Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton
won a thrilling British Grand Prix for the sixth time with an unexpected
one-stop strategy, having switched from medium to hard tyres under the
safety car before the halfway point of the race. He was the only one of the
top three to stop just once, winning with a margin of more than 20 seconds
and shattering the existing lap record at the end of a race in which every P
Zero compound performed extremely well.
KEY MOMENTS
- There was a wide variety of strategies seen throughout the 52-lap race,
with four different strategies in the top five.
- Only Mercedes and Red Bull started on the medium tyre from the top 10 of
the grid, with Mercedes finishing first and second, and Red Bull fourth and
fifth.
- Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the highest-placed driver to begin the race
on the Red soft tyre, finishing the grand prix in his qualifying position of
third.
- The safety car marked a turning point, with nearly all of the frontrunners
(with the exception of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas) using it to make a
pit stop.
- Conditions remained dry and cool throughout the race, but there was no
rain at all, unlike the previous two days at Silverstone.
HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED
HARD C1: Incredibly, a 32-lap old set of the hardest compound of the 2019 P
Zero range set Silverstone’s fastest-ever race lap on the final tour, more
than 3.3 seconds faster than the previous benchmark.
MEDIUM C2: Starting the race on this tyre enabled the winner, plus five
others, to complete this demanding race using just one pit stop. Red Bull’s
Max Verstappen started on medium but used a two-stop strategy to finish
fifth. Bottas also started on medium and stopped twice.
SOFT C3: Bottas and the Racing Point duo were the only drivers to finish the
race on this compound, but it was used widely during the opening stint.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“All three compounds played an integral part in a fantastic race today, with
perhaps the most remarkable performance coming from the hard tyre with Lewis
Hamilton, who claimed the fastest lap just before taking the chequered flag,
on a set of tyres that had already covered 32 laps. And this on one of the
most demanding circuits of the year, with energy loads in excess of 4g
through some of the corners. From start to finish we saw a highly
entertaining race with plenty of action and close battles. The safety car
was a decisive element, which effectively split the race into two sprints as
most drivers took advantage of it to make a pit stop. The decision to pit
Hamilton from the medium to the hard during this safety car proved to be a
key element of his victory. Now we look forward to continuing our
development of the 2020 compounds, with two days of testing with Red Bull
and Williams at Silverstone.” |