British GP: Shoddy tyres fail to spoil the Silverstone spectacle

Lewis Hamilton limping back to the pits after his tyre deflation

Well, after 52 laps of the British Grand Prix, we saw a second win of the season for Mercedes. Considering that the Silver Arrows locked out the front row of the grid after qualifying on Saturday, this was perhaps not a massive surprise, but the fact that it was Nico Rosberg rather than pole sitter Lewis Hamilton who took the victory was a bit of a disappointment for the home fans.

Indeed, in the opening laps of the race, it looked like Hamilton was in complete control while Rosberg had slipped from second to third, behind Sebastian Vettel. The first seven laps went perfectly for Hamilton. Having started brilliantly from pole position, he gradually increased his lead over the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel to around two seconds at the start of lap eight.

For reasons outside of Hamilton’s or his team’s control though, disaster struck for the Englishman as he made his way down the Wellington straight on lap eight. His left rear tyre suddenly deflated, forcing him to crawl back to the pits as the field streamed passed. Hamilton rejoined in last place.

Given the tyre issues from earlier in the season and the recent furore over the Pirelli/Mercedes tyre test at Barcelona, one tyre failure in the race at Silverstone would perhaps not have been a massive talking point, especially given that it occurred on a Mercedes, the team that have suffered most with tyre wear this season.

However, the fact that the failure occurred just eight laps into the race – early in the race, where degradation wouldn’t have been a big factor – might have served as an indicator of what was to come for other drivers.

By the time all 52 laps had been completed, we had seen not one, not two, but four left rear Pirelli tyre failures, plus a failure on the front left of Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber. Just three laps after Hamilton’s incident, the Ferrari of Felipe Massa was sent spinning off the track after another rapid tyre deflation. Like Hamilton, the Brazilian rejoined the track and managed to trundle slowly back to the pits for a new set of rubber.

As I mentioned, though, there were four left rear tyre failures. Number three arrived just a few laps after Massa’s and this time the debris on the circuit led to the safety car being deployed. This time it was the Toro Rosso of Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne that was serenely making its way down the Wellington straight when his tyre suddenly exploded.

It could have been worse as the safety car allowed race leader Sebastian Vettel, and many others, to pit and change tyres. We soon heard on Mark Webber’s team radio that Vettel’s left rear tyre were also cut; there would certainly have been a tyre failure on his car had it not been for the safety car.

As it turned out, we didn’t see another tyre failure until lap 46 of the race. This time, it was the McLaren of Sergio Perez which had a left rear tyre explode, going down the Wellington straight. This came immediately after the race restarted following the retirement of the leading Red Bull of reigning world drivers’ champion Sebastian Vettel.

Luck had been on Vettel’s side with Hamilton’s tyre failure and his own non-tyre failure earlier in the race, but luck had deserted the German in the closing stages of the race as his Red Bull ground to a halt with transmission failure, allowing the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg to take a lead that he never relinquished, despite some heavy late pressure from the second Red Bull of Mark Webber, who recovered brilliantly after a dreadful start which saw him drop down to 15th after being sideswiped by Romain Grosjean’s Lotus at turn 1.

Another two drivers who recovered brilliantly were Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Despite the former driving with a badly damaged car following his tyre failure, by the end of the race, the 2008 world driver’s champion managed to fight his way back up to fourth place, narrowly missing out on a podium finish.

Fernando Alonso on his way to a third place finish

It was Alonso who took the final podium position behind Rosberg and Webber though, with a thrilling late surge which saw him pass a number of cars, including the McLarens of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez – in the case of the latter, just as his tyre was exploding – and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen. A stunning drive from the Spaniard after his poor showing in Saturday qualifying and a lacklustre start to the race.

We mustn’t forget the race winner, though. Nico Rosberg’s third career victory was merely a footnote in the post race coverage. The German’s victory was perhaps a little fortunate, given the early tyre problem for his team-mate Lewis Hamilton and the retirement of Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg even survived a post race visit to the stewards for failing to slow for yellow flags, receiving just a reprimand and showing that his luck was well and truly in. Lucky or not though, it’s hard to begrudge Rosberg his second win of the season.

All of the attention was, unfortunately, on the Pirelli tyres. A number of the drivers were heavily critical of the Italian manufacturer after the race. Hamilton called the situation “unacceptable”, saying that “safety is the biggest issue…Someone could’ve crashed. I was thinking behind the safety car that it’s only when someone gets hurt that something will be done about it”. Perez, Button and Massa were similarly critical, while Alonso dismissed speculation that the curbs were in any way to blame.

The consensus seemed to be that something needed to be done, and quickly. To their credit, the FIA have acted quickly: FIA President Jean Todt has called an emergency meeting of Sporting Working Group on Wednesday. The meeting, in Paris, will include Pirelli and representatives of all 11 Formula 1 teams and one solution could be the introduction of the tyres that Mercedes had tested at Barcelona.

Whether that comes in time for the next race in Germany is doubtful, though. What is certain, is that Mercedes head in to the remainder of the season with a car that finally seems to have solved its race pace problems. They’ve now moved into second place in the world constructors’ championship and will be looking forward to challenging for more victories, starting at the Nurburgring next week.