Vettel holds off charging Hamilton
SILVERSTONE, England: Sebastian Vettel won a thrilling British Grand Prix for Ferrari yesterday to deny Lewis Hamilton a fifth successive home victory and move eight points clear at the top of the Formula One standings.
In a race with two late safety car periods, reigning champion Hamilton went from pole position to the rear of the field before finishing second for Mercedes in a superb fightback.
The Briton appeared drained by the effort, and deeply unimpressed by a firstlap collision with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen that sent him spinning to the back.
Raikkonen ended up a close third, after incurring a 10second penalty.
The win was Vettel’s fourth of the season, 51st of his career, and oncedominant champion Mercedes’ first defeat at Silverstone since 2012 before the V6 turbo hybrid era started.
‘‘You’re a lion,’’ the elated team told him over the radio at the chequered flag as it celebrated Ferrari’s first win in Britain since 2011.
‘‘I was a bit concerned going into the race but I was fine, probably a bit of adrenaline,’’ the German, who had struggled with a neck strain on Sunday, said.
Hamilton was on a charge from the first lap, back up to seventh after nine laps but still 26 seconds behind his fellow fourtime world champion.
The appearance of the safety car on the 33rd of 52 laps, after Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson crashed at Abbey, was greeted with a huge cheer from the 140,500 crowd.
Vettel and Raikkonen pitted but Mercedes kept its drivers out, assuring Hamilton that he was ‘‘the fastest guy by miles’’ with everything to play for on tyres that would last the distance.
Hamilton’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, led and might have won, for a second safety car — after Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Haas’s Romain Grosjean collided — kept the front four nose totail. Vettel passed Bottas at Brooklands five laps from the end, as the Finn’s tyres faded, and Hamilton was also through a lap later and the chase was on to the finish, the German winning by 2.2sec.
New Zealander Brendon Hartley’s race ended before it began with his Toro Rosso team unable to get his car ready to start the race.
Hartley’s scary crash in practice ended his weekend, the damage sustained ruling him out of qualifying and eventually the race itself. He prepared to race and the team tried to get the Hondapowered Toro Rosso ready in time to start from pit lane but ultimately wheeled the car back into the garage without leaving the lane.— Reuters