Who needs four tyres anyway?
What had been a fairly processional race suddenly exploded into life – literally, in the case of three drivers’ Pirelli tyres – with a couple of laps remaining at the 2020 British Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pair had led comfortably throughout, despite a couple of early safety cars after crashes for Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat, but had been pushing each other quite hard on tyres that had done nearly 40 laps. Then Valtteri Bottas suddenly started to fall back and, just as he started lap 50 of 52, his front-left tyre decided it was done for the day.
With an entire lap to do, the Finn fell back down the order and Red Bull decided to pit Max Verstappen – who had been running a lonely race in third place – in an attempt to take the fastest lap. The drama was far from over, however, as Carlos Sainz’s front-left followed suit from fourth place and then – with a little over half a lap remaining – so did race leader Lewis Hamilton’s.
The 30-second gap back to Verstappen was reducing rapidly and it looked briefly as though Hamilton was about to have the win snatched away from him in the most excruciating manner. The world champion managed the situation perfectly, though, and scraped over the line with about five seconds to spare. Neither Bottas nor Sainz would manage to recover into the top ten after pitting, which has a huge impact on the championship standings – Hamilton now has an ominous 30-point lead over his teammate.
Some have questioned Red Bull’s decision to pit Verstappen, arguing that he would have won otherwise, but hindsight is 20/20 and all the tyres were on a knife-edge by the end, so there’s nothing to say the same would not have happened to the Dutchman.
Charles Leclerc profited from the drama to secure an unlikely second podium of the season in the uncompetitive Ferrari. It was an excellent performance, made all the clearer as his four-time world champion teammate, Sebastian Vettel, struggled throughout and eventually managed a single point for 10th.
Pirelli are conducting investigations into the failures – Kvyat’s earlier retirement was eventually proven to be a tyre failure also – ahead of another grand prix at the punishing Silverstone track next week, where temperatures are due to be higher and the tyres were planned to be a step softer.
More Midfield Action
Whilst it was pretty serene out front for the most part, there was plenty of action, once again, in the midfield. The McLarens of Sainz and Lando Norris – sporting a simply excellent special helmet design, produced by six-year-old competition-winner Eva – swapped positions repeatedly with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and the Racing Point of Lance Stroll. Even Romain Grosjean in the Haas was involved after not pitting during the safety car period and jumping from 14th to 5th. The struggles of the American team continue, but Grosjean was able to hold on to the pack surprisingly well for a good 15 laps. He did, however, produce some controversy with his defensive manoeuvres during that period.
Late jolts to one side at the end of the straight were reminiscent of those performed by Verstappen in his early days – which briefly brought about the ‘Verstappen rule’ banning them – and resulted in complaints over the radio by Sainz and Ricciardo. He received a black-and-white flag as a driving-standards warning but no penalty.
As the chairman of the GPDA, Grosjean should be setting an example. Mark Webber was cutting in his criticism, saying that the Haas driver has a “gross misunderstanding of modern grand prix racing” and is “borderline out of his depth in this category”. Ricciardo said that this “on-the-edge” driving would be raised during the drivers’ briefing ahead of the next race. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room…
Pressure Continues to Mount on Albon
It was another troubling weekend for Alexander Albon. A fairly big crash during Practice 2 on Friday set the tone as Albon struggled again to get to grips with this year’s very sensitive car and he then missed much of the final practice session with a battery problem. Qualifying went no better as he failed to progress from Q2; an attempt to get through on the medium tyres proved too ambitious and he failed to improve on the soft tyre, leaving him 12th on the grid.
Magnussen made an excellent start and was ahead of the Red Bull by the end of the first lap. He made an error into the final chicane, though, and was compromised on the exit, presenting a tempting opportunity to Albon. The Anglo-Thai got himself somewhat alongside the Haas but – realising the gap was closing – tried to back out of the move, left it too late, and pitched Magnussen off into the barriers.
That earned him a five-second penalty and made his job harder still. As has often been the case, he did then produce a decent recovery drive and – once all the late tyre dramas had played out – found himself at least with four points for eighth place.
Tongues are beginning to wag, though, as he gets no closer to Verstappen’s level of performance and continues to make costly errors. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly – the man he replaced last year – is excelling back in the AlphaTauri and managed to finish ahead of Albon here, with a commendable run to seventh.
The British Grand Prix in 60 Seconds
Answering the Burning Questions
Who will replace Sergio Pérez at Racing Point after his positive test?! Only Nico Hülkenberg!
If it is The Hulk, surely he won’t finally get his podium in the ultimate redemption arc?!?! …No…He didn’t even start the race. The man is cursed.
Can anyone challenge Mercedes? Only Pirelli seemingly.
With a very different layout to the first three grands prix, will any teams suddenly prosper at Silverstone? Renault appeared a bit stronger, but there were no major changes in the pecking order.
Will Alexander Albon have a better weekend with a new race engineer? …Also no… Hopefully he’s not as cursed as The Hulk has proven to be, but it’s starting to look a bit that way.
