RACE DEBRIEF
F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4
THE BRITISH GP IN 3 KEY MOMENTS
1 Mercedes leaves no room for complacency
“I don’t think we have seen how fast Mercedes can go during the race. They just tell their drivers what I’m doing in terms of lap times and adapt to save their tyres. Mercedes didn’t push yet, so we haven’t seen the real gap.”
Max Verstappen was adamant before the British GP that Mercedes kept performance in hand while sweeping the first three races of the season. Its average qualifying gap over the first four events was 0.999 seconds. At Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton took pole with a lap 1.022s faster than Verstappen’s RB16. The signs were ominous…
Late-race tyre chaos aside, it was another dominant display. Hamilton recovered from a slightly tardy start to control the race from start to finish – chased gamely but fruitlessly by team-mate Valtteri Bottas. With just over three laps to go, Mercedes was on for another 1-2 finish with Verstappen more than 14s in arrears. No sweat. Then chaos…
As Bottas later related, if the second Safety Car period – called after Daniil Kvyat’s monster shunt at Maggots – hadn’t messed with Mercedes’ strategy, those hard Pirellis would have been fitted later and likely maintained their integrity. Perhaps debris from Kvyat’s crash and Kimi Räikkönen’s shattered front wing was to blame? In which case, just tough luck rather than any DAS-related consequence. Mercedes could also have asked its drivers to back off, but admirably chose to let them duke it out.
Hamilton limped home less than six seconds clear of Verstappen, suggesting Max might have nicked the race had he not made a precautionary stop after Bottas’ left-front tyre let go. But that ignores Red Bull’s fear Max wouldn’t last the distance either.
“The tyre that came off
