Lewis Hamilton scored his hat trick of Silverstone victories in a rain-hit British Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion finished the 52 lap race by 6.9 seconds over Rosberg. The series leader is being investigated for a breach of radio rules.
Max Verstappen made his second successive podium appearance for Red Bull with third. The teenager was fighting the Mercedes most of the race.
Verstappen nearly grabbed second when Rosberg ran into late gearbox problems.
The championship leader was told to shift quickly through seventh gear and given a line of advice on settings.
The British Grand Prix started with six laps behind the safety car after a heavy shower, though it had stopped raining by the time the race began.
Several drivers, led by Kimi Raikkonen in fifth, dived straight into the pits for intermediates when the safety car pulled in but Hamilton, Rosberg and Verstappen opted to stay out.
It proved to be smart decision as the virtual safety car was introduced when Pascal Wehrlein beached his Manor in the gravel, allowing the top three to pit and rejoin with a sizeable distance on the rest.
Verstappen coped with the drying track better than Rosberg, carrying far more speed through Becketts and then passing around the outside within the high-speed complex for second before pulling away.
Sebastian Vettel started the trend for dry tyres soon afterwards, with the top three maintaining the same order as they moved to slicks.
Hamilton and Verstappen were caught out by a puddle at Abbey (Turn 1), pitching them over the runoff and allowing the top three to close to within five seconds just past half-distance.
Rosberg was quicker than Verstappen as the track continued to dry and after complaining that the Red Bull driver moved too many times in defence, he eventually made the pass to grab second around the outside of Stowe.
Rosberg then closed on Hamilton, getting the gap down from eight to six seconds before the gearbox scare halted his chase.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth for the fifth time in ten races this season, with mid-race Raikkonen fifth after a late pass on Sergio Perez – who had gained ground by staying out on wets as long as the leaders – into Stowe.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Vettel, who held onto ninth despite a five-second time penalty for forcing Felipe Massa off track at Village.
Raikkonen, Perez and Sainz all escaped track excursions and spins at Abbey on the same slippery patch that caught out Hamilton and Verstappen.
Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten to ensure Toro Rosso’s fourth double-points finish of the season.
Massa missed out on points in P11 ahead of Jenson Button, who started P17, and Fernando Alonso, who had a spectacular spin at Abbey and nudged the barrier before continuing.
Jolyon Palmer had a messy home race, with a ten seconds stop-go penalty after his Renault team released him in the pits without a right-rear tyre, and retired late on.
Rio Haryanto spun out at Abbey, tapping the barrier, while Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson also failed to see the chequered flag.
So a dream result for Lewis Hamilton. The British driver winning in front of the home crowd. Only a single point the difference between him and Nico Rosberg. The fight for the title is on.
British Grand Prix, race results after 52 laps:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h34m55.831s
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 8.250s
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 16.911s*
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 26.211s
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m09.743s
6 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m16.941s
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m17.212s
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.858s
9 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m31.654s
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m32.600s
11 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
12 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1 Lap
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1 Lap
14 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1 Lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 3 Laps
– Jolyon Palmer Renault Retirement
– Rio Haryanto Manor-Mercedes Spun off
– Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari Retirement
– Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari Retirement
– Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes Spun off
*10-seconds added penalty for use of radio communications
Drivers’ standings:
1 Nico Rosberg 168
2 Lewis Hamilton 167
3 Kimi Raikkonen 106
4 Daniel Ricciardo 100
5 Sebastian Vettel 98
6 Max Verstappen 90
7 Valtteri Bottas 54
8 Sergio Perez 47
9 Felipe Massa 38
10 Romain Grosjean 28
11 Nico Hulkenberg 26
12 Carlos Sainz 26
13 Daniil Kvyat 23
14 Fernando Alonso 18
15 Jenson Button 13
16 Kevin Magnussen 6
17 Pascal Wehrlein 1
18 Stoffel Vandoorne 1
19 Esteban Gutierrez 0
20 Jolyon Palmer 0
21 Marcus Ericsson 0
22 Felipe Nasr 0
23 Rio Haryanto 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 335
2 Ferrari 204
3 Red Bull-Renault 198
4 Williams-Mercedes 92
5 Force India-Mercedes 73
6 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 41
7 McLaren-Honda 32
8 Haas-Ferrari 28
9 Renault 6
10 Manor-Mercedes 1
11 Sauber-Ferrari 0
Next race: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring. July 22-24.
British Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com:
The 2016 Formula 1 British Grand Prix started on a soaked circuit, but ended with the sun shining down on Lewis Hamilton as the world champion beat Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to secure his fourth F1 win at Silverstone, with Max Verstappen a fighting third for Red Bull.
The opening laps were run behind the safety car after a heavy downpour shortly before the start, but once it had peeled off it was non-stop action as the track gradually dried, prompting the field to switch first from wet to intermediate tyres, and then to slick rubber from around one-third distance.
As Hamilton controlled from the front to cut his championship deficit to just four points, Rosberg and Verstappen were locked in battle for much off the afternoon, both men pulling off superb passes on the other.
Just 1.3s separated them at the flag, as Rosberg held on despite late transmission issues which required him to avoid using seventh gear. However, the German is under investigation over the radio instructions Mercedes gave him relating to the problem.
Daniel Ricciardo was a distant fourth in the second Red Bull, with Kimi Raikkonen an even more distant fifth in what was a dismal afternoon for Ferrari. Team mate Sebastian Vettel was ninth after picking up a penalty for forcing another car off track.
The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg took sixth and seventh places, with the top ten completed by the Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat in eighth and tenth respectively.
After the heavens had opened 15 minutes before the start, and the first five laps run behind the safety car, the track was ready for intermediate Pirelli tyres in place of the mandatory wets on which everyone had started.
Once the wholesale pit stopping was over, and the racing began again after a brief Virtual Safety Car deployment on Lap 7 as Pascal Wehrlein aquaplaned his Manor off into retirement, Hamilton was 4.8s ahead of Rosberg, who was initially struggling for a while in the slippery conditions. For the next eight laps the Silver Arrows were running one-two, until Rosberg made a mistake and the ever-threatening Verstappen went round the outside of him in a brave move at Chapel to snatch second place.
As Hamilton continued to lead after the next round of pits stops saw everyone switching to the medium Pirellis, Rosberg had a real battle on his hands to repass Verstappen, and that’s where he lost his chance of victory. The Dutchman not only stayed in front for lap after lap, but kept Hamilton honest at the same time. Both he and Hamilton had lurid off-track moments at Abbey and Farm, as did many others as the track remained greasy, but time and again the Red Bull driver resisted the second Mercedes at Stowe.
Eventually Rosberg found a way by there on the 38th lap, just as a very distant Vettel, down in ninth, eased Felipe Massa’s Williams off track and earned himself a five second time penalty.
Finally freed to push hard, Rosberg then launched a flurry of fastest laps as he cut the gap from 8.7s to 6.1s by lap 45. But then on the 46th lap he reported gearbox problems and was instructed by his crew to change through sixth to eighth gears, without using seventh. Remarkably, he still managed to close the gap to Hamilton, who was simply doing what he had to do to manage his race. By the finish the gap between the two Mercedes was 6.9s.
Rosberg, however, is currently under investigation by the stewards for the depth of information he received from his team, so his second place may yet be jeopardised, especially as Verstappen was so close at the end. The latter’s performance was hugely popular, and he finished 17.9s ahead of team mate Ricciardo.
Behind them, a terrible day for Ferrari yielded a best finish of only fifth for Raikkonen who overtook Perez’s well-driven Force India with six laps to run. By the flag, the Mexican had team mate Hulkenberg right on his tail, as Sainz gave Toro Rosso more points with eighth. Vettel retained ninth place by 0.9s from Kvyat once his penalty was applied.
