106 F1 RACING AUGUST 2019PICTURES
:ZAK MAUGER
;GLENN DUNBAR
;HASAN BRATIC
;MARK SUTTON
Historywill recordthatLewisHamilton claimed
his sixth British Grand Prix victory – eclipsing Jim
Clark’s 52-year-old record –by a 24.9s margin from
his Mercedesteam-mateValtteri Bottas. But an
already entertaining race could have beeneven
closer had a third party notgot involved at the
crucial moment, enabling Hamiltonto maximise the
advantage of only making one pitstop.
It was Bottas who secured pole position withhis
fi rst Q3 effort on a blustery Saturday. His second
fl ying lap might have been even quickerbut he
fl uffed it early on. Hamilton, desperateto perform in
frontof hi s adoring home crowd,fell 0.006s short.
Bottasmade no mistakesgetting away from
the line onSunday, converting pole seamlessly into
the race leadin t he teeth of continued challenges
from hisvery determinedteam-mate. Running
on medium-compound Pirellis, both Mercedes
stretched away from a chasingpack led initiallyby
CharlesLeclerc’s soft-shodFerrari.
Leclerc qualified within atenth of Bottas and had
an edge on both Mercedes during Q2. On race pacePICTURESTHE BRITISH GP
FINISHING STRAIGHT F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPROUND 10 IN 3 KEY MOMENTS
RACE DEBRIEF
(^1) Bottas defeats himself regardlessof Safety Car intervention
2
Vettel’s season goes
from badto worse
Even if the Safety Car hadn’t
been scrambled, Hamilton
would likely have still beaten his
Mercedesteam-mate Bottas
the silver cars weretoo strong, though, andLeclerc
had too muchgoing on in his mirrorsto challenge.
Bottas defended well early on butkeeping the
crowd on itstoes was taking itstoll on his tyres.
Hamilton’s engineerPeter Bonnington advised his
charge that the leading car’s front-left was “opening
up” and the worldchampionhung back, waitingfor
his planto cometoge ther. On lap 16, earlier than
planned, Bottas dived into the pitsfor another set
of mediums and Hamilton moved ahead.
Bottas was marginally quicker with fresher tyres
and would probably have regained the lead when
Hamilton pitted, though thatwas not how it panned
out. As Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi cameto
the end of his 19th lap a wheel rim failure spun him
into theVale gravel. Hamilton pittedfor hard tyres
under the ensuingSafety Car, theoretically enabling
him to run to the end if he could make them last,
while Bottas would have tostop a second time.
Hamilton emerged in the leadand never
surrendered it – and broke the laprecord on his
last time around. Itlater emerged the drivers
SebastianVettel’sburgeoningreputation
for choking at crucial moments gained further
momentumas he made heavy weather of qualifying
and thenpicked up a penalty in the racefor a
clumsy challenge on MaxVerstappen’sRed Bull.
Viewed from trackside,Vettel never looked quite
as committedas his Ferrari team-mate Charles
Leclerc. Not onlydid he qualify three places behind
Leclercin sixth,he barelyimproved his time from Q 1
to Q3, saying, “I struggledto extract what was in the
car. I couldn’tget the rightfeel, I’m not happy.”
Vettel gotby the secondRed Bullof Pierre Gasly
away from the start, but thenfell behind again after
themselves hadsuggested anoffset strategy in
which whoever was second would take the hard
compound rather than the medium at thefi rst stop.
Bottas therefore authored hisown defeat...