British GP Reaction: Explosive Ending!

Lewis Hamilton strolls to victory in what was an explosive British GP with duels between many drivers. Bottas recovered well to finish in second with a bit of luck to claim a Mercedes AMG F1 1-2 podium. Raikkonen limped home to third place after pitting in to change a puncture on the front left.

The Start

Before the end of the formation lap, the British Grand Prix was over for Jolyon Palmer, who pulled over on the Hanger Straight with a hydraulics failure in front of the home crowd. This boy can’t seem to catch a break just as it seems that he was going to hit a purple patch after out performing Nico Hulkenburg at Austria.

Whilst the first couple of corners where clean for all the drivers, once we got to maggots and becketts in sector 2, Kvyat once again got himself caught up in an accident. This time it was with his team mate Carlos Sainz! Daniel Ricciardo got of to a good start, but soon had all his work cut out after being pushed onto the grass by Romain Grosjean who was in no mood to let the Aussie through. Max Verstappen got himself ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari on lap 1 whilst Bottas move himself amongst the Force Indias after starting ninth.

The Middle

Lewis Hamilton stretched his legs in the front and seemed to pull away carrying Kimi Raikkonen along with him. Bottas got past both the Force Indias and Nico Hulkenburg in the Renault. Meanwhile ahead a scrap emerged between the young Dutchman Max Verstappen and the German Sebastian Vettel. Coming to Stowe Vettel shuffled his Ferrari into the inside of the Red Bull driver and proceeded to push him wide. Max Verstappen, having non of this, kept his foot in it and went of circuit and slid his car up the inside into the next corner and returned the favour back to Vettel. Sebastian pitted first for the undercut, which paid off after Verstappen emerged behind him after his pitstop later. Bottas stayed out after picking the harder compound to start on. Daniel Ricciardo continued to work his way up the field with lots of impressive overtaking lap after lap.

The End

Bottas finally pitted and put on the softer compound of tyre to chase down Sebastian Vettel in the last part of the British Grand Prix. Bottas put in some stonking lap times and closed down Sebastian Vettel and overtook him despite the German putting up a strong fight. Bottas pushed on, but we all believed that Kimi Raikkonen was out of reach, then before we knew it on our TV screens we saw a Ferrari trundling slowly with a left front puncture! Kimi pitted and we thought that the podium had slipped away only to then see that Red Bull had brought in Verstappen into the pits for a tyre change in fear that the same would happen to him. Then suddenly Sebastian Vettel’s left front exploded into pieces on the last few laps costing him a chance for a place on the podium, thus giving the third place back to Kimi Raikkonen.

Overall we had a very good race, and with only two left until 2019, we must enjoy them in case the British GP leaves the calendar for good. There was some good recovery drives from Bottas and Ricciardo, tactical battles for what was going to be the best strategy and unpredictability at the end. Honourable mention to Nico Hulkenburg in the Renault for bringing home some solid points for the team.

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