British GP: Analysis of the weekend

We are almost at the halfway point of the season and although so far there has been absolute domination by Mercedes, the world championship is very open and fun with the two drivers of the silver arrows separated by only 4 points and all the others fighting for the other positions with duels and overtaking.
Lewis Hamilton can consider himself lucky for once: after the disastrous Saturday in which he finished sixth on the grid while his teammate achieved a daring pole, it seemed that the world championship was slipping inexorably from his hands. Instead, thanks to a good start which allowed him after a few laps to find himself immediately behind his teammate Nico Rosberg in second position, he saw the other silver arrow slow down sadly due to a gearbox problem, forcing the German driver to retire. Nico's fans will be sorry, but this failure, in addition to giving the Englishman victory in his home GP, completely reopens the world championship which remains highly uncertain. It's a shame for Rosberg who so far has proven to be more solid and attentive than Hamilton, so the German must not despair because he knows he has all it takes to win this world championship.

Williams had an incredible weekend: after a disastrous Friday in which both Felipe Massa and Susie Wolff had problems, they were hoping for a good qualifying. And yet the worst was yet to come with the two Williams relegated to seventeenth and eighteenth position due to an incorrect strategy on the part of the pit wall. As if that wasn't enough, Felipe Massa was involved in Kimi Raikkonen's terrible accident which forced him to retire after just one lap of his 200th career GP. And what does Valtteri Bottas do in all this? He achieved an unexpected second podium in his career (in a row), finishing behind Hamilton thanks to a perfect race with a perfect strategy (for once). Never have podiums been more deserved for the man who is proving to be an authentic revelation at the beginning of the season.

Another podium for Daniel Ricciardo and once again ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel. Despite a bad Saturday for the Australian who qualified eighth against his teammate's second place, on Sunday he got the strategy right by making just one stop and managed to take the car to the third step of the podium despite a Jenson Button boarding in the final laps. Considering the second place on the grid achieved on Saturday, we can say that it was a disappointing race for Sebastian Vettel: he completely missed the start and once again chose the losing strategy by making two stops. The duel with Fernando Alonso where he emerges victorious in the end is an anthology, even if the constant complaints on the radio about the Spaniard's behavior could have easily been avoided; years ago we saw much "worse" things and yet everything was within the racing norm.

Excellent weekend for Mclaren who placed both cars in the points. Jenson Button comes close to the podium after the excellent qualifying on Saturday (but we know he is an expert in situations like this), if he had had an extra lap at his disposal he would certainly have arrived on the lowest step of the podium given that Ricciardo's tires they were in crisis; a real shame for Jenson not to have reached the podium in his home race, on the weekend in which he ran with the helmet to remember his father who passed away a few months ago. Seventh was teammate Kevin Magnussen who appeared less on the ball than his teammate throughout the weekend.
Missed opportunity for Ferrari. The chances of making a podium were all there, but they were sensationally canceled out with the disastrous qualifying on Saturday. Fernando Alonso's mistake in positioning on the grid (and subsequent penalty) and Kimi Raikkonen's bad crash a few corners from the start made the Maranello men understand that this weekend was destined to go wrong. A great shame because the comeback that followed by Fernando Alonso was fantastic, as was the duel with Sebastian Vettel in which all the rivalry between the two came to the fore. What was said a few lines ago regarding Sebastian Vettel also applies to the Spaniard: complaints over the radio are better left at home.

Subdued race for the two Force Indias: Nico Hulkenberg didn't take advantage of the fourth place he achieved on Saturday and slipped to eighth place in a fairly anonymous race. His teammate Sergio Perez did worse, finishing on the edge of the points zone in eleventh position, but above all lapped by the leader. Once again the Indian team appears to be inconsistent in performance, which is a shame because the car and the drivers have great potential.
Very important points for Toro Rosso as both drivers finished in the points in ninth and tenth position, confirming the qualifying result. Fortunately this time there were no technical problems stopping the two cars with the drivers having the opportunity to take advantage of the good things the team had done on the car. Daniil Kvyat once again proves faster than his more experienced teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

The Lotus are still doing badly with Romain Grosjean out of the points zone in twelfth position, while Pastor Maldonado suffered the "revenge" of Gutierrez after the accident between the two at the Bahrain Grand Prix: this time it was the Mexican who he saw his car jump with all four tires off the ground due to a contact. Result: both drivers forced to retire. Adrian Sutil and Jules Bianchi (who will drive the F14-T in the test session in place of Kimi Raikkonen) also finished one lap behind the leader, while Kamui Kobayashi and Max Chilton were lapped twice.
Next appointment with the German Grand Prix.

Davide Gambardella