LEWIS Hamilton, by winning the British grand prix at Silverstone last Sunday, has equalled Jackie Stewart’s record of 27 wins.
Hamilton got caught out in practice by the rain after leading the grid. With only two minutes to go, and Hamilton in the pits, five drivers passed his previous pole position.
We then witnessed a dramatic start to the race when a fortunate Kimi Raikkonen demolished his car after spinning off at high speed into the barriers and bouncing back across the path of oncoming cars.
Fortunately, the latest news on Raikkonen is that he is okay but has bruised legs from the severe impact.
At the restart, Hamilton took off in fourth position but within two laps was second behind Nico Rosberg.
He looked after his tyres and again used less fuel than his teammate before making an all out attempt to pass him.
However, the expected battle between the teammates never materialised as Rosberg encountered gearbox problems on lap 47 and Hamilton swept by into the lead that he was never to relinquish.
This means that the German has 165 points to the Brit’s 161, so we are in for a very challenging and exciting time as we enter the halfway stage of the racing season.
The Renault boys are still down on power compared to the Mercedes-powered cars, but both Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, in their Red Bulls, gave a very good account of themselves.
Ricciardo finished in third spot with Vettel in fifth spot.
The drive of the day I thought came from Valtteri Bottas in the Williams Mercedes.
He finished second after an excellent demonstration of high-speed driving without putting a foot wrong.
Sadly, teammate Felipe Massa was unable to make the restart as he had damaged his car in the aforementioned accident caused by Raikkonen’s Ferrari.
Tremendous reactions on the part of Massa saw him avoid T-boning Raikkonen as he shot across the track.
Massa darted right to avoid the collision but went off the track and damaged his car as well.
It is only a matter of time before Williams has a win this season, not as I misquoted last week in Austria, where they were one, two in qualifying and three and four in the race!
The McLarens performed a lot better at their home track as expected and Jenson Button drove a good race just off the podium into fourth.
Although Ferrari was left with only one car for the race Fernando Alonso once again gave us a display of top driving and, despite the fact that he was penalised for starting outside his grid marker position, he made up time to finish sixth after a great battle with Vettel.
It was a magnificent exhibition of high speed entertainment covered by the British in their usual top class manner. Germany comes next on July 20.
Drivers: 1 Nico Rosberg 165; 2 Lewis Hamilton 161; 3 Daniel Ricciardo 98; 4 Fernando Alonso 87; 5 Valtteri Bottas 73; 6 Sebastian Vettel 70; 7 Nico Hulkenberg 63; 8 Jenson Button 55; 9 Kevin Magnussen 35; 10 Felipe Massa 30.
Constructors: 1 Mercedes 326; 2 Red Bull Renault 168; 3 Ferrari 106; 4 Williams 103; 5 Force India 91; 6 McLaren 90; 7 STR Rosso 15; 8 Lotus 8; 9 Marussia 2.
