Hamilton takes commanding win as Rosberg retires
By Ben Andersonhttp://www.autosport.com
Lewis Hamilton slashed the points gap to Nico Rosberg in the Formula 1 world championship by winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Rosberg led for half the race until a gearbox problem forced him to retire his Mercedes from a race for the first time this season.
Hamilton capitalised fully to snatch victory in his home grand prix, making up for mistakenly aborting his final flying lap in qualifying and cutting his Mercedes team-mate's lead in the title race to just four points.
Things had been looking good for Rosberg, who converted pole position into the lead as fellow front-row starter Sebastian Vettel made a slow getaway and slipped to fourth, behind the quick-starting McLarens of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen.
Hamilton also made a decent start from row three, jumping Nico Hulkenberg's Force India and driving around the outside of Vettel through Village to snatch fourth, briefly banging wheels with the reigning world champion on his way past.
The grand prix was only five corners old when Kimi Raikkonen crashed his Ferrari heavily on the Wellington Straight and stopped the race.
The Finn lost control of his F14 T over a bump as he rejoined the circuit after running wide at Aintree, striking the barrier on the right-hand side and spinning back across the track.
Felipe Massa's Williams was also damaged heavily when it clipped the Ferrari as Massa tried to take avoiding action.
Raikkonen reported ankle pain as he climbed from his car, while Massa retired his Williams back to the pits with suspension damage.
Raikkonen's errant Ferrari also eliminated Kamui Kobayshi's Caterham, which ran just ahead of Massa after the Brazilian bogged down at the start.
The race resumed behind the safety car after a lengthy delay to repair damaged barrier, and Rosberg sprinted away at the restart as Hamilton worked to get past the two McLarens.
The 2008 world champion made short work of the task, passing Magnussen when the Dane ran wide at Copse on lap three and driving past Button into Brooklands next time around, to cheers from the partisan crowd.
By then Rosberg had opened out a four-second lead and he looked comfortable until the closing stages of the first stint, when Hamilton began to attack.
The Briton was attempting to beat his team-mate with an alternative strategy, running longer than Rosberg on the medium tyre and switching to the hard compound for his second stint, but strategy became a moot point when a gradually worsening gearbox problem forced Rosberg out shortly after his first pitstop.
Hamilton was thus left clear to cruise to a comfortable 28.9-second victory over the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, who charged superbly from 14th on the grid to finish second.
Daniel Ricciardo - who started eighth in his Red Bull - and Button successfully executed one-stop strategies to finish third and fourth, clear of a feisty late battle between Vettel and Fernando Alonso - who received a five-second stop-go penalty for starting out of position - for fifth.
Both champions complained of the other exceeding track limits and driving unfairly, but Vettel - on fresher tyres after two-stopping to Alonso's one - eventually prevailed by diving up the inside of his rival on the exit of Luffield and completing the pass at Copse in the closing stages.
Magnussen was out-foxed by both Alonso and Vettel in on-track battles, and trailed them home seventh in his one-stopping McLaren.
Hulkenberg salvaged four points for eighth place in a Force India that looked short on grip throughout the race, while Toro Rosso made up for its recent run of chronic unreliability by rounding out the points scorers in ninth and 10th.
Daniil Kvyat fell just 0.6s short of beating Hulkenberg, but headed home team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, who was delayed by tagging the 11th placed Force India of Sergio Perez on the first run through Abbey after the start.
Results - 52 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2h26m52.094s
2. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +30.135s
3. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +46.495s
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +47.390s
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +53.864s
6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +59.946s
7. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +1m02.563s
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +1m28.692s
9. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault +1m29.340s
10. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault -1 lap
11. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes -1 lap
12. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault -1 lap
13. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari -1 lap
14. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari -1 lap
15. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault -2 laps
16. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari -2 laps
17. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault -3 laps
Retirements:
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 28 laps
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 11 laps
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 9 laps
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1 laps
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 0 laps
Drivers' championship Constructors' championship 1. Nico Rosberg 165 1. Mercedes 326 2. Lewis Hamilton 161 2. Red Bull-Renault 168 3. Daniel Ricciardo 98 3. Ferrari 106 4. Fernando Alonso 87 4. Williams-Mercedes 103 5. Valtteri Bottas 73 5. Force India-Mercedes 91 6. Sebastian Vettel 70 6. McLaren-Mercedes 90 7. Nico Hulkenberg 63 7. Toro Rosso-Renault 15 8. Jenson Button 55 8. Lotus-Renault 8 9. Kevin Magnussen 35 9. Marussia-Ferrari 2 10. Felipe Massa 30 10. Sauber-Ferrari 0 11. Sergio Perez 28 11. Caterham-Renault 0 12. Kimi Raikkonen 19 13. Jean-Eric Vergne 9 14. Romain Grosjean 8 15. Daniil Kvyat 6 16. Jules Bianchi 2