Vettel puts neck on the line to beat Hamilton
SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND — After labouring with neck pain on Saturday, Sebastian Vettel found the perfect tonic 24 hours later: Matching Alain Prost’s total of 51 Grand Prix victories and denying his main rival a record-setting win in his home race.
The German defeated secondplaced Lewis Hamilton on Sunday to win the British GP in front of a partisan crowd and extended his lead in the Formula One championship standings to eight points after 10 of 21 races.
“Sebastian drove a great race, fighting like a lion despite the pain in the neck,” Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said.
Vettel had been hindered by neck pain in the last practice, and wasn’t sure if he’d be able to compete in Saturday’s qualifying session. He acknowledged he had been concerned ahead of the race itself.
“I will feel it a little bit tonight. It doesn’t matter. It held up. The race was fantastic,” Vettel said after claiming his fourth win of the season.
Hamilton, who started in pole position after setting an electrifying track record to beat Vettel in qualifying, was going for a fifth straight victory in his home race and his sixth overall to beat the record of five he shares with Jim Clark and Prost.
But a poor start and disastrous first lap all but ended his hopes, despite Hamilton’s valiant fight back to finish second.
Hamilton started aggressively, causing his wheels to spin and allowing Vettel and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to streak ahead.
Then Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen bumped into the British driver at Turn 3, sending the Mercedes off the track and leaving him last.
“Interesting tactics, I would say, from their side,” Hamilton complained immediately afterward. Later he was quick to say it wasn’t an issue: “I don’t have any concerns.”
The British driver managed to fight his way back after a Ferrari-Mercedes duel developed with Bottas leading until Vettel hit the front again with five laps to go.
Vettel finished 2.264 seconds ahead of Hamilton. “It was a super start, a super race and, yeah, a hammer finish,”
Vettel said.
Montreal’s Lance Stroll was 13th.
Raikkonen, who completed the podium for Ferrari, was handed a 10-second penalty for the early incident involving Hamilton.
The Silverstone circuit was celebrating 70 years since the Royal Automobile Club held a Grand Prix on the former wartime airfield in 1948, when Luigi Villoresi led an Italian 1-2 for Maserati.