2015 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, 03-05 July

[nokivasara]

I missed the race and have just watched through the highlights, what a great race! =D>
I'm torn about the rain, it does spice up the races but I'd rather have rain from start to finish than showers on and off during the race. Ferrari and Sauber made bad calls, pitting very early (I think Alonso did too) and lost points by doing so, that's racing I quess.
Williams had incredible speed when it was dry but looked awful as soon as the first drops fell, was it because of the car set up or the drivers?

More races like this and people will stop complaining about the cars being too slow!

[Jordan44]

Well well well, I just got home from one of the most exciting races in recent times, right after people on here slated Silverstone for being boring. It's produced amazing races for as long as I can remember. Never a dull one.

[PlatinumZealot]

Best race of the season! =D>

I think Grosjean needs some more councelling. lol. He dodged a car that was never there! It was him why poor old Jenson crashed out.

Bottas was the faster Williams driver for the first stint, but he looked like an amateur compared to Massa once on the hard tyres. I am in support of those who said Williams should have given a team order for Bottas to pass but it woulnd't have made any difference. Massa would have caught and passed him on the second stint anyway. People forget that Massa finished 36 seconds up the road in the same car. That's an outright trouncing if you ask me.

Kimi, Kimi, Kimi... you couldn't have done anything more embarrassing to your self. Why chicken out and go into the pits so early? Just because your Team mate passed you on track?

Rosberg was super fast when the track got wet the second time. Why did none of the reporters ask the Team why? I know Hamilton said he was losing temeprature and tyre pressure, but it was a realy mystery how Rosberg was able to keep the tyres warm. Thank God Hamilton made the call at the right time. Almost Schumacheresque.

[Jordan44]

Best race of the season! =D>

I think Grosjean needs some more councelling. lol. He dodged a car that was never there! It was him why poor old Jenson crashed out.

Bottas was the faster Williams driver for the first stint, but he looked like an amateur compared to Massa once on the hard tyres. I am in support of those who said Williams should have given a team order for Bottas to pass but it woulnd't have made any difference. Massa would have caught and passed him on the second stint anyway. People forget that Massa finished 36 seconds up the road in the same car. That's an outright trouncing if you ask me.

Kimi, Kimi, Kimi... you couldn't have done anything more embarrassing to your self. Why chicken out and go into the pits so early? Just because your Team mate passed you on track?

Rosberg was super fast when the track got wet the second time. Why did none of the reporters ask the Team why? I know Hamilton said he was losing temeprature and tyre pressure, but it was a realy mystery how Rosberg was able to keep the tyres warm. Thank God Hamilton made the call at the right time. Almost Schumacheresque.

Perhaps Hamilton decided to take it easier than Rosberg because he knew he had something to loose, whereas Rosberg was just pushing for the win, and that worked against him, loosing heat? Pushing to catch the Williams wont have hurt Rosberg's tyre temps.

[Moose]

It may also be a symptom of what we've been observing over the past couple of years - Hamilton has generally been slightly kinder on his tyres than Rosberg.

[Kingshark]

Actually no - only in the last 10 laps were they both in clean air with tires that weren't in some way compromised. During that period, Lewis was 0.5 seconds a lap faster.

Rosberg was 10 seconds behind with 8 laps to go. He was never going to catch Lewis, so I doubt he was pushing.

Also, I'm fairly certain that you don't get to choose what counts and what doesn't. During the drizzling part of the race, both Hamilton and Rosberg had:

1. The same car
2. The same tyres
3. Equal tyre age

The reason to why Hamilton's tyres were supposedly "compromised" was because he allowed them to drop in temperature while Rosberg did not.

[Jordan44]

It may also be a symptom of what we've been observing over the past couple of years - Hamilton has generally been slightly kinder on his tyres than Rosberg.

Nico said before the race his setup is more optimised for cooler conditions. Which would suggest he was working the tyres harder so maybe that contributed a little too.

