British GP 2013

JUNE 30, 2013

Race Notes - Nico Rosberg wins British GP

Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, British GP 2013
© The Cahier Archive

Nico Rosberg won the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone, today in his Mercedes, 0.7 seconds ahead of late charging Mark Webber in his Red Bull-Renault. Fernando Alonso finished third in his Ferrari, 7.1 seconds behind the winner.

The race was overshadowed by left rear tyre failures, including polesitter and early leader Lewis Hamilton.

It is the Mercedes team's first win at the British GP since Stirling Moss won the 1955 race at Aintree.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel led the middle of the race but fell out with a gearbox failure.

Vettel (132 points) continues to lead the Drivers Championship but Alonso (111) closed to 21 points behind the German, followed by Raikkonen (98), Hamilton (89), Webber (87) and Rosberg (82 points). Red Bull-Renault (219) still leads, while Mercedes GP (171) moves up to second, followed by Ferrari (168), Lotus-Renault (124) and Force India-Mercedes (59 points).

Hamilton (7.7s) in the second Mercedes GP finished fourth, followed by Kimi Raikkonen (11.2s) in the Lotus-Renault in fifth, Felipe Massa (14.5s) in the second Ferrari was sixth, Adrian Sutil (16.3s) in the Force India-Mercedes was seventh, Daniel Ricciardo (16.5s) in the Toro Rosso-Ferrari was eighth, Paul di Resta (17.9s) in the second Force India was ninth and Nico Hulkenberg (19.7s) finished in the final points paying position in tenth.

British driver Hamilton starts from pole, while his teammate Rosberg starts alongside. The Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber fill the second row of the grid. Ricciardo and Sutil on the third row, Romain Grosjean and Raikkonen on the fourth, Alonso and Jenson Button complete the top ten.

Di Resta's car was found to be underweight after qualifying and was moved to the back of the grid after qualifying his best ever in fifth.

Most are expected to run a two-stop race, drivers having the choice of medium and hard compound tyres. The top nine drivers starting on medium compound tyres.

Sunny conditions at the start, but gusty conditions.

At the start Hamilton takes the lead, Rosberg slow away Vettel takes second, followed by Rosberg, Sutil, Massa, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Button, Grosjean and Alonso.

Massa jumped from 11th on the grid to fifth.

On lap 1 Alonso passes Button for ninth.

Webber falls back to 14th with front wing damage from contact at the start with Grosjean.

On lap 2 Alonso passes Grosjean for eighth place. Jean-Eric Vergne and Pastor Maldonado battle for 15th place.

On lap 3 Webber passes Esteban Gutierrez for 13th.

Hamilton sets fastest lap at 1m38.3, and has a 1.5 second lead over Vettel.

Sutil in fourth place is running one second a lap slower than the top three, as a queue of cars starts to back up behind him.

Di Resta up to 16th after starting at the back of the grid.

On lap 5 Hamilton re-sets fast lap at 1m38.1s.

Alonso is pressuring Ricciardo for seventh place. Sergio Perez on medium tyres passes his team mate Button on hard tyres for 10th place in the DRS zone.

On lap 7 Vettel sets fast lap at 1m38.1s. Webber passes Button for 11th place.

On lap 8 leader Hamilton suffers a left rear tyre failure on the Wellington straight. The tyre and limps back towards the pits with a shredded tyre.

He arrives at the pits and takes on a set of hard tyres and

On lap 10 Di Resta and Grosjean pit. Massa spins off the track with an apparent tyre puncture as well. Alonso, Webber and Gutierrez all pit.

Massa limps back to the pits.

On lap 12 Raikkonen pits from third. Ricciardo and Button pit as well. Vettel leads Rosberg by 3.3 seconds.

Grosjean sets fast lap at 1m37.9s.

On lap 13 Rosberg pits from second. Sutil pits from third as well. Alonso passes Grosjean for seventh. Hulkenberg pits.

Webber sets fast lap at 1m37.3s. Alonso passes Vergne for sixth.

On lap 14 Vettel pits from the lead for hard tyres. Raikkonen pressures his team mate Grosjean for seventh place. Webber sets fast lap at 1m37.1s.

Perez pits from third, changing to hard tyres. Rosberg sets fastest lap at 1m36.6s.

On lap 15 Vergne left rear tyre fails on Hanger straight, and gets back to the pitlane.

At lap 15 Vettel leads Rosberg by 2.8 seconds, followed by Sutil (14.6s), Alonso (15.5s), Raikkonen (21.7s), Grosjean (23.4s), Ricciardo (24.5s), Perez (25.0s), Webber (26.7s), and Button (28.8s) in tenth. Di Resta (34.2s) in 11th, followed by Maldonado (40.0s), Hulkenberg (42.4s), Gitierrez (43.1s), Bottas (48.8s), Vergne, Charles Pic, Hamilton, Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton, Guido Van der Garde and Massa at the back.

