Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton on Sunday won the British Grand Prix (for the third year in a row) in a thrilling race that began behind the safety car due to standing water on track following the downpour at Silverstone.
Hamilton led from start to finish in his Silver Arrow to complete a dominant weekend at his home Grand Prix having posted the fastest times in practice before snatching pole with his final run in Q3 earlier in the weekend.
His team-mate and Championship leader, Nico Rosberg and Red Bull’s precocious sensation, Max Verstappen finished second and third respectively to fill up the podium.
However, post-race, Rosberg and Mercedes were handed a 10-second penalty by the stewards for breaching restrictions on pit-to-driver radio communication. The German was told by the team, over the radio, on how to find his way around a gearbox problem encountered with six laps to the end of the race.
Consequently, Rosberg drops to third while Verstappen (who was second at some point in the race after brilliantly overtaking Rosberg on lap 16) moves to second in the race classification. Mercedes have lodged an intention to appeal the decision.
Rosberg’s lead over Hamilton on the drivers’ standings which was cut to four points after the race has now dropped further to just one point following the 10-second penalty.
Hamilton, who, six races ago (after the Russian Grand Prix), trailed Rosberg by 43 points is now close to turning things around and has the momentum following four wins in the last five races.
The Rest of the Points Scoring Positions
Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth (for the fifth time this season) and behind team-mate, Verstappen for the fourth time since the youngster joined Red Bull from Toro Rosso two months ago.
Kimi Raikkonen, who was re-signed by Ferrari for 2017 at the weekend, finished fifth in an underwhelming race for the Maranello outfit who’s other car (Vettel’s) finished ninth and with a 5-second penalty for forcing the Williams of Felipe Massa off the track at turn three.
Sergio Perez finished sixth ahead of Force India team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg who was seventh while the Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Danil Kvyat were eight and tenth respectively.
Button’s Wait for a British Podium Continues
Given his sixth-placed finish last time out in Austria, Jenson Button (the longest-serving F1 driver at present) came into this weekend’s race on the crest of a wave, however, with an uninspiring British-Grand-Prix record: 16 races with no podium finishes (let alone a win).
The chances of mending his past performances in his home race this weekend were slim due to the inferior state of the Honda engine in his McLaren when compared with the fastest cars.
His 17th British Grand Prix would eventually end outside the points positions as he finished 12th, one spot ahead of the other McLaren of Fernando Alonso.
What Next?
The in-season tests take place this week at Silverstone after which the teams assemble at Hungaroring for the eleventh race on the calendar- the Hungarian Grand Prix- on the 22nd of July.
