2015 British Grand Prix (Full Race)

If you wanna take another look at the race then check out this video.

Winners and Losers - Great Britain

The 2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix saw Silverstone - and the fickle English weather - throw up a typically unpredictable race. Lewis Hamilton made all the right calls to secure a well-deserved - and very popular - home win, while Williams somehow went from P1 and P2 to missing the podium completely. There were mixed fortunes for Ferrari and Red Bull, but it was an afternoon of disaster for Lotus. We take a team-by-team look at Sunday's action...


Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton, P1
Nico Rosberg, P2

For a while, things looked a bit tense for Mercedes as the Williams duo leapt into the lead at the start, and then Bottas reclaimed second from Hamilton on the fourth lap restart when the latter’s attempt to wrest the lead from Massa went awry at Club. Thereafter Hamilton bided his time before jumping both with a perfect first pit stop. Later he called the switch to intermediate tyres just as perfectly on the 43rd lap, and thereafter it was plain sailing - almost literally - to a third British Grand Prix triumph which brought him level with the Silverstone scores of legends Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell, and broke Jackie Stewart’s 45 year-old record of leading 17 consecutive races between 1968 and 1970.

Rosberg got trapped behind both Williams for the first half of the race, but finally got by them when the rain came. Then he was really flying, slashing Hamilton’s lead as the latter had lost front tyre temperature during the Virtual Safety Car period necessitated by Sainz’s retirement. But just as the Austrian Grand Prix winner was looking very dangerous, Hamilton pitted for intermediates at exactly the right moment, leaving an initially sceptical Rosberg to do another lap. After that his hopes were dashed, and he had to settle for second.


Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel, P3
Kimi Raikkonen, P8

In the early stages Ferrari looked a mess, with Raikkonen sixth and Vettel eighth after starting fifth and sixth respectively. But a good early pit stop for Vettel, allied to his own sound call to stop for intermediates on lap 43rd, secured him a deserved podium finish. Raikkonen looked more like his old self, but lost out on a likely fourth or fifth when he came in five laps too soon for inters, which meant he had to stop again for more as the rain intensified and thus dropped to eighth.


Williams

Felipe Massa, P4
Valtteri Bottas, P5

At one stage Williams seemed a potential winner after Massa and Bottas made brilliant starts to get ahead of the front-row Mercedes. Even when the two of them were fighting one another the red, white and blue cars looked strong, but things began to go wrong when Hamilton jumped both of them in the first pit stops, and then the rain sealed their fate. A podium at the least had looked certain until then, but they were beaten by their own strategy, Ferrari’s and the FW37’s dislike of the wet.


Red Bull

Daniil Kvyat, P6
Daniel Ricciardo, Retired lap 22, electrics

Ricciardo lost a lot of time after nudging the Lotuses into one another at the start, and later retired with electrical gremlins, but Kvyat had a great race to sixth, right on Bottas’ tail. The Russian said his RB11 was handling really well - in stark contrast to his post-race comments in Austria - and suggested that without a spin he could have fought for the podium. He was, after all, running ahead of Vettel in the early stages.


Force India

Nico Hulkenberg, P7
Sergio Perez, P9

Force India looked great as Hulkenberg sat fifth behind the Mercedes and Williams until his pit stop, but he lost three places there and fought back to gain one on his way to seventh. Perez was ninth, giving them a decent haul of points, and overall they came out of the race highly encouraged by the heavily revised VJM08’s debut.


McLaren

Fernando Alonso, P10
Jenson Button, Retired lap 1, accident/engine switch off

Things just don’t get any better for McLaren. This time they lost an innocent Button on the opening lap, after Alonso inadvertently clobbered his team mate while trying to avoid the Ricciardo melee with the Lotuses. After a stop for a new nose the Spaniard scored his first point since rejoining the team, when he lucked into 10th after Ericsson’s four stops.


Sauber

Marcus Ericsson, P11
Felipe Nasr, Did not start, gearbox

Ericsson would have been the recipient of the final point, had Sauber not got themselves muddled to the point where he made four pit stops, two within a lap of each other. A tough race also saw them lose Nasr even before the start, after his car stopped at Stowe, stuck in sixth gear.


Marussia

Roberto Merhi, P12
Will Stevens, P13

Merhi once again led Stevens home in the upgraded MR03Bs, after a prolonged run on worn intermediates saw the Briton slide off the road and damage his front wing on the 47th lap. It was a case of so close and yet so far as they needed three more retirements to reach the points.