Vettel sets fastest lap at 1m36.6s.

On lap 16 the Safety Car is deployed for all the debris from exploded tyres. Maldonado, Valtteri Bottas and Pic make pitstops.

On lap 17 Massa pits again for another set of hard tyres.

Red Bull radio to Webber that they saw cuts on the rear tyres that they took off his car at the pitstop.

The teams are warning the drivers to stay off the kerbs as they think they are cutting the tyres.

On lap 20 sweeper trucks are on the circuit clearing the debris. Teams are considering raising tyre pressures to handle the high speed corners better and mitigate possible failures.

At the end of lap 21 the Safety Car comes in and the race resumes.

Vettel continues to lead. Webber passes Perez for eighth place.

Alonso pressures Sutil in third place. Hamilton battling Gutierrez for 13th place. Vettel sets fast lap at 1m36.6s, and leads Rosberg by 1.4 seconds.

On lap 24 Hamilton passes Gutierrez for 13th place. Vettel sets another fast lap at 1m36.2s.

On lap 25 Bottas passes Vergne for 16th, Massa follows him through. Hulkenberg pits with a slow tyre puncture. Vergne is struggling with a damaged floor, after suffering his tyre failure. Vergne pits for medium tyres.

On lap 27 Gutierrez pits from 13th.

On lap 28 Ricciardo passes Grosjean for sixth place. There is debris on the approach to Stowe corner, off of Gutierrez's Sauber. Alonso starts to pressure Sutil once again.

On lap 29 Webber passes Grosjean for seventh. Raikkonen pits from third place for his second stop.

On lap 31 Alonso and Grosjean make their seconds stops.

On lap 32 Webber pits from fourth. Hamilton pressures Di Resta for eighth place.

On lap 33 Ricciardo and Button pit. Alonso sets fastest lap at 1m36.2 seconds.

On lap 34 Sutil, Perez and Di Resta all pit. Raikkonen passes Hamilton for sixth. Alonso follows him through.

On lap 35 Rosberg pits from second place taking hard tyres. Vettel pits from the lead the next lap staying on hard tyres, and remains in the lead.

Webber passes Alonso for fourth place. Sutil makes minor contact with Hulkenberg as he passes him.

Rosberg sets fast lap at 1m34.3s.

On lap 37 Hamilton and Masa pit. Vergne pits and is pushed back into the garage. Hamilton and Di Resta battle for 11th place, trading places.

At lap 37 Vettel leads Rosberg by 2.5 seconds, followed by Raikkonen (12.3s), Webber (12.9s), Alonso (15.4s), Sutil (19.9s), Ricciardo (20.6s), Perez (24.7s), Grosjean (27.4s) and Button (28.1s) in tenth place.

Hamilton takes the position from Di Resta for 11th place.

On lap 39 Bottas pits from 14th.

On lap 40 Rosberg is closes the gap to Vettel to 1.6 seconds.Sutil and Ricciardo are battling over sixth place.

On lap 41 Hamilton passes Grosjean for tenth place.

On lap 42 Vettel slows to a stop on the start-finish straight with a gearbox failaure. Alonso pits for fresh tyres. The safety car is deployed as the world championship leader's car needs to be pushed away. Rosberg takes over the lead. It is Vettel's first retirement since the Italian GP last year.

On lap 43 Rosberg and Webber pit for fresh tyres. Grosjean, Di Resta and Massa pit as well.

Under the safety car Rosberg leads Raikkonen, Sutil, Ricciardo, Webber, Perez, Button, Alonso, Hamilton and Grosjean in tenth place.

At the end of lap 45 the safety car comes into the pits and the race resumes. Rosberg continues to lead Raikkonen.

On lap 46 Webber passes Ricciardo for fourth. Alonso passes Button for seventh. Perez suffers a left rear tyre failure on Hanger straight and limps back to the pits.

On lap 47 Webber passes Sutil for third place.

Perez in retired in the garage.

On lap 48 Alonso passes Ricciardo for fifth place. Hamilton follows him through to take sixth place.

Webber and Raikkonen battle, but Webber takes over second place 1.3 seconds behind Rosberg.

Alonso passes Sutil for fourth place. Hamilton gets past Sutil later in the lap.

Rosberg sets fastest lap at 1m33.7s. Alonso catches the tail of Raikkonen on older tyres.

On lap 50 Alonso passes Raikkonen in the DRS zone on Hanger straight to take third place.

Webber sets fast lap at 1m33.4s and follows the leader by 1.3 seconds, with two laps to go.

Hamilton closes on Raikkonen and passes him for fourth place. Grosjean pits. Massa passes Sutil for sixth place. Webber closes to with a second of the leader.

They cross the finish line, Rosberg wins 0.7 seconds ahead of Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa.

Webber takes the fastest lap on the final lap with a 1m33.4s.