Motorsport News – July 17, 2019

Advertising enquiries: 0203 405 8110 motorsport-news.co.uk JULY 17 2019 5

ROUND

1.HowLewis
Hamiton wrote his
name in the stars
History will record that Lewis
Hamilton claimed his sixth
British Grand Prix victory –
eclipsing Jim Clark’s
52-year-old record – by a 24.9s
margin from his Mercedes
team-mate Valtteri Bottas. But
an already entertaining race
could have been even closer
had a third party not got
involved at the crucial
moment, enabling Hamilton to
maximise the advantage of
only making one pitstop.
It was Bottas who secured
pole position with his first Q
effort on a blustery Saturday
afternoon. His second flying
lap might have been even
quicker but he fluffed it
early on by losing the rear
of his Mercedes. Hamilton,
desperate to perform in front
of his adoring home crowd,
fell 0.006s short.
Starts have been an
occasional weak point for
Bottas but he made no mistakes
getting away from the line on
Sunday, converting pole
position seamlessly in to the
race lead in the teeth of
continued challenges from
his very determined team-
mate. Running on
medium-compound Pirellis,
both Mercedes stretched
away from a chasing pack led
initially by Charles Leclerc’s
soft-shod Ferrari.

Leclerchadqualifiedwithina

tenth of a second of Bottas and

had an edge on both Mercedes

during Q2. On race pace the

silver cars were too strong,

though, and Leclerc had too

much going on in his mirrors

to put together a challenge

against the leaders.

Hamilton tigered Bottas

throughout the opening stint,

and although Bottas briefly

locked his front-left wheel into

Vale at the end of lap two he

otherwise remained solid in

defence. On the fourth time

around, Hamilton tried to go

around his team-mate on the

outside at Brooklands, couldn’t

quite make it stick, then cut

back in at Luffield and got his

nose ahead on the run to the old

start-finish straight. The

Bottas of old was considered

fragile in wheel-to-wheel

combat but the bearded,

porridge-eating 2019 model is

less of a pushover: the Finn

went to the inside at Copse,

kept his foot in and regained

the advantage.

Keeping the crowd on its toes

was taking its toll on Bottas’s

tyres, though, and Hamilton’s

engineer Peter Bonnington

advised his charge that the

leading car’s front-left was

“opening up”. On lap 16, earlier

than planned, Bottas dived into

the pits for another set of

mediums and Hamilton moved

to the front.

Bottas was marginally

quickerwiththefreshertyres

and would probably have

regained the lead when

Hamilton pitted, though that

was not how the situation

panned out. As Alfa Romeo’s

Antonio Giovinazzi came to the

end of his 19th lap he locked up

his rear wheels and spun into

the gravel at Vale. When it

became clear the car was

beached, race control upgraded

the situation from a local waved

yellow flag to a safety car

deployment. Hamilton

was able to pit for hard tyres,

theoretically enabling him to

run to the end if he could make

them last, while Bottas would

have to make a second stop.

Hamilton emerged in the lead

and never surrendered it – and

broke the lap record on his last

time around, earning an extra

point as he brought the crowd

to its feet. It later emerged that

the drivers themselves had

suggested an offset strategy

in which whoever was second

would take the hard compound

rather than the medium at

the first stop. Bottas therefore

authored his own defeat

by rooting his tyres so

early, committing himself

to two stops.

“Maybe not my luckiest day,

but that’s life,” said Bottas.

“It feels incredible,” said

Hamilton. “To hear that

I have six wins, to be up

there with the greats, is one

of the coolest things.”

3.MaxandCharles

goatit again

“Austriawasquiteaneye-opener

formeintermsofhowfarwecan

goandwhatis accepted,”said

CharlesLeclercintheaftermath

ofa wheel-bashingBritishGrand

Prix.“Thisracewasquitefun

frominsidethecar.”

TwoweeksafterMaxVerstappen

sealedvictoryoverLeclercwith

a controversiallate-racemovein

Austria,thetwoyounggunsfound

themselvescirculatinginclose

companyonthefast,sweeping

bendsofSilverstone.Whatcould

possiblygowrong?

LeclercqualifiedhisFerrari

third,whileVerstappenwasover

a tenthofa secondinarrearsin

fourthplace,thoughthatmargin

wasexaggeratedbytheRedBull

sufferingpronouncedturbolag

inslowcorners.Verstappen

reckonedtheissuecosthimatleast

a coupleoftenthsandpossibly

evena shotatpoleposition.

ThoughLeclercheldontothird

awayfromthestart,Verstappen

harriedhimthroughoutthefirst

stintandemergedfromthepits

narrowlyaheadwhenthey

stoppedonlap13.Verstappen

initiallystruggledonhissecond

setoftyresandranwideatThe

Looponhisout-lap,enabling

Leclerctoreclaimtheinitiative.

OnceVerstappenhadbrought

histyresuptotemperaturehe

closedbackinagainandmadea

lungeuptheinsideintoCopse

onlap18,onlytohavethedoor

slammedinhisface.

“He’smovingprettylate,”

hecomplained,a statement

someofhisrivalsmightconsider

a triflehypocritical.

Thesafetycarperiodthen

separatedthemastheybothmade

secondstops,Leclerca laplater.

Havinglostgroundhebenefited

fromthesubsequentVettel-

Verstappenshunttofinishthird.

“We’vegotsomeworktodoon

ourracepaceandtokeepourtyres

asMercedesandRedBullare,”

saidLeclerc.“Myfavouritemove

waswhenhe[Verstappen]passed

meandI passedhimbackonthe

outsideofCopse.”

2. Has Sebastian
   Vettel already
   checked out of his
   title challenge?
   Sebastian Vettel’s burgeoning
   reputation for choking at
   crucial moments gained further
   momentum as he made heavy
   weather of qualifying and then
   picked up a penalty in the race
   for a clumsy challenge on Max
   Verstappen’s Red Bull.
   Viewed from trackside, Vettel
   never looked quite as committed
   as his Ferrari team-mate
   Charles Leclerc.
   Not only did he qualify three
   places behind Leclerc in sixth,
   he barely improved his time
   from Q1 through to Q3, saying:
   “I struggled to extract what was
   in the car. I couldn’t get the right
   feel, I’m not happy with how
   it went.”
   VettelgotbythesecondRedBull
   ofPierreGaslyawayfromthe
   start,butthenfellbehindagain

after catching the Leclerc-

Verstappen battle for second

and being briefly held up as they

squabbled at The Loop on lap 11.

That enabled Gasly to latch back

onto his tail and claim the inside

line into Village next time around,

a move that seemed to catch Vettel

by surprise.

Gasly then pitted for a second set

of mediums, a stop that appeared

to put him out of the picture for

he then got stuck behind the

McLaren of Carlos Sainz, while

Verstappen and Leclerc also made

what appeared to be scheduled

stops for mediums on lap 13.

That dropped them behind

Vettel and cost Leclerc a place

as Verstappen got out of the pits

first. They then stayed behind

Vettel when he stopped under

safety car conditions seven laps

later and they were called in for

secondstops.

Thesafetycaralsobrought

Gaslybackintoplaybuthedidn’t

have an answer to Vettel’s pace,

and on lap 27 Red Bull ordered

its cars to swap places: Verstappen

surged by into Stowe and set off in

pursuit of Vettel.

Ten laps later Verstappen

swept past Vettel around the

outside in a DRS-assisted move

at Stowe, running slightly wide

at the exit, enabling Vettel to get

back on his tail into Vale.

There Verstappen jinked left

as Vettel lunged for the inside, but

the move was never really on:

there was less than a car’s width

available even before Verstappen

moved. Vettel slammed into the

back of the Red Bull and launched

it into the air.

Verstappen was able to carry

on to fifth place while the stewards

slapped Vettel with a 10s penalty

that left him classified 16th at

the finish.

“I guesshemisjudged

hisbrakinginthere,”

Sebastian Vettel and his Ferrari were off song all weekend before crashing out saidVerstappen.

Charles Leclerc got the upper hand on rival Max Verstappen

FIVE KEY TALKING POINTS FROM SILVERSTONE

Lewis took his chance to

stop under the safety car

The Briton was mobbed

by his fans all weekend