BRITS’ WASHOUT AS Hamilton needs a repeat of 2008’s rain-soaked heroics
LEWIS HAMILTON will today attempt to repeat his sublime wet-weather masterclass of Silverstone 2008 and lift the storm clouds hanging over the British Grand Prix. Four years ago, the British driver kept his head while all his rivals lost theirs in the treacherous conditions to score a famous victory.
With more rain certain to lash the already sodden Northamptonshire track this afternoon, Hamilton will need to show those same levels of courage and control to come through the field from eighth.
His McLaren team-mate Jenson Button finished in 18th, but is likely to start from 16th after driver penalties are enacted, as his home hoodoo continued. Button bombed out before the rain-lashed session was halted for 92 minutes until conditions relented allowing Ferrari’s title pacesetter Fernando Alonso to take pole.
For those fans who defied the drenching and were actually allowed into the track – and numbers were hugely down on last year’s record qualifying crowd of 105,000 – Hamilton, 27, briefly hinted at giving them something to cheer at least.
But after the forced interruption he was suddenly off the pace and admitted: “I am not happy. Eighth is not the best position but that is life.
“I struggled a lot and could not get temperature into the tyres for some reason. I also had no grip and was skidding all over the place. We will try and understand why and fix it. run, I was around 1.8 seconds up on my previous best time. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make that count in terms of my overall lap time. It was particularly wet in the final sector and there was also a yellow flag along the start line.
“That’s the way it is sometimes. It’s the story of my year, really.
“But if it’s a wet race, and it looks like it will be, then the fact that we haven’t put too many miles on the tyres may make me a bit better equipped. You’ve just got to take the positives from the situation.”
Alonso also almost came a cropper in the second session as he skidded onto the grass, but somehow corrected his Ferrari to go on and take pole from Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
Renowned F1 rain-meister Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes having been forced to ditch his motorhome within the circuit and seek refuge in a local hotel because of rowdy fans camping nearby.
Alonso dedicated his pole to Marussia’s reserve driver Maria de Villota who lost her right eye and suffered severe injuries after crashing her car into a truck at a test session at Duxford Aerodrome on Tuesday.