@LewisHamilton survives puncture to win dramatic race-ending #BritishGP. #F1

Lewis Hamilton scored a hat-trick of victories and his seventh British GP win despite limping over the line with three wheels.

The two Mercedes drivers looked set for a comfortable one-two finish at Silverstone, which was interrupted twice in the early stages following heavy shunts for Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Scuderia Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat, but their fortune turned on its head dramatically in the final two laps.

Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas appeared to pick-up blistering despite their huge gap over Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, and Bottas’ front-left tyre failed on lap 50, which meant the Finn needed to travel slowly to the pits and fell from second to scoring no points.

Mercedes warned Hamilton over the radio not to risk taking the fastest lap bonus point on the last lap, but as the Briton ran into Luffield for the final tour his own front-left blew and was forced to limp home with three wheels to cross the line with the tyre barely attached to his F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer.

Verstappen pitted after Bottas’ puncture and meant the Dutchman had a 30 second gap to cut down over the second half of the final lap and although he closed in fast, Hamilton just held on to claim his seventh British GP win.

When the British GP began, Bottas looked to have the perfect getaway from second on the grid and drew alongside team-mate Hamilton approaching turn one, but the reigning world champion swept ahead into the right-hand corner and moved clear in the lead.

The field behind the two Mercedes drivers scrambled for position throughout the opening lap, with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo putting in an impressive move on McLaren’s Lando Norris at Copse corner to take sixth, but the race went into caution a few moments later.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen moved up from 14^th on the grid but the Dane clipped the kerb at the apex of Club corner hard and lost momentum, meaning Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon moved into the apex and the pairing collided at the second apex.

The Haas went into a spin and hit the barriers at the exit of the final corner, destroying the front-left of his VF-20 racer, and bouncing back into the gravel trap, with the safety car deployed so it could be recovered.

The race resumed on lap six, with Hamilton flying out again in front.

The Briton moved out of DRS range from team-mate Bottas over the next few tours, but as the latter looked to be stabilising the gap, the Grand Prix was neutralised once more when Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat suffered a nasty shunt into the barriers at the high-speed Becketts.

The Russian lost control of the rear of his Honda-powered AT01 as he ran through the fast Maggots quick left, as a result from a right-wheel puncture, and then slammed into the outside wall, sustaining massive damage to his chassis, with debris also scattered over the track.

Once Kvyat’s AT01 was cleared, the race restarted on the 19^th lap, Hamilton again lead Bottas and Verstappen clear from the pack.

The Mercedes pairing then dropped the Dutchman and were exchanging fastest laps over the next stage of the Grand Prix, with Hamilton and Bottas the only drivers to set best efforts in the 1:30’s.

Verstappen continued to drop away but managed to dip into the 1:29’s, still a chunk after the two Mercedes driver done so.

The gap between Hamilton and Bottas continued to fluctuate over a second for the next twenty laps after the restart, but as the race reached the final ten laps, the former set a series of fastest laps to increase his lead to over two seconds.

Verstappen pinched the fastest lap on the 41^st tour, but by this point of the Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver was over 10 seconds adrift of Hamilton, despite both Mercedes’ tyre wear starting to look grim.

But Hamilton continued to increase his lead over Bottas to three seconds, and the gap increased as tyre dramas started to creep in on the Mercedes duo.

Bottas was over seven seconds off with five laps remaining, with the closing tours dominated by the staggering development for both Hamilton and Bottas.

Hamilton crossed the line to take his seventh British GP win 5.456 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished a quiet third place well adrift of Verstappen, with Renault F1 Team’s Ricciardo claiming fourth after McLaren’s Carlos Sainz suffered the same fate as the Mercedes drivers on the penultimate lap.

The other McLaren of Lando Norris was running in-front of Ricciardo for much of the Grand Prix but lost out late-on and completed the top five and ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly fought with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll to take what was seventh place, while Albon, who was handed a five-second time penalty for the aforementioned incident with Magnussen, recovered to eighth after completing a two-stop strategy.

Stroll finished ninth and ahead of Vettel who rounded out the top ten ahead of the fast-charging Bottas at the final corner. Williams Racing’s George Russell came 12^th at his home Grand Prix.

Sainz wound up 13^th with his tyre failure and ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who was 14^th and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi 15^th.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean took 16^th after a controversial drive.

Grosjean did not pit after the second safety car deployment, which put him up to fifth and although he dropped away once his strategy trembled, he held a high position for a long time.

But his defending against Sainz earned the Frenchman a black and white flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, and he appeared to do it again to Ricciardo on the rundown to Brooklands.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen brought up the rear after sustaining front wing damage shortly before the Mercedes tyre drama occurred in the closing stages.

Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2020 Race Results Classification (52 Laps)

* Provisional results

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1048/great-britain.html

You can see the full Formula 1 Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship standings here.

The Top Three

British GP Winner: Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W11 EQ Power+: “That last lap, up until then everything was smooth, the tyres felt great. Valtteri was really pushing me, so when I heard that his tyre went, I was looking at mine and they seemed fine… I started to back off, I noticed the shape of the tyre shift and that was heart in the mouth. Trying to keep the speed up, oh my god I was just praying. I nearly didn’t get round the last two corners!”

2^nd: Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16: “It’s lucky and unlucky. The tyres didn’t look great with ten laps to go, I saw Valtteri got a puncture, so I got on the radio and said I’m going to back it out and then Lewis got his puncture. I’m very happy with second.”

3^rd: Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF1000: “We’ve done the best of what we could have done today, very happy with how I managed the tyres from beginning to end. The car is not where we want it to be but I’m happy.”

Round five of the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship will once again be at the legendary Silverstone Circuit for the Emirates Formula 1 70^th Anniversary Grand Prix 2020 from Friday August 7-Sunday August 9.

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