Fabulous five for Lewis as he fires up title race
PONTYPRIDD’S Phillip Price warmed up for his debut in the Senior Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl later this month by winning his first European Senior Tour title overturning a three-shot deficit on the final day to land the WINSTONgolf Open crown at Vorbeck, Germany.
Price, a member of Europe’s victorious 2002 Ryder Cup side, started the day three strokes behind American Clark Dennis, but raced into the lead after making five birdies over the first six holes.
Bogeys on the 11th and 13th holes were cancelled out by gains on the 12th and 15th , and Price needed to par the last to secure his first over-50s title by one shot after Thailand’s Thaworn Wiritchant equalled the course record on the links at WINSTONgolf to finish on 13 under par.
On the 18th, Newport-based Price missed the green with his second shot but expertly pitched on, leaving six feet and two putts for a 14 under total score and a maiden Senior Tour victory and a €51,700 pay day.
“I played nice early on and managed to hang on at the end,” said the 50-year-old.
“I’m a little light on Senior titles, so it’s nice to get one under my belt now.”
A three-time European Tour winner, Price had previously finished second, tied fourth and tied eighth in regular Senior Tour events. LEWIS Hamilton slashed the deficit to Sebastian Vettel at the summit of the Formula One championship after a crushing performance at Silverstone to win the British Grand Prix for a recordequalling fifth time.
Hamilton led every lap to the delight of his home crowd as he moved to within just one point of Vettel in the title race after the Ferrari driver suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap to finish in seventh.
His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was poised to finish second but he also suffered a puncture in the closing moments to promote Valtteri Bottas one spot as Mercedes completed a remarkable one-two finish.
Bottas started ninth, but stormed back through the field, including a pass on Vettel with eight laps remaining to the delight of the partisan crowd.
Hamilton destroyed the field in qualifying and his race performance was equally emphatic as he recorded his fourth consecutive win on home turf.
The Englishman has now won the event five times to join Frenchman Alain Prost and Britain’s two-time champion Jim Clark as the masters of the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton, 32, faced a backlash for missing a promotional event in London earlier this week, preferring to take a two-day break on the Greek island of Mykonos with his friends instead.
But after such a crushing display Hamilton will feel as though his decision has been vindicated, with his victory here helping to get his stuttering championship charge firmly back on track.
Hamilton blasted out of his marks to leave a stream of red in his Mercedes mirrors with Raikkonen, Vettel and the fast-starting Max Verstappen jostling for position. Verstappen managed to get the jump on Vettel to demote the championship leader to fourth.
Behind the front-runners Daniil Kvyat is a man under pressure at Toro Rosso and he will have done little to ease the uncertainty surrounding his future after he punted his team-mate Carlos Sainz out of the race.
At the end of lap five the safety car was in, and Hamilton led the field away.
Hamilton was in cruise control but Verstappen was left fending off the challenge of Vettel for third. On lap 13, the two came within inches of a collision as Vettel attempted to pass Verstappen through Stowe and then Club, but the Dutchman held firm.
“He wants to play bumper cars,” Verstappen said over the team radio. Vettel wagged his hand at the teenager, but said nothing over the radio.
Seven laps later however Vettel got his man by virtue of pitting one lap later and leapfrogging the Red Bull.
Hamilton stopped for his one and only change of tyres at the end of lap 25 and left the pits in charge of the race. That looked to be that, before the race came to life in the closing moments.
First, Bottas stormed round the outside of Vettel on the Hangar Straight to move up to third. He quickly took second place as Raikkonen suffered a front-left puncture.
Vettel, also struggling with his tyres, suffered the same fate as his Ferrari team-mate on the penultimate lap. The crowd cheered Vettel’s demise as the German toured the 3.6-mile circuit with bits of rubber falling off his destroyed tyre.
Vettel made it to the pits for repairs but dropped to seventh to make Hamilton’s emphatic afternoon all that much sweeter. Raikkonen completed the podium with Verstappen fourth and his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo fifth.
Fernando Alonso retired from the race following another Honda engine failure, while Britain’s Jolyon Palmer did not even start after his Renault expired on the parade lap.