British Grand Prix: Race Report

Event:  British Grand Prix (Round 10 of 20)

Date:  Sunday, July 16

Location:  Silverstone Circuit

Layout:  5.891-kilometer (3.660-mile), 18-turn track

Weather:  Mostly cloudy

Air Temps:  21.5-23.5 degrees Celsius (70.7-74.3 degrees Fahrenheit)

Track Temps:  22.5-33.4 degrees Celsius (72.5-92.1 degrees Fahrenheit)

Race Winner:  Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes

Haas F1 Team:  

●  Kevin Magnussen – Started 16th, Finished 12th (Running, completed 50/51 laps)

●  Romain Grosjean – Started 10th, Finished 13th (Running, completed 50/51 laps)

Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean finished 12th and 13th, respectively, in the British Grand Prix Sunday at Silverstone Circuit.

Both drivers were on a one-stop strategy for the 51-lap race around the 5.891-kilometer (3.660-mile), 18-turn track, but the timing of their stops differed drastically.

Grosjean started 10th and made his pit stop on lap 23, swapping the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires he started the race with for a new set of Yellow softs. This dropped Grosjean to 15th.

Magnussen was the last driver to pit, running 37 laps on his Yellow softs before coming in for a relatively new set of Red supersofts that had only three laps on them. Staying out for so long allowed Magnussen to climb to as high as seventh, but with the tight midfield cars turning laps behind him on fresher tires, there wasn’t enough of a gap for Magnussen to keep the spots he had earned. Magnussen returned to the race in 14th, but quickly passed the Williams of Lance Stroll to take 13th on lap 40.

At this point, Grosjean and Magnussen were running 12th and 13th. But on lap 43, Grosjean was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop after contact from the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson in turn six damaged the right-rear tire of his Haas VF-17. With a new set of red supersofts, Grosjean came out of the pits in 13th and rejoined the race behind Magnussen, who had inherited 12th. The duo maintained their positions for the final six tours of the race, with only the top-seven drivers finishing on the lead lap.

Leading all the laps and handily winning the British Grand Prix was three-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver scored his 57th career Formula One victory, his fourth of the season and his fourth in a row at Silverstone. It was also Hamilton’s fifth Formula One triumph in the British Grand Prix, tying him with Jim Clark and Alain Prost for the most British Grand Prix wins. Hamilton’s margin of victory was a stout 14.063 seconds over his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. The victory significantly boosted Hamilton’s championship effort as he cut 13 points off the lead held by Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel. Only a single point now separates the two.

Ten rounds into the 20-race FIA Formula One World Championship, Haas F1 Team remains seventh in the constructors standings with 29 points, but only three points ahead of eighth-place Renault, which earned eight points in the British Grand Prix via Nico Hulkenberg’s sixth-place result. The gap to sixth-place Toro Rosso held steady at four points, however, as neither Daniil Kvyat nor Carlos Sainz Jr. finished among the top-10 and in the points. Grosjean and Magnussen stayed 13th and 14th, respectively, in the championship driver standings. Grosjean has 18 points and Magnussen has 11 points.

Formula One takes a weekend off before returning to action July 28-30 for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring in Budapest.

“Tough day in the office. We didn’t have much pace today with either tire. I got stuck in traffic initially, which killed the supersoft. I pitted for the softs, and again, traffic all the way. We tried a gamble at the end putting new supersofts on, hoping that something would happen at the front, but nothing did. We just need to understand why our race pace wasn’t as good as it was in qualifying and go from there.”

“I felt the Toro Rosso hit my tire at the start, but nothing happened. Fortunately, there was no puncture. I just didn’t quite get the first lap. It was always going to be difficult when you start on the reverse strategy on the harder tire. That first stint kind of kept me out of the points. The pace was good in the car, I just had to do a long stint on the tires and wait for the guys in front to pit and then put in a lot of good lap times. I came back a bit at the end, but it wasn’t enough. Whenever you’re fighting outside of the points, it’s never that interesting. Still, I’ll take the positives. We were quick and had good pace in the race.”

Round 11 of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship is the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring in Budapest. Practice begins July 28, qualifying takes place July 29 and the race runs July 30.