Safety Car period.
@Melchior

3. Fernando Alonso

Started: 9th
Finished: 3rd

The Ferrari did not look competitive at Silverstone: Felipe Massa failed to even get into the top ten during qualifying.

Alonso did, and with good strategy at the end of the race he was able to pick off several rivals to claim the final podium spot and a useful 15 points on a day when he biggest championship rival didn’t finish.

The high speed balance of the Ferrari was awful, and around Silverstone, that’s a major penalty.

OK, he benefited for tyre failures and other retirements in the race, but once again his sheer brilliance managed to drag a result out of a car that simply wasn’t up to it. During the race he is the best man on the grid, and the race is when they hand the points out.
@William-Brierty

Alonso survived three serious situations: he avoided contact with Webber and Grosjean at the start; the Ferrari crew misjudged his release and he avoided contact with Grosjean in pit lane; and he avoided contact with Perez when the McLaren’s left-rear tyre burst. And he showed us a lot of clever overtakes.
Yuya (@John-Locke)

2013 Driver of the Weekend results

RaceFirstSecondThird
Australian Grand PrixKimi Raikkonen (51.2%)Adrian Sutil (17.9%)Jules Bianchi (13.6%)
Malaysian Grand PrixMark Webber (34.2%)Sebastian Vettel (17.4%)Nico Rosberg (13.6%)
Chinese Grand PrixFernando Alonso (47.0%)Daniel Ricciardo (18.2%)Kimi Raikkonen (15.6%)
Bahrain Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (32.2%)Paul di Resta (17.8%)Fernando Alonso (11.9%)
Spanish Grand PrixFernando Alonso (61.4%)Felipe Massa (10.8%)Kimi Raikkonen (10.5%)
Monaco Grand PrixNico Rosberg (54.3%)Adrian Sutil (22.2%)Kimi Raikkonen (9.6%)
Canadian Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (36.8%)Fernando Alonso (24.6%)Jean-Eric Vergne (14.0%)
British Grand PrixLewis Hamilton (52.5%)Mark Webber (18.4%)Fernando Alonso (10.2%)

2013 British Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Hamilton voted top driver of British Grand Prix”

  1. Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
    12th July 2013, 12:03

    Rightly so. Great drive by Lewis, but Mark and Nico did well too.

  2. Once again the efforts of smaller drivers go unnoticed. Don’t get me wrong Webber and Alonso had top drives in the race but they both had pretty scrappy qualifying so I’m not sure how the merits them as driver of the weekend.

    What about Ricciardo, qualified an amazing 6th (considering his teammate was 12th). Lost out due to strategy but still salvaged points.

    1. Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
      12th July 2013, 12:14

      +1

    2. The DOTD bias will always be towards the top teams, as they’re the ones getting the most media and TV coverage.

  3. I’m not really sure what Webber did which was better than his team mate.

    1. Agree. If I had to pt one Red Bull driver as driver of the weekend, it would definitely be Vettel. Webber did nothing noteworthy in this entire race

    2. True, this driver of the weekend polls are never objective, some are more than others I agree, but this is a clear example of skewed results that’s why I never vote anyway.

  4. HAM is deserved, but WEB and ALO did nothing to earn this, there were much better deserved drivers, DIR RIC VET to mention a few

    1. Agreed 100%.

    2. Agreed 100%.

    3. Agreed between 99 and 101%.

    4. yuya (@john-locke)
      13th July 2013, 7:45

      Absolutely disagree. As this poll result shows.

  5. I would think MAS deserved the third spot more than ALO.

    ALO slept off for most of the race and got lucky with others’ troubles around him.

    1. Yes, maybe MAS was more impressive than ALO all things considered.

      But to say ALO ‘slept off’ for most of the race and was lucky to inherit third is absurd. The farther up the grid you are, the more difficult it becomes to gain places. He did well to get a podium.

    2. ALO slept off for most of the race

      Well, if he managed third by sleeping, I guess it is even more remarkable.

      1. yuya (@john-locke)
        13th July 2013, 7:52

        +10000000
        If he slept , he had managed 4 serious situations(3 almost hitting moment and he avoided tire burst as mr hamashima, (ferrari tyre director)he said on twitter “At end of first stint, Alonso came in pit by himself order because he understood something happened on right rear tire by checking mirror)

  6. Miguel Sampaio
    12th July 2013, 16:19

    What about Felipe Massa?? He did one heck of a start, had a tyre blowout just like Hamilton that sent him to the back and he managed to finish 6th, just 3 places behind his teammate! I believe he deserved a top 3 place, just like Hamilton and Webber!

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      14th July 2013, 12:10

      That start was sick – definitely deserves a top 3.

  7. dodge5847 (@)
    12th July 2013, 17:59

    So Alonso is the most consistantly in the top three, it would be nice to see a mini championship here on this website for driver of the weekend, say 25 points for a win, 18 points for second, 15 points for third, nothing for forth. I would guess over the season it would look very similar to the main championship, only we don’t award for the best car, just the most outstanding driver.

  8. Webber gets the sympathy vote again… what did he do of note apart from benefit from things out of his control? Vettel had him covered all weekend when it mattered and had at least 2nd even before Hamilton’s tyre went

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