It was a tough day for Williams and McLaren too, with Massa 11th from Jenson Button, and Fernando Alonso 13th after a huge, high-speed spin through the gravel at Abbey, ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
Both Manors spun off and both Renaults retired, with Jolyon Palmer having picked up a stop-go penalty after his crew released him from a pit stop with his right-rear wheel not properly attached.
Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and Haas’s Esteban Gutierrez took 15th and 16th as their respective team mates Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean failed to go the distance.
Hamilton’s hat-trick – his 47th F1 win – makes him the first three-in-a-row British Grand Prix winner since the legendary Jim Clark in the Sixties, and the gap to points leader Rosberg is now down to only four points – 171 to 167 – with the notional seasonal midpoint coming up in Hungary in a fortnight.
Championship leader Nico Rosberg has commented post-race that he is certain Mercedes’ radio message didn’t break rules. Autosport.com has the story.
Nico Rosberg believes the radio instructions he received from the Mercedes Formula 1 pitwall to get around gearbox problems during the British Grand Prix were within the regulations.
The German, who finished second at Silverstone, is under investigation for radio traffic from his team that instructed him to avoid using seventh gear to prevent a gearbox failure.
But Rosberg believes the nature of the problem means he should not face punishment.
“It was a very critical problem because I was stuck in seventh gear and I was about to stop on track,” he said of the late-race problem that put him under pressure from Max Verstappen in the battle for second.
“They told me to change to default [settings] and try and fix it.”
When asked if he was confident the communication was within the regulations, Rosberg said: “Yep”.
Rosberg was passed by Verstappen around the outside in the final part of Becketts earlier in the race, but the advantage swung back to the Mercedes driver when everybody switched to slicks as the track dried out.
“It was a cool fight,” said Rosberg. “On the [intermediate tyres] not so much of a fight, it was done pretty quickly.
“But in the dry it was great, playing around with the ERS deployment.
“I was trying to get him to empty his battery but when he did, mine was empty too.
“It worked out well in the end, he did a great job defending – it was cool.”
While Rosberg hung onto second, Hamilton took his fourth British GP win, and he said he had the race under control.
“I was very comfortable at the front, I was watching the times from the guys behind,” he said.
“I had more. In those conditions you don’t want to risk anything.
“I had quite an oversteering car in the beginning, and I knew I was quicker in the second and third sectors, so there was plenty of pace in that first sector if I needed it.
“I did everything I could in the race to save the engine, I saved it for quite a long period of time.
“I knew I had a good buffer to the cars behind to I didn’t have to lean on it.
“On that slow down lap, once you come across the line, it’s just the most amazing feeling.
“You just want to jump, but you’re strapped into the car.
“It’s surreal [to have four British GP wins], it shouldn’t be but it is just because it’s so special. I’m very proud.”
Fernando Alonso believes the McLaren Formula 1 team could have taken more risks with its British Grand Prix strategy after both cars ended up outside the points.
Despite the changeable weather at Silverstone, teams followed relatively uniform strategies – everyone swapping from wets to intermediates between laps five and seven, then onto slicks during laps 15-18.
Alonso was running 10th until a spin at Abbey just before half-distance dropped him to the 13th position where he finished.
He felt McLaren could have vaulted him up the order had it rolled the dice as the track dried.
“I think we could invent something,” said Alonso.
“We are not fighting for the world championship, we could have stopped earlier, later, to try to gain some positions, but we were a little bit slow with reaction on that.”
He acknowledged that strategy gambles meant “you can go from hero to zero so quickly” but felt it would still have been worth the risk with little to lose.
“Maybe you stop one lap earlier and you don’t finish that lap because you crash into a wall,” Alonso said.
“You have to do what you can, but obviously we lost some positions in the stops so we need to look at this.”
His team-mate Jenson Button came from 17th on the grid to 12th, feeling he had little scope to do better after the wing problem that spoiled his qualifying.
“In our position you need to qualify in the top 10 then try to hang on,” he said.
“We haven’t got pace to make places up to get into the top 10.”