Verstappen living up to his little Senna name too. Worst driver of the day.

[PlatinumZealot]

Part of the reason why Vettel caught Kimi:

[Juzh]

Part of the reason why Vettel caught Kimi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CowtAuigNz8

Nah, at no point after 1st pitstop was vettel more than 2s behind raikkonen and he would pass him right there if he was still behind him. I think this spin was some time after he passed him already.

[windwaves]

wow, thanks for that. I was going to say how KR continues to sux big time and I see this. Now I can say that he sux big time to the cube !!!!!!!!!!!!

[zeph]

And I thought Williams only bought PU from Mercedes, didn't know they have also bought brainless strategists too. Absolute third rate strategy call. The way they were running so close together, it was EVIDENT that one of the Mercs would undercut AT LEAST one of the Williams at the pit stop. Instead, they should have let Bottas pass and create sufficient gap in front, so that they both could have got comfortably ahead of Mercs after Pit Stops. Not sure if Williams were thinking that they could hold the Mercs for entire race length, if so, absolute nut cases.

Yes, it was clear from the get-go that Merc was waiting for the pitstops to leapfrog them. The RIGHT strategy would have been to have Bottas back them up and allow Massa to disappear in the distance, not have Massa move over!

I'm glad they didn't, mind, you, and I never for one second believe that either Williams could have won the race without Merc running into trouble, either.
I think Williams' only mistake was losing P3 by being late with the wet tires, and even that wasn't a real mistake; that was simply a bloody good call from Vettel/Ferrari.

Bottom line is, Bottas had the green light, and couldn't stick it to Massa. And:

Bottas was the faster Williams driver for the first stint, but he looked like an amateur compared to Massa once on the hard tyres. I am in support of those who said Williams should have given a team order for Bottas to pass but it woulnd't have made any difference. Massa would have caught and passed him on the second stint anyway. People forget that Massa finished 36 seconds up the road in the same car. That's an outright trouncing if you ask me.

That's right. Bottas was marginally faster in the first stint, but not enough to catch Massa (even with DRS). After that, Massa was clearly faster. And not just a little bit.

How would it look if the order had been given, only for Massa to pass him later in the race? Pretty dumb, no?

I can't believe that people feel Williams should have told Massa to let him through. If the boy can race, let him find his way around his teammate. It's not as if he is in contention for the WDC, or way further up the standings than Massa.

Oh, and last but not least, Hamilton's attempted overtake after the SC was a total amateur move.

[nacho]

What's going on with Kimi, this is the third race in a row he's losing the rear end on throttle??? The first one I understand had to do with the engine mapping during pit stop... well it was raining, but this is getting a bit weird. I do remember him crashing in Spa 2008 during rain but can't really remember that he would have had major problems like this before.

[zeph]

Yes, that is very weird. I'm tempted to whip out my tinfoil hat.

[enckboaz]

In addition, I don't understand the comments about Massa letting Bottas to overtake. Aren't we the ones hating team orders saying drivers to let go each other. If Bottas was faster, he should have passed Massa but he wasn't much faster. The reason he was catching Massa was the huge help of the drs.
Sky Reporters to me aren't sincere anymore. When team orders happen, they began to talk how wrong it is. When williams didn't say Massa to let Bottas, this time they said that they should let Bottas overtake Massa.

But they DID gave team orders: not to race each other.
But when they realize that bottas was faster they give him the green light only for a clean pass. with the same car, with the same condition is quite impossible to overtakewith a "clean pass".

it was a team order, and clearly a mistake,

But you want a team order to put Bottas in front of Massa?

What are you complaining about again, because you seem to want team orders any how.

just let bottas make his race, try to pass massa, like every other driver. instead they stop him and erase any (small) chance of winning the race.

[foxmulder_ms]

Rain was a gift for Rosberg and a nightmare for Williams and Raikkonen. I wonder who call for the early tire change, Kimi or the team?