British GP: Shoddy tyres fail to spoil the Silverstone spectacle

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.