Toro Rosso

Carlos Sainz, Retired lap 32, engine cut out
Max Verstappen, Retired lap 4, accident

What had seemed such a promising weekend on Friday ended in disaster for Toro Rosso, as Verstappen crashed out early and was unable to reverse and get back into the race after damaging his front wing, and Sainz suffered complete engine shutdown.


Lotus

Romain Grosjean, Retired lap 1, accident
Pastor Maldonado, Retired lap 1, accident

The race was a catastrophe for Lotus, as an impact from Ricciardo pushed Grosjean into Maldonado on the first lap and resulted in both cars retiring. Shades of Melbourne!

(source: f1.com)

2015 British Grand Prix review

Some of my readers said that the race was boring but in my opinion it was one of the best races this season thanks to Williams!

The start was amazing for both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Massa overtook both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton and so did Bottas. He just couldn't keep his position and lost one spot to Hamilton.

On lap 3 Hamilton did a very stupid move on Massa and almost took both of them out of the race. Lucky for them both he only went off track but Bottas was right behind and took 2nd place from Hamilton. Why take risks like that when you have the best car of the grid? Patience Lewis!

On lap 9 Williams told Bottas to back off and didn't let him overtake Massa even though he was faster.

Now I know it's easy to make race strategies at home while watching the race on TV but it doesn't take a genius to realize that Williams were making a big mistake. If you were in Bottas' shoes what would you do?! The two fastest cars of the grid are behind you and trying to overtake you and your own team tells you to slow down because the slower car must be in front. What is the point of this?! 

I have criticized Williams before for making poor decisions but this was one of the worst in years. Bottas was braking behind Massa for several, several laps destroying his tires etc. and then suddenly they gave him the permission to overtake but it was too late. His tires weren't in good condition any more and Massa didn't leave him any room to overtake. I understand why Massa did this because I wouldn't wanna let anybody pass me either but I can not understand why Williams are working the way they are. Just stupid.

If they had decided to move Bottas to the front right away he could have pulled away for 20 laps, maybe 0,5 sec per lap. Instead they wanted him to stay between a driver who was slower and the two fastest drivers. I have difficulties to calm myself down after all this :D

When they finally pitted, Hamilton managed to overtake both of the Williams' which was no surprise for me. This was because they couldn't pull away in time and had Hamilton behind them from the beginning.

Rosberg didn't pass them during the pitstops but did that on track afterwards anyway. His new tires were working much better and when the rain started it was all over for Williams. The fight for victory I mean.

Kimi Räikkönen did a mistake because he pitted right away when the rain started. Instead he should have stayed out like his teammate Sebastian Vettel. Vettel knew just when to pit. He overtook Kimi and later both of the Williams' thanks to his better tire strategy.

Ferrari's Arrivabene said after the race that if the rain would have increased when Kimi pitted he would have won the race. Probably true but it didn't happen so it is no point of talking about that any further. I already spoke so much about what could have happened with Williams. No more please. I am done. It was a great race but the ending gave it a boring taste. You know... HAM, ROS, VET.

Let's move on to my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams - WRONG. Sebastian Vettel was 3rd after Williams poor strategies.

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. It was his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Surprise: McLaren might get some more points in Silverstone - CORRECT. Fernando Alonso got his first point.

First to crash: Pastor Maldonado, Lotus - CORRECT. He crashed with his teammate Romain Grosjean.

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the British GP

1. Leonardo Machado - 74 points 

2. James Redman - 73 points

3. Jonathan M Yountz - 70 points

4. Peter McLaren - 65 points

5. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 64 points

6. Ryan Lane - 60 points

7. Shaun Magnano - 59 points

8. Larry Gallagher - 57 points

9. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 55 points

10. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 44 points

11. Rich Kewell - 42 points

12. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 40 points

13. Tim Saunders - 36 points

14. Elliott Robson - 31 points

15. Jaakko Iivari - 30 points

16. David Perry - 26 points

17. Dylan Curry - 24 points

18. Daniel Vanderburg - 23 points

18. Archie Donato - 23 points

18. Neil Marchant - 23 points

21. Abijith Kv - 18 points

21. Marcel Kircher - 18 points

23. Yõrt Martö - 13 points

24. Richard Gehl - 10 points

24. Chris Kemp - 10 points

24. Eric Lemens - 10 points

27. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

27. Corey Lea - 8 points

27. Vitor Lobo - 8 points

30. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 6 points

31. Todd Steinberg - 5 points

32. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

32. Tom Maw - 3 points

34. Steven Peli - 0 points

34. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

34. Martin Hubbard - 0 points

We have had 36 different predictors this season.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2015 British Grand Prix - Race

2015 Driver standings after the British GP

2015 Constructor standings after the British GP