Date 6 July 2014 | Course length 5.891 km (3.661 mi) | |
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Official name 2014 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix Location Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone, United Kingdom Course Permanent racing facility Distance 52 laps, 306.198 km (190.263 mi) | ||
The 2014 British Grand Prix (formally the 2014 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 July 2014 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom. It was the ninth round of the 2014 Formula One season, and the 69th British Grand Prix. The 52-lap race was won by Lewis Hamilton for the Mercedes team, from a sixth position start; the lowest position he has ever won from. Valtteri Bottas finished second in a Williams car, with Daniel Ricciardo third for the Red Bull team. This race was the first to be red-flagged on lap one since the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix.
Contents
Background
The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams, each of two drivers. The teams, also known as "constructors", were Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus, Sauber, Force India, Williams, Toro Rosso, Caterham and Marussia.
Before the race, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the Drivers' Championship with 165 points, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was second on 136 points. Behind them in the Drivers' Championship, Daniel Ricciardo was third on 83 points for Red Bull, with Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel on 79 and 60 points respectively. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes were leading with 301 points and Red Bull were second on 143 points, with Ferrari third on 98 points.
Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held before the race; the first on Friday morning and the second on Friday afternoon. Both sessions lasted 90 minutes. The third session was held on Saturday morning and lasted an hour.
Susie Wolff took part in the first free practice session, driving for Williams in lieu of Valtteri Bottas. In doing so, she became the first woman to take part in a Grand Prix weekend since Giovanna Amati failed to qualify for the 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Felipe Massa had a large crash at Stowe corner in first practice, but did manage to continue in second practice, and Lewis Hamilton's car broke down on track in the middle of second practice.
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished the session 17th or lower. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position.
Following the first few runs in Q3, Hamilton was on provisional pole position by 0.194 seconds from Rosberg on a damp track. Track conditions began to worsen as rain started to fall with increasing severity, and all the runners pulled into the pits as it looked unlikely that they would be able to improve their previous bests with track conditions as they were. In the last few minutes of Q3, several cars (including both Mercedes) emerged from the pits for a final attempt at improving their laps, though some drivers who had already set quick times earlier in the session (including Pérez and Ricciardo, who were both faster than their teammates at that point) stayed in the pits, as it looked unlikely they would be able to improve their times. During his final Q3 lap, Hamilton was over a second down on his best time through the first two sectors, and so he decided that the track was too wet to improve, and pulled into the pits. However, the final sector had dried considerably, and the cars who completed their final laps managed to improve by several seconds in the final sector alone. The final sector had dried to such an extent that Hamilton's provisional pole time was beaten by every car that completed a lap in the dying moments of Q3, pushing him down to sixth. In his final flying lap in Q3, Nico Rosberg took the pole from Sebastian Vettel with a time of 1:35.766.
Race
The race began with a crash on the first lap leading to a safety car and subsequently a red flag. Kimi Räikkönen ran wide on the Wellington straight and lost control on a bump as he attempted to rejoin, crashing heavily into the barriers before spinning back across the track and through the passing traffic. Massa attempted to swerve away from the Ferrari but spun and made contact, seriously damaging his car. Both drivers retired from the race.
Race control decided that the serious damage to the guardrail had to be repaired before the race resumed. The race restarted exactly one hour after the initial start time.
Esteban Gutiérrez, while braking late on lap 10, made contact with Pastor Maldonado who flew into the air but continued in the race. Gutiérrez damaged his front right tyre and front wing forcing him to retire.
Nico Rosberg had his first retirement of the season following a gearbox failure, allowing Hamilton to move up into first place and win his fifth race of the season. Valtteri Bottas recorded his best Formula One finish; having started 14th on the grid, Bottas made his way up the order to finish as runner-up, half a minute behind Hamilton. Daniel Ricciardo just held off Jenson Button for the final podium spot.
Qualifying
Notes: