Round 4 started another hectic triple header, with first two races to be held at iconic Silverstone. Coming to Great Britain, the breaking news was, that Racing Point driver Sergio Perez had been tested positive for Covid-19, which meant a 10-day quarantine for the Mexican. The team called in Nico Hulkenberg only at a 24-hour notice.
Mercedes continued where they had left off at Hungaroring. It was obvious, that they were to opt for the medium compound in terms of their tyre strategy. Red Bull and Racing Point were on a similar strategy. The Red Team, on the other hand, sent Charles out on the more durable rubber, whilst teammate Sebastian came out on the softs. Sebastian had had a very difficult start to the weekend, as due to several technical woes, the quadruple world champion had been able to complete only a handful of laps in the free practice sessions. Hamilton hadn't found the flow yet in Q2; the Briton span on his first flyer, bringing lots of gravel on the track. The session was red-flagged with 8:51 remaining in the clock. Mercedes' edge over their rivals was absolutely astronomical, as Bottas was topping the time sheets with a 1.1-second margin to Red Bull's Verstappen! As the session was resumed, everyone rushed out on the soft rubber, except for Sebastian and Stroll in his RP20, who opted for the mediums. However, neither of the drivers managed to improve his lap time, which ruined the tyre advantage for the race. There were two surprise casualties in Q2; Albon failed to deliver for Red Bull, ending up in disappointing P12. Also Racing Point's pace turned out more modest than expected, and Hulkenberg was also knocked out of the final session.
Bottas had topped the game in first two sessions, but you can't ever write off Hamilton from the battle for pole. In Q3 he rose from the ashes, clocking a new track record. However, his Finnish teammate was only one and a half tenths down on the Briton. Verstappen in third was 1.1s off the pace already. After the first runs Stroll was fourth, followed by the two red-suited drivers (Charles 5th and Sebastian 6th). At this point the day seemed quite decent for the Scuderia. However, there was more to come from both Renault and McLaren. Both Ricciardo and Norris made it ahead of Sebastian. Charles jumped third, but only temporarily, as Verstappen rapidly snatched back his third place. Unfortunately Sebastian went slightly wide on his last flyer, which had unforgiving consequences. The German was left in P10 due to his poor performance. A 2-second gap to pole-setter Hamilton was so difficult to accept! Bottas made it a front row lockout for Mercedes once again. Charles made it on the second row alongside Verstappen, which was absolutely the maximum result, considering the current performance of the SF1000. Norris in his McLaren and Stroll in his "pink Mercedes" locked down the third row. McLaren's Sainz in P7 was followed by the Renault duo of Ricciardo and Ocon, leaving Sebastian at the back of the pack.
Racing Point's Hulkenberg hit trouble before the start already. His RP20 was hit with a technical failure so severe, that there was no fixing it in time for the start. McLaren's Norris was the first driver on the grid to start to the race on the soft compound, whilst the top three were on the mediums. The lights went out in nice English weather (partly cloudy and +21 degrees Celsius). Bottas took a superb start from P2, and the Mercedes teammates dived into Turn 1 side by side. Pole-setter Hamilton took the upper hand, going first into Turns 2 and 3. Verstappen and Charles had a thrilling battle of their own. Charles managed to squeeze his SF1000 past Verstappen's RB16, but only temporarily. Max rapidly snatched his third place back. Sainz in his orange McLaren gained two positions at the start, jumping fifth. Teammate Norris, on the other hand, lost two places. There was drama on the opening lap already. Magnussen in his Haas hit the kerb at the second last corner, which made his car jump and slide a bit. Red Bull's Albon saw his chance and dived into the inside of Magnussen. However, Albon placed himself in the blind spot, which caused a collision between the two. Magnussen crashed into the barriers, and safety car was deployed.
Safety car came in on lap 5, and the race was resumed. The order of the top five remained unchanged. Mercedes' race pace was on a whole different level compared to their rivals! Bottas managed to keep the gap to his teammate within 1.5 seconds, but Verstappen in third was utterly toothless against the Silver Arrows. Charles, on the other hand, proved unable to match Max's pace.
Safety car was deployed for the second time on lap 12. AlphaTauri's Kvyat suffered a sudden rear-right puncture, which threw the Russian into the barriers. Everyone rushed into the pits, switching to the white-walled hard compound. The only one to stay out was Haas' Grosjean, who had the medium Pirellis on. The Frenchman was now fifth in the race.
The second restart took place on lap 18. Once again the Mercedes duo quickly vanished into the horizon. Further down in the midfield there was an intense battle between Grosjean and Sainz. Grosjean's defensive moves turned into unsportsmanlike behaviour, as the Haas pilot changed his line at the braking, causing a dangerous situation. But in the end, Sainz made it past Grosjean, taking P5. The Frenchman was shown a black and white flag due to his unsportsmanlike manoeuvre.
The race seemed so boring! The Mercedes teammates were playing "cat and mouse" in the double lead; once Bottas had banged the fastest lap time, Hamilton gave his answer on the sequential lap. Verstappen was over 10 seconds down on the Silver Arrows, and Charles was 20 seconds behind the Dutchman, so it was kind of Sunday driving for the top four. Further down in the pack, Sebastian was struggling badly, as he seemed to have no pace at all. Fighting for one point definitely wasn't where Sebastian would have wanted to be!
However, things intensified towards the end of the race. With ten laps to go, Bottas complained about vibration on the team radio. With only three laps remaining, the Finn was suddenly hit with a front-left puncture in Turn 3! Bottas managed to limp into the pits on three wheels, but when rejoining the track, the Finn had dropped down to P12! Meanwhile, Verstappen pitted for the second time, this time for a fresh set of softs to hunt the fastest lap time. Had the energy drink team had a crystal ball, they wouldn't have taken Max in! Unbelievable but true, race leader Hamilton was hit with a similar front-left puncture to his teammate on the penultimate lap! In spite of limping on a three-wheeled car, Hamilton managed to cross the finish line as the race winner! Pirelli definitely have lots of homework to do, as Sainz, too faced a front-left puncture on the final lap, which dropped the Spaniard out of points. Once again, Charles benefitted from the misfortune of his rivals, completing the podium. Ricciardo was impressive fourth for Renault, with Norris fifth for McLaren. Ocon finished sixth in the sister Renault. Sebastian was just barely able to keep Bottas behind, scoring the last point available and leaving the Finn out of points.
British GP was a catastrophe for Bottas, as Hamilton extended his lead into 30 points in the drivers' championship standings. Verstappen is lurking right behind the Finn, as he is only 6 point down on Bottas. Somebody really needs to challenge Hamilton next week! Such thing as luck isn't said to exist in Formula 1, but still it's interesting, how success and setbacks seem to gather upon certain drivers. Just think, how totally different consequences the Mercedes drivers' punctures had! And think about Charles, who always seems to be "in the right place at the right time". Think about Sebastian, whose whole start of the season has been about fighting one setback after another.
However, next weekend everything is wide open again -theoretically at least. Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
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