Hamilton takes his fourth British grand prix victory on a wet-dry track. The rain fell just minutes before the race start, leaving the circuit covered in water. Starting under the safety car, the race got underway on lap 5, as many drivers immediately switched to inters. A thrilling battle saw Rosberg second ahead of Verstappen but a later penalty for the German promoted Verstappen to second.
The opening 5 laps were under safety car, but as it returned to the pits it was followed by 10 cars changing immediately onto the intermediate compounds. In the end, these drivers lost out as a virtual safety car period soon followed due to a crash for Wehrlein, giving the other drivers effectively a ‘free’ pitstop.
Hamilton drove impressively in the wet conditions, pulling out a lead of over 3 seconds in the first half lap after the safety car went in. Rosberg was under threat from Verstappen early in the race, overtaken impressively at the exit of Becketts on lap 15 after the leading three all pitted.
Meanwhile, Vettel was the first driver to make the change to slicks, but spun three laps later and lost the advantage which he had gained from stopping early. Mercedes switched their drivers on lap 17, pitting both at the same time as Hamilton’s lead was great enough. Verstappen made the change just one lap after them.
As the track became drier, Verstappen lost out due to the Mercedes’ supreme performance and dropped further back from Hamilton, soon becoming under threat from Rosberg once more. It took Rosberg many laps to eventually make the pass, thanks to Verstappen’s incredible driving. When he did so, it was a simple DRS move on the Hangar Straight.
Nearing the end of the race, Rosberg developed a transmission issue – with the car becoming jammed in seventh gear. Mercedes told him to change a setting and also advised him how to change gears to remove the issue. Post-race, the stewards decided this was too much information passed over the radio and handed him a ten-second time penalty. This knocked him to third, promoting Verstappen into second place.
Ricciardo had what he described as a ‘boring’ race, finishing a lonely fourth, with no threat from behind but no opportunities for a fight ahead after he lost out in the virtual safety car period. Perez had been running fifth until a spin allowed Raikkonen to close the gap. Eventually, Raikkonen came out on top, finishing 5th and Perez had to settle for sixth.
Hulkenberg had yet another frustrating race, losing out because of the VSC, he finished in 7th ahead of the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz. Vettel was demoted to 9th after receiving a five second penalty for pushing Massa off the circuit. The final points-scorer was Kvyat, an impressive recovery from 15th on the grid. A terrible day for Williams saw neither driver finish within the top ten, only managing 12th and 14th.
Winning his fourth British GP, Hamilton closes the gap in the championship to a single point. However, he still faces potential engine penalties after his string of technical issues earlier on in the season.