Nico Rosberg powered to his second victory of the season at the British Grand Prix, winning a dramatic race at Silverstone which saw early leader Lewis Hamilton suffer a high speed blowout – one of four spectacular Pirelli failures on the day.
This handed the lead to Sebastian Vettel who looked to be cruising to another victory until the gearbox on his Red Bull packed up within sight of the finish line.
Rosberg said afterwards, ”It is a very special day. We are progressing all the time so it’s a very special day for me and the team today.”
“With Lewis, I feel sorry for all the British fans. It would have been great for Lewis. It’s always a massive disappointment but that’s racing. Sebastian stopped, I won’t lie, I wasn’t disappointed by that one. From then on, it was just a great race from then,” added the German.
Mark Webber recovered from a bad start, which saw him damage the front wing on his Red Bull, and end up challenging for the win right up the the finish line.
Webber reflected, ”It was frustrating, but the boys did a great job. There were a lot of issues with the tyres and we were lucky and it was a clean race for us.”
With Vettel not scoring it was a double bonus for Ferrari and Fernndo Alonso who turned a well below par qualifying into a podium finish with third place, after a typically strong showing when it mattered.
“It was a good race for us. We got lucky to recover some points and it was a good result for us in the end. We know we have a lot of work to do and now we look ahead to the next race,” said Alonso.
Vettel was disappointed but pragmatic, ”It would have been a nice race to win. It’s difficult to feel inside the car what is wrong, and I saw Lewis’s problem with his tyre and we were told to avoid the curb and maintain position. We have to come back again next year and try to win.”
The tyre failures which afflicted four drivers – Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Jean Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez – will no doubt dominate the headlines in the aftermath of the race.
Hamilton also got by Raikkonen to end his dramatic day fourth after an impressive recovery from the back of the field. At the time of the blowout the Briton was leading comfortably, and when the incident happened shortly after the start/finish line, few would have given him any chance of recovering to where he did.
“The safety is the biggest issue, it’s unacceptable,” said Hamilton. “We had that tyre test to improve the tyre and to have four blowouts is unacceptable. It’s only when someone gets hurt that someone will be doing something about it. I think it’s a waste of time talking to the FIA, and if they don’t do anything that says a lot about them.”
Raikkonen crossed the line fifth.
Also delivering a strong recovery after a similar blow out to Hamilton, was Felipe Massa who finished sixth after being demoted to the back when his left rear Pirelli burst. The result, coupled to Alonso’s showing, provided the reds with a healthy and much needed points haul.
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