Verge Visits: British GP with Formula1

This weekend Verge were lucky enough to experience the ultimate in British Racing with F1 at Silverstone. From the celeb-watching to seeing epic driver battles, we loved every second.

It was a fantastic race, won by Lewis Hamilton, who had been the outright favourite going into the event. But the Englishman had to dig deep to get the better of his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team-mate and worthy opponent Valtteri Bottas. Naturally, the win was hugely popular with the massive crowd, a record 141,000 on race day and 351,000 over the weekend from Thursday onwards.

The Mercedes duo were not alone in putting on a show. It would be hard to point at the key moment of Sunday’s race: the duel between Hamilton and Bottas right from the start, or between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen and the fight between the young Ferrari driver and Pierre Gasly? Or what about the robust passing move that Verstappen used to get ahead of Sebastian Vettel and then the mistake from the German? Or maybe it was Hamilton’s final lap, when he just beat his team-mate to set the race fastest lap, even though he was running Hard tyres that had already covered 32 laps? Whichever moment impressed most, whether seen at the track or on a screen, this tenth round of the 2019 season will be remembered as a classic.

This was Hamilton’s seventh win of the season, the 80th of his career and, most importantly the sixth in this race, which makes him the outright record holder for British Grand Prix wins. This was win number 96 for Mercedes and the seventh one-two of the season, their 51st in total.

The duel beween poleman Bottas and Hamilton had the crowd on its feet in the early stages, but in the end, the decision went down to a bit of luck. The Finn had fought off the advances of the championship leader and then pitted before him, opting for a new set of Medium tyres, aiming for a two stop strategy. Hamilton however decided to go for a long first stint and when the Safety Car was called after Antonio Giovinazzi went off the track, he pitted immediately for a set of Hards, which meant he could go all the way to the checkered flag. Coming out of pit lane, Hamilton just had to control the race from then on, which he did with his usual style. Bottas was always a safe distance behind, never more than 3.1s, up to lap 45, when the Finn had to pit again to comply with the rule of fitting at least two tyre compounds. On used Softs, Bottas tried to at least bring home the point for fastest race lap, but even this was denied him by Hamilton, with a mind-blowing final lap, setting a new track record in 1.27.369.

The checkered flag was waved by the musician Stormzy, one of many celebrities who attended the race. Others included the James Bond actor Daniel Craig and Millie Bobby Brown, Mel B and basketball player Chris Bosh. Lewis then calmly savoured the taste of victory, with a gentle slowing down lap, as he buzzed the grandstands to pay tribute to the home crowd. It was a truly special win for the five times world champion.

Charles Leclerc finished where he started, but his route to the third step of the podium was far from easy. He did a great job of fending off a hard charging Verstappen, but then the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing man overtook the Scuderia Ferrari driver in the pit lane when they both made a tyre stop on lap 13. But Leclerc did not take long to re-pass the Dutchman. When the Safety Car came out, Verstappen was immediately called in for a second stop to fit Hard tyres and therefore run to the end, while Ferrari first called in Vettel on lap 20 and only brought his team-mate in next time round. It meant Vettel kept his third place but Leclerc found himself behind both Red Bulls, as Gasly had pitted on lap 10 to fit Hards.

On lap 36, the Ferrari man managed to pass Gasly with a lovely move and then made the most of the heavy collision when Vettel ran into the back of Verstappen just after he had been overtaken by him, on the following lap, to go back up to third. From then on, the top five places remained unchanged, with Gasly finishing ahead of his team-mate for the first time this season. However, the winner of the Austrian Grand Prix did still manage to finish the race with a damaged car and in a far from happy mood, although Vettel did the decent thing and immediately apologised once the cars reached parc ferme. It was a really disappointing afternoon for the man who had won this race last year and it is also the first time this season he has finished outside the points.

A strong performance from Carlos Sainz in this exciting Grand Prix saw him finish sixth. Disappointed in yesterday’s qualifying, as he failed to get into Q3, the Spaniard made the most of the Safety Car appearance to close on the drivers from the top three teams, then defending his position tooth and nail from the advances of Daniel Ricciardo. Renault also got Nico Hulkenberg home in the points in 10th place, while between them, Kimi Raikkonen was eighth while Daniil Kvyat did a great job to move up from 17th to ninth at the flag.

After the tenth round of the season, Lewis Hamilton is now running away in the lead of the Drivers’ classification, 39 points ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas (223 ro 184) and Maxi Verstappen in third has extended his lead over Vettel by 13 points. In the Constructors’ table, Mercedes has already gone over the 400 point mark, with 407 to be precise, a huge lead over Ferrari second on 243 points. Red Bull is third on 191. The next round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the FORMULA 1 MERCEDES-BENZ GROSSER PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2019, takes place at the Hockenheim circuit on 28 July.

The 7th round of Formula 2 concluded on a high note for the British Grand Prix fans as local hero and Renault F1 3rd driver Jack Aitken charged from P4 on the grid to the lead of today’s Sprint Race. His formidable speed and slick overtaking moves made for a great win on home soil, regaling the numerous fans. Louis Delétraz, who had lunged to P1 from second on the grid at the start, was denied his first F2 win but remained happy with another podium finish in 2019. Championship leader Nyck De Vries salvaged a trying weekend with 3rd place today and added valuable points to his title race. His closest rival Nicholas Latifi lies 2nd in the Championship standings, 31 points behind the Dutchman. Yesterday’s Feature Race winner Luca Ghiotto was pointless today but remains 3rd. In the Teams’ Championship, DAMS are still leading by 47 points over UNI-Virtuosi whilst ART Grand Prix lie in 3rd with a 51 point deficit to the British team.

Today’s Formula 3 race saw another Hitech Grand Prix driver take the win: Italian ace Leonardo Pulcini carved his way through the field from P5 on the grid to cross the finish line ahead of Robert Shwartzman. Kiwi Liam Lawson, who had started from reverse pole, claimed third thus enjoying his and MP Motorsport’s maiden F3 podium. Lawson also becomes the youngest driver on the rostrum this season at 17 years old. With this result Shwartzman reclaims the top of the Drivers’ Championship on 114 points, ahead of team-mate Jehan Daruvala (102) and yesterday’s race winner Jüri Vips (92). In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA Racing’s supremacy continues after amassing a grand total of 67 points in Silverstone. Hitech Grand Prix have moved up to second with a 166 point deficit to the Italian squad. ART Grand Prix have slipped to third.

Formula 2 and Formula 3 will return to action at the Hungaroring next August 3 and 4.

P.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Gap
1st	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	52	1:21.08.452
2nd	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	52	+24.928
3rd	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	52	+30.117
4th	Pierre Gasly	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	52	+34.692
5th	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	52	+39.458
6th	Carlos Sainz	McLaren F1 Team	52	+53.369
7th	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	52	+54.401
8th	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	52	+65.540
9th	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda	52	+66.720
10th	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	52	+72.733
11th	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	52	+74.281
12th	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda	52	+75.617
13th	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	52	+81.086
14th	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	51	+1 lap
15th	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	51	+1 lap
16th	Sebastian Vettel*	Scuderia Ferrari	51	+1 lap
17th	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	51	+1 lap
NC	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	18	DNF
NC	Romain Grosjean	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	9	DNF
NC	Kevin Magnussen	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	6	DNF