It was an eventful and at times very close race, but the British Grand Prix was an affair dominated by tyres. Even the winner, Nico Rosberg, was not immune. The Mercedes driver described himself as fortunate after a Safety Car-prompted unscheduled stop allowed the Silver Arrows to change a heavily compromised tyre.
Early tyre failures
Others were not so lucky. Starting from pole, Lewis Hamilton was 2.2 seconds in front of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull when the Mercedes suffered a sudden and dramatic collapse of the left rear. This happened not long after the start of lap eight, meaning Hamilton had to limp the best part of three miles to the pits. It would be the prelude to a great drive from 22nd and last to an eventual fourth place.
Hamilton was assisted in his comeback by two Safety Car interludes. The first, on lap 16, was caused by the need to clear debris from another left-rear failure, this time on the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne. Six laps before that, Felipe Massa spun out of fourth place following a great start from 11th on the grid. Again, a left-rear tyre failure was the villain. The failure occurred at almost the same point on the circuit as Hamilton’s problem.
By now the alarm bells were ringing. Track temperatures were higher than the final free practice session (the only true dry session) and cars were heavy with fuel but, in the flurry of pit stops under the Safety Car, a number of rear tyres (including Rosberg’s) were found to have cuts.
Warning: stay off the kerbs
Drivers were immediately warned to avoiding riding over the kerbs; a difficult request on such a high-speed track, particularly when battles were rejoined at the re-start on lap 22 and drivers were going for it. Hamilton was up to eighth at this point.
The second Safety Car came to his aid on lap 41. This one had nothing to do with tyres, Sebastian Vettel causing the appearance of the official car after he had ground to a halt on the pit straight. Having assumed the lead when Hamilton ran into trouble, the Red Bull was 1.6 seconds ahead of Rosberg when he lost fifth gear. It was the world champion’s first mechanical failure since Italy last September.
With 11 laps remaining, the Safety Car was a chance for drivers to make an unscheduled change of tyre. Fearing the loss of track position, some chose not to. A wrong move as it turned out. Rosberg managed to get in and out of the pits without losing his lead. Mark Webber, having made a poor start from fourth on the grid and dropped to 14th on lap one, had made a strong recovery to fourth and decided to change tyres.
Kimi’s team get it wrong
Lying second, Kimi Raikkonen asked to stop, but the Lotus team denied the request. Adrian Sutil also stayed out in the Force India. From the moment the Safety Car disappeared on lap 46 (with six laps remaining), Webber was all over the Force India, taking third almost immediately and demoting an unhappy Raikkonen a lap later. Räikkönen’s mood was not helped when Fernando Alonso, fifth at the time of the Safety Car, also muscled past the Lotus thanks to a stop for fresh tyres, Hamilton doing the same on the penultimate lap
Webber, having decided to quit F1 at the end of the season, was making the most of his final Grand Prix appearance at one of his favourite tracks as he chased after Rosberg. The two swapped fastest lap after fastest lap, Rosberg holding off the Red Bull by 0.765s at the end of 52 laps.
‘A crazy race,’ said Rosberg as he celebrated his second win of the season, the signs being that Mercedes are starting to get on top of previously disastrous tyre wear problems.
What now Pirelli?
Pirelli, meanwhile, have their own problems. The Italian tyre company have launched an immediate investigation prior to the German Grand Prix next weekend and Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motorsport director, would only say that ‘there might be some aspect to this circuit that impacts specifically on the latest version of our 2013 specification tyres.’
Whatever the reason, F1 had a lucky escape on such a high-speed race track.