British Grand Prix 2014: Result

It’s a mixed-up grid for the 2014 Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone, with Rosberg on pole and Hamilton 6th. Did the starting grid make for a great race?

The 2014 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was all set up for a cracking race with the Williams and Ferraris at the back of the grid after calling the rain wrongly in qualifying and Lewis Hamilton in sixth after his own bad judgement on the state of the track. But did that make for an exciting race?

Hamilton moved from sixth to fourth at the start – and Button up to second – but the first lap saw a heavy crash by Kimi Raikkonen – collecting Felipe Massa in a near head-on in the process – bringing proceedings to an abrupt halt.

Pause for one hour so the Armco barrier could be repaired…

The restart behind the safety car saw Rosberg take off and created a gap between himself and Button, and within two laps Hamilton was up in to second place and took the lead as Rosberg stopped for tyres on lap 18.

After his pit stop – a slow one – Hamilton came out behind Rosberg, but Rosberg was starting to complain about downshift problems and as Hamilton started to reel Rosberg in it was clear Rosberg’s car was failing and, as the gearbox problems became terminal for Rosberg, Hamilton breezed past to take the lead in his home Grand Prix and Rosberg was out of the race.

The race for second place was then the only one that seemed in question as Hamilton powered away, with Bottas in second keeping his Williams firmly in second as Ricciardo managed to keep his Red Bull just ahead of Button in the closing stages.

Sebastian Vettel managed the consolation of fifth place followed by Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in sixth, Magnussen in the McLaren is seventh, Hulkenberg in the Force India in eighth and the Toro Rossos of Kvyat and Vergen taking the last points places.

With Nico Rosberg’s turn for mechanical failure in the Mercedes putting him out, Hamilton now moves to within four points of Rosberg in the driver’s title race.