Lewis Hamilton Wins Record 6th British GP 1
Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Twitter)

Safety car benefits Lewis Hamilton as Valteri Bottas suffers and Sebastian Vettel crashes behind Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton wins the British GP for record 6th time as he beats teammate Valteri Bottas from 2nd place on the grid. Bottas leaded the race until he took a pit stop, leaving Hamilton as the race leader who decided to run longer on his medium compounds. A 20th lap safety car due to Antonio Giovinazzi skidding into the gravel, synced with Hamilton’s pit stop and turned out to be perfect for Hamilton to retain his lead.

Verstappen and Leclerc entered the pit lane together, and left the pits wheel to wheel, with Verstappen having a slight advantage only to be hampered by losing his tire grip, which Leclerc took full advantage of and gained lead. However, he couldn’t maintain the lead for a long time as he took a second pit stop during the safety car to change into hard tires, to finish the race on the same. The battle between Leclerc and Verstappen was very fierce as they both overtook each other quite a few times in the race, but at last Verstappen gained lead when both of them touched and Leclerc had to slow down.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz had an amazing race as he finished 6th even after starting 13th on the grid. Lando Norris gained  a position from the start, overtaking Daniel Ricciardo in the first lap, but only finished 11th in the race because of poor pit stop strategy. Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, teammates at Haas went wheel to wheel with each other in the first lap, leaving both of their rear tyres punctured. Both of the drivers had to take a pit stop to change the tyres and had to retire from the race eventually.

Max Verstappen managed to overtake Sebastian Vettel running 3rd on lap 41. Vettel taking his chances to regain on the position crashed in the back of Vettel, taking both the cars out of the track. Vettel had his front wing damaged and Verstappen’s floor was crushed. The German took an immediate pit-stop taking him to the last position, while Verstappen continued with the race and managed to finish 5th with a damaged floor. The stewards investigated the crash and gave Vettel a 10 second penalty.

Charles Leclerc gained advantage out of the crash and finished at 3rd position, keeping Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly behind at 4th.

The win, Hamilton’s seventh from 10 races takes him to 39 points clear at the top. He also clocked the fastest lap in the race to get an extra point. Lewis Hamilton said in a post race interview: ”If I’m honest, coming here I didn’t know how many [British GPs] I’d won. I still remember my first win here, my first pole here. Every year is such a challenge. This track is amazing, I can’t put into words just how spectacular this track is to drive. To be amongst the greats that have shined on this circuit, I’m so incredibly proud to be a part of it.”