Race
Mercedes finally came good and delivered on their phenomenal qualifying pace in true race conditions to pick up an excellent victory in front of a full crowd at Silverstone. Rosberg managed to dodge the tyre problems to pick up the win from Vettel as he failed to finish for the first time this season and held off Webber in the stunning final seven laps of the race to the flag. With a mixture of problems in tyres, failures and safety cars, the British Grand Prix really delivered fantastically in a titanic tussle all the way through the field in the final laps, with Webber and Alonso driving fantastically to get onto the podium. Overall however it raised a lot of issues regarding Pirellis tyres once again to bring the topic back to the fore. The Front Runners Nico Rosberg recovered from a difficult start to keep the pressure on Vettel throughout the race, closing down the gap to him just prior to his gearbox failure, allowing him to inherit the lead and then deliver a champions drive to the finish under pressure from Webber. Hamilton by contrast had a fantastic start, blasting away from the line into the lead, looking in control until lap eight when his tyre let go spectacularly to drop him to the back of the pack. However with a determined drive despite damage to the car and some luck with the safety cars, he recovered to take an excellent fourth and threatened the podium with a quality performance that showed how dangerous Mercedes now are. Mark Webber had quite a day, and after a poor start where he made contact with Grosjean and broke his front wing he struggled through the first stint of the race. However after his first stop for a new wing and tyres he went on his way, and with a well-timed stop at the last safety car he was able to charge from fifth to second in the last seven laps, and with another lap or two he could easily have won the race. Despite that, it still made a fantastic farewell at his final British Grand Prix, where he will be dearly missed. For Vettel, things unravelled with 11 laps to go as his gearbox failed and he ground to a halt after having delivered a fairly impeccable performance. After Hamilton dropped back he was controlling the race and soaking up the pressure from Rosbergs charge, and lost an almost certain victory as bad luck finally struck the German down to cut his title lead to 21 points. Fernando Alonso managed to turn what had been a poor weekend for Ferrari into an excellent finish, racing hard throughout the race and then delivering a blinding final sprint, barging past Ricciardo and four others to take the final podium place and pick up 15 points on a day when the championship leader got nothing. In a difficult weekend, Felipe Massa made an incredible start from 11th on the grid to be fifth by the end of the first lap and was delivering until his own rear left tyre failed on lap ten. After limping back to the pits, he continued pushing and with a little luck from the safety car he ploughed into the top ten and seized sixth place from Sutil on the penultimate lap to close out a weekend for Ferrari that yielded much more than they had expected, however there is still work to do the Italian team. Lotus stepped back into the action this weekend as Kimi Raikkonen looked like he might take a step on the podium until the final stages. After a low top-ten qualifying, both cars showed good pace through much of the race but in the final stages the team made a mistake by not pitting Raikkonen for fresh tyres, and in the final laps he lost out to Webber, Alonso and Hamilton to be relegated to fifth. Grosjean started to develop tyre problems part way through the race and dropped down the order, then retired on the final lap after front wing damage. Lotus however were pleased to take a better result after their poor outings at the last two events, and Kimi Raikkonen broke Michael Schumachers record of 24 consecutive points finishes with his 25th. Adrian Sutil was the lead Force India on a day for the team that turned out a little more disappointing than they might have hoped for. After some excellent pace through the weekend, Sutil drove hard but slipped from a podium finish to seventh in the final sprint to the flag. Paul di Resta drove a strong race to come from a penalised 21st on the grid to finish in ninth, but it wasnt what the team would have wanted after initially qualifying in fifth place. They did however continue to extend their constructors championship lead over McLaren with their double points finish. For Torro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo drove a good race and had strong pace, but felt that a better strategy would have brought them a better finish and was disappointed to drop behind Felipe Massa as they ran on old tyres in the final stages. Jenson Button and Sergio Perez were running consistently in the top ten for much of the race, delivering better pace for McLaren than might have been expected, however they didnt pit late for new rubber and Button was at the mercy of everyone else at the end and was rapidly relegated to 13th place, while Sergio Perez suffered a huge tyre failure on lap 46 after the restart right in front of Alonso. He made it back to the pits but retired, wrapping up a hugely disappointing home Grand Prix for McLaren, adding to their woes.