He joked that McLaren had urged him to stay close to Sebastian Vettel when the Ferrari driver – who came home ninth – was penalised for a clash with Felipe Massa.
“The guys said ‘maximum attack, stay within five seconds of Vettel’,” Button said.
“I think they forgot he was driving a Ferrari. I tried but no chance.”
Source: Autosport.com
UPDATE: Nico Rosberg penalised for British Grand Prix F1 radio rules breach. Autosport.com has the full details.
Mercedes and Nico Rosberg have been found guilty by the British Grand Prix stewards of flouting Formula 1’s restrictions on radio communication.
After finishing second at Silverstone behind race-winner and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Rosberg has had 10 seconds added to his time, and is now classified third behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The penalty reduces Rosberg’s championship lead over Hamilton to just one point.
Mercedes intends to appeal penalty
A statement from the stewards, led by 1992 F1 world champion Nigel Mansell, said: “Having considered the matter extensively, the stewards determined the team gave some instructions to the driver that were specifically permitted under technical directive 014-16.
“However, the stewards determined the team then went further and gave instructions to the driver that were not permitted under the technical directive, and were in breach of article 27.1 of the sporting regulations, that the driver must drive the car alone and unaided.”
Six laps from the end, when second-placed Rosberg was six seconds adrift of leader Hamilton, the German driver informed his team over the radio of a “gearbox problem”.
With Rosberg losing pace and third-placed Verstappen closing in, Mercedes informed him to attempt a different setting, before suggesting he “avoid seventh gear”.
Rosberg then asked for clarification as to whether he “should shift through it”, to which he received an immediate response – “Yes, shift to eighth gear quickly”.
It was an exchange that allowed Rosberg to keep Verstappen behind him over the final six laps, finishing 1.339s clear of the teenage Dutchman.
In the first incident of its kind since the introduction of the new regulations this season, the stewards summoned Rosberg to a hearing for an alleged breach of article 27.1 of the sporting regulations, namely “the driver shall drive the car alone and unaided”.
In mitigation, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff cited point number two of a technical directive regarding permitted radio messages, referring to an “indication of a critical problem with the car”.
In addition, it reads: “Any message of this sort may only be used if failure of a component or system is imminent and potentially terminal.”
Wolff said: “In my opinion, that was the basis of our decision.”
Asked what would have happened if the message had not been relayed, Wolff said: “It would have been stuck in seventh gear and that would have been the end, probably.”
Mercedes has opted not to pursue its appeal against the British Grand Prix stewards’ decision to penalise Nico Rosberg for its breach of Formula 1’s radio communications restrictions.
Under the regulations Mercedes lodged its intention to appeal within one hour of the stewards giving Rosberg a 10-second post-race penalty that dropped him from second behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton to third behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Following a day of deliberation Mercedes has now decided to accept the stewards’ decision and penalty.
But it has made clear in a statement that it deems the current radio rules to be draconian, and is planning on discussions with all in F1 in a bid to seek changes.
The statement read: “The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team today decided to withdraw its notice of intention to appeal against the decision of the stewards of the British Grand Prix.
“We were able to prove to the stewards that a car-stopping gearbox failure was imminent and, as such, were permitted within the rules to advise Nico of the required engine mode.
“However, the advice to avoid seventh gear was considered to breach TD/06-16, and therefore article 27.1 of the sporting regulations.
“The team accepts the stewards’ interpretation of the regulation, their decision and the associated penalty.
“During the coming weeks, we will continue discussions with the relevant F1 stakeholders on the subject of the perceived over-regulation of the sport.”
The article in question states the driver shall drive the car ‘alone and unaided’.
Mercedes highlighted point number two of the technical directive as its reason for the message exchange with Rosberg late in the race.
That permits radio messages that are an “indication of a critical problem with the car” and that “any message of this sort may only be used if failure of a component or system is imminent and potentially terminal”.
With no appeal pending, the race classification stands, meaning Rosberg’s lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ standings is just one point after 10 races.
Source: Autosport.com