Grand Prix of Great Britain: Lewis Hamilton will remember his victory until his death

During a day of monumental sporting events, while the British Grand Prix was still struggling to fight against the attractions of Wimbledon and the Cricket World Cup, the main drivers of Formula 1 were delivering live shows and convincing as those of Lord All England Club.

Lewis Hamilton won a record sixth British Grand Prix win, with a brief fight with his teammate Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas, and a masterful strategic decision made by Hamilton who won.

Behind him, Sebastian Vettel still has a day to forget, with another race mistake to add to the long list that goes back to the German Grand Prix last year.

And his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, and Max Verstappen, of the Red Bull, have staged a man-to-man duel for nearly half of the race that will remain in history as one of the greatest races of this sport.

Hamilton did not need the safety car

After the race, a quick badessment of the events could conclude to Hamilton's victory, as the period of safety car caused by Antonio Giovinazzi of Alfa Romeo on the 20th lap earned him a "free" stop that allowed him to to get ahead of Bottas. But that would be wrong.

In fact, when Giovinazzi left, Hamilton was already in a very strong position.

Hamilton started the race like a scalded cat, immediately putting intense pressure on Bottas. They fought well in the first round, Bottas defended well but remained just to keep the first place. Hamilton fell back a bit, then returned to the fourth round.

He tried the outside of the left side of Brooklands, then retired early to take the right outside for 180 degrees at Luffield. Hamilton took the lead and appeared to have accomplished a brilliant head maneuver, but Bottas should not return to him, go in and re-pbad in the high-speed Copse turn at the end of the day. Old straight line.

"He was inside," Hamilton said, "but when we came out of the corner, I could not really see where he was, he was in my blind spot, he was not in. my mirror but I could not see him next to me either, so I could not close the door, just in case he was there and he happened to be there obviously.

"He drove sensational over there, so I was:" OK, I have to move away, wait until he stops, then nail after that ".

What Hamilton did next was going to allow him to win the race, safety car or no safety car. He had already decided, before the start of the Grand Prix, that he was going to try to make a stop knowing that Bottas was doing two.

It meant caring for his tires and extending his first stint as long as possible. Hamilton did this superbly, keeping his tires in a much better condition than Bottas.

When Bottas came out of his stop on lap 16, he was only slightly faster than Hamilton. It meant that when Hamilton stopped – which would have been more or less when the safety car was out anyway – he would have only gone two or three seconds behind his teammate. As Bottas still had to stop, the game was over.

"I could have sat behind him if I'd wanted to (and waited for him to stop again)," said Hamilton.

Bottas would have returned from his second pit stop a little further than Hamilton. It would have had cooler tires, but the fact that Hamilton managed to achieve the best lap at the end of the race with hard tires with 32 laps, beating a time that Bottas had just put on the softs, rather implied that his teammate not having caught it.

In short, the safety car made it easier for Hamilton, but he was still going to win the race.

The sixth win of the British Hamilton Grand Prix in Hamilton, surpbading the previous record he shared with Jim Clark and Alain Prost, counted a lot for him.

Winning his home race, he said, is "the greatest moment of all the athletes in the world – raising their flag as number one, with the gold medal or whatever in their country of origin.

"It's one of the most incredible feelings and special moments an athlete can have. I come here and I have this incredible support. They always talk about how much that raises you and it's a huge energy but a lot of the weight comes with that, a lot of responsibility. So, I really, really wanted.

On the slowdown he stopped and picked up a Union flag from a marshal.

"When you realize something like that and you see all these British flags, I was always looking for a flag -" someone gives me a flag "- because one day I will be able to look back and I have this photo of me in the car with this flag and I will always be able to smile until the day of my death. "

More questions about Vettel

Vettel debuted on the weekend of the British Grand Prix by interview with BBC Sport, in which he showed an unusual frankness as to the number of mistakes made during the race. past year.

It was therefore ironic that his weekend ends with another weekend, when he misjudged a pbading move on Verstappen and crashed into the back of the Dutch Red Bull at Vale.

That makes it eight races in which Vettel has made a mistake during the year since his dominant victory at Silverstone in 2018. This is a record that would worry any F1 driver, not to mention one. quadruple world champion.

Vettel admitted his mistake and was then asked to summarize in a nutshell his feelings about his season so far.

"Difficult," he says.

These are troubling moments for one of the big names in the sport. But Hamilton, at least, had some words of encouragement for him.

"I'm absolutely convinced that he's going to bounce back," Hamilton said at his post-race press conference, while Federer-Djokovic was playing on the screens behind him. "Look at the great tennis players, he's one of those guys, he's had a tough race today, but he's a four-time world champion and he'll come back stronger in the next race."

You saw it, but you still could not believe it

It was doubly bad for Vettel to have had a race like this after a qualifying session in which he lost 0.6 seconds behind his team mate Leclerc.

Worse still, while Vettel made another mistake in close combat, Leclerc posted Sunday race gear of the highest quality in a battle against Verstappen which counted for 20 thrilling rounds, breathtaking and breathtaking.

Leclerc's Ferrari was no match for Verstappen's Red Bull, but he kept F1's most aggressive driver with irreproachable judgment and exquisite timing in a battle that will surely remain in the game's history. One of the greatest of all times.

The race has been replayed over and over again on the media center screens and, no matter how many times you watch it, it's always amazing how Leclerc keeps Verstappen lagging behind.

Watching them play hammer and pinch in turn, this brings back memories of the last three rounds of the 1979 French Grand Prix, when Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux had a battle that was often considered a wheel to wheel race. to his favorite.

We also think of the defense of his teammate Mercedes Nico Rosberg on the way to victory in Bahrain in 2014.

The talent shown by the defender and striker at Silverstone on Sunday was just as remarkable.

Verstappen has always dreamed of pbading, but Leclerc has found a way to retain it in the most impressive way possible.

There have been a number of highlights, especially when Leclerc dived inside Verstappen into the club and forced him to go to the outside of the track until he reached the end of the race. in the second round of Vale. When they stopped together, the Verstappen crew pulled him out of the back and he seemed to have finally won the place, but Leclerc was forced to put pressure on him in turns 3 and 4, Verstappen's run wide and Leclerc to go back.

But one moment in particular stands out. In the Right Shed on the 19th lap, Verstappen went inside and was clearly ahead entering the Stowe corner. Leclerc, initially defending inward, pushed his outward delay, later braking Verstappen on his shallow line and, one way or another, pbaded by him. When you see it for the first time, you can not believe it happened.

It was brutally awesome, a tough race, but just between fair and dirty. It was one of the biggest shows that F1 has been organizing for some time. And that would not have been possible if Verstappen had not avoided pushing Leclerc out of the track by taking the lead in Austria two weeks ago.

That day, Leclerc learned a lesson that he handed to Verstappen with buttons at Silverstone.

"It was without a doubt the most fun part of my career in Formula 1," said Leclerc. "Well, it's a short career, only a year and a half, but it was really fun for the car.

"Austria was a real eye opener for me because I understood how far we could go and what was accepted, I am very happy at the end of this race, I think every driver wants to race and that's what we did during it was very fun, always on the limit, but I always think in the rules and very, very nice of the car. "

It sounded personal – like he wanted to get revenge, tell Verstappen that everything you can do, I can do better. But Leclerc said no, it was not the case.

"Nothing personal," he says. "After Austria, I think if the stewards accept us to run that way, I'm more than happy to run like that and that's what I did." weekend.

"Nothing special – I just ran harder than normal just because I felt like in the last two races or maybe a little before, I felt like Formula 1 wanted a tough race.

"We're pushing as pilots – it's where we like most, running like that, and that's what I did."