Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has won home grand prix for the fourth time, using three different Pirelli tyre compounds.
The British Grand Prix was subjected to a torrential downpour 15 minutes before the beginning of the race, which meant that the start took place behind the safety car with all the drivers on Cinturato Blue full wet tyres.
When the safety car came in after five laps, a number of drivers went straight onto the Cinturato Green intermediate, while the leaders took advantage of a virtual safety car to switch to the intermediate shortly afterwards.
The crossover point – where it becomes quicker to move onto slick tyres rather than stay on inters – was chosen by most teams from lap 15 (when Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the first to pit) to lap 18 of 52. The timing of the pit stops became crucial, because of the potential to gain plenty of time through being on exactly the right tyre at the right time. With the race having started in wet conditions, there was no longer the obligation to run at least two slick compounds.
Unusually, by the halfway point of the race, all the drivers still running chose exactly the same pattern of tyre usage: wet, intermediate, then medium. Most drivers ran on the medium all the way to the end, making it a two-stop race. This strategy was adopted by the top 10 finishers, with around 10 seconds separating the top three all the way to the finish. The highest-placed three-stopper was Williams driver Felipe Massa, who made a late stop for the soft tyre.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “The long-threatened rain finally materialized just before the race start, which clearly altered the complexion of the race and tyre strategy entirely, especially as there was then a lengthy safety car period. As a result we had a drying track with all the drivers moving progressively from wet to intermediate to slick: the timing of these stops being crucial. There was a close battle for the top positions all the way to the finish of a race that demonstrated every variety of conditions and weather that Britain is renowned for, but the drivers were able to push all the way to the checkered flag.”
