Vettel overcomes pain in the neck to extend F1 lead

After labouring with neck pain a day earlier, 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 yesterday to win the British GP in front of a partisan crowd and extend his lead in the Formula One championship 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 compete in the qualifying session. He acknowledged he had been concerned ahead of the race.

“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 first lap all but ended his hopes, despite Hamilton’s valiant fightback to finish second.

Hamilton started aggressively, causing his wheels to spin and allowing Vettel and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to streak ahead.

Then Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen bumped into the British driver at turn three, sending the Mercedes off the track and leaving him last.

“Interesting tactics, I would say, from their side,” Hamilton complained immediately afterwards. Later he was quick to say it wasn’t an issue: “I don’t have any concerns.”

The British driver fought 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 2.264s ahead of Hamilton.

“It was a super start, a super race and a hammer finish,” Vettel said.

Raikkonen, who completed the podium for Ferrari, was penalised 10s for the incident involving Hamilton.

“That’s how it goes sometimes. Not a straightforward race,” said the Finn, who said he deserved the penalty.

That was no comfort to Hamilton, who quickly worked his way through the back-runners as he posted the fastest lap times.

Driving conditions were ideal under blue skies and temperatures well above the seasonal norms for Britain, though the heat made tyre management tricky for the teams.

“It was very hard with our tyres, fighting against people with brand new tyres for sure. And in a perfect world, I would have had new tyres — but it wasn’t that kind of day for me,” Hamilton said.

Brendon Hartley’s miserable weekend continued as his Toro Rosso was wheeled back early. The New Zealander crashed spectacularly in the final practice.

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.