British Grand Prix Review

At the risk of being accused of jumping on bandwagons, let us say that there is something cringe-worthy about Lewis coming up with a victory like that at Silverstone, for it will only fuel the fickle British press frenzy. And there remains much to be desired about Hamilton's attitude. It's all angelic sweetness when he wins, but his media posturing when the pressure is on, as it was prior to Sunday, continued to get increasingly ridiculous.

Then there was the amusing sideline of his father's scuppering of the triathlon challenge which Lewis and Jenson Button informally agreed to at the Thursday press conference; it felt rather like a dose of big-bad-tennis-daddy-syndrome. But all that got swept aside by Hamilton's drive on race day, which now ranks alongside Michael Schumacher's at Barcelona in 1996, Ayrton Senna's at Donington in 1993 and Estoril in 1985, and Sir Jackie Stewart's at the Nurburgring in 1968 as one of the great wet-weather dominations.

It was as simple and sublime as it brilliant. From fourth on the grid, Hamilton almost stole the lead at the first corner, and after deferring out of discretion to his pole-sitting team-mate Heikki Kovalainen for a few laps, dived to the front at Stowe. Although he was briefly challenged by Kimi Raikkonen as the track started to dry before the first stops, he and his team made the safest - and, as it turned out, correct - strategic choice to change to a new set of wets, which put him in the box seat when the rain restarted.

But it was the way in which Hamilton converted his advantage that was mesmerising. In the middle stint he gradually pulled away, but in the final stint, when the majority of the field including Lewis stayed on wets although the extremes were the way to go, he displayed a deftness of touch and feel that allowed him to lap at a pace comparable to Rubens Barrichello on the extremes, and miles faster than his rivals. By the end his victory margin was over 68 seconds and he had lapped all but the podium finishers.

In normal, warm, dry, still conditions, it appears that Ferrari may still have a slight edge, but what this year is showing is that the F2008 does not have a particularly wide optimal operating band. The crosswinds at Silverstone are as unique a challenge as, say, the twists and turns of the Hungaroring will be, and qualifying brought the Ferraris back to the field here. The rain only put the red cars further out of their element, as their throttle mapping sent them spinning on acceleration more times than anyone else.

All in all, Raikkonen's performance all weekend was gutsy, and the Finn demonstrated why he is a more classy proposition overall than team-mate Felipe Massa. He hauled his car to 3rd on the grid, he started closing in on Hamilton before the first stops, and despite the wrong strategic call at that stop and several spins as the rain fell harder, he managed to make progress and climb his way back up the field, 4th place significantly putting him on level terms with Hamilton and Massa on points.

But there was no doubt that the decision to stay on his existing set of wets at the first stop was an avoidably bad call. Everyone's radars were predicting imminent rain. McLaren had shown with Kovalainen's earlier stop that they were most likely going to give Lewis a new set of wets, and it would have been safer to match that. Kimi was always going to lose less time on new wets on a drying track and needing to find wet patches, than on worn wets on an increasingly wet track, as turned out to be the case.

The same strategic error for Massa only compounded a truly embarrassing effort from the championship leader going into Silverstone. Qualifying 9th may not have been entirely his fault after a wheel problem in Q3 meant he couldn't record a second flying lap, but he was off his rivals' pace in Q1 and Q2, and there was simply no disguising his complete inability to handle the conditions on Sunday. The more he slid and spun, the more he seemed spooked, and the more mistakes he made.

The other main title contender, Robert Kubica, also shot himself in the foot by recording his second DNF of the year. The Pole was already at a disadvantage after problems in Q3 meant he had not recorded a time and started 10th, but he was moving up smartly especially in the middle stint before his aggression got the better of him at Abbey. This was a day for delicacy and opportunism, neither being Robert's forte. He has stuttered since Montreal and needs to resume consistent big points-scoring in Germany.

Opportunism, though, was what made his team-mate Nick Heidfeld's day, as his third 2nd place finish of the year brought him to 36 points, within 12 of the championship lead. Nick's delight after the race proved just how sour he had been with exactly the same result in Montreal. And his joy was justified; he had been fast and error-free in the race, he had twice brilliantly overtaken two cars in one corner, and in the dry he had qualified 5th. It was a weekend that could really get his season back on track.

Third, and deservedly so, was Barrichello recording Honda's first podium since 2006 and his own since the Indianapolis farce in 2005. Rain is always going to bring both he and Button into the equation, and although Rubens made early progress, his race didn't really come alive until the rain started falling again and the track got more and more slippery. That moved the Brazilian up to 6th, but the real masterstroke was when Ross Brawn and co called in both cars for extreme wets on lap 35.

Whereas the error Ferrari (and others) made at the first stop of not changing wets was a choice between a safe option and a risk not worth taking, here was a choice between a safe-enough option (stay on wets) or a risk that was worth taking (change to extremes). Heavier rain is more discernible than a drying track; the advantage that extremes would give - up to ten seconds a lap - would mean that any extra stop needed down the track would have been easily accounted for.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Felipe Massa
Spent more time out of control than in control

In many ways, Rubens has been the more solid performer for Honda this season. There has been talk of various drivers, the latest being Fernando Alonso, being targeted by Honda for next season as if there is one seat available, and everyone presumes Rubens will be the one making way. But on performance, why should that be? Jenson has been out-qualified by Rubens 5-4, including here, and outscored 11-3, and on the same strategy was making far less progress mid-race before going off into retirement.

And what became of pole-sitter Kovalainen? No doubt it was fuel-assisted, but once again he confirmed that he had the raw pace with his first ever pole, and he was resolute early in defending his lead against Hamilton. But not only was he compromised by his early-stopping strategy, but as conditions got trickier he seemed to be trying harder and harder to make up for lost time and/or errors, which only saw him slide further down to an eventual 5th. The speed is there; the ability to bring home top results still needs work.

It was also another mercurial race for Alonso and Renault. He was one of the fastest drivers in the early stages, made the same tactical error as Ferrari at the first stop, did something about it sooner than anyone else, kept it together on the increasingly wet track better than most to recover to 4th with ten to go, only for his tyres to fade and for him to lose out to Raikkonen and Kovalainen at the end. The up-and-down nature of his day, due to the state of his tyres, hid what was a high-quality drive.

It should have been an even better day for Nelson Piquet Jnr, who used his result at Magny-Cours to springboard to a higher level at Silverstone, which he was familiar with anyway. Qualifying just behind Alonso despite a heavier fuel load, he kept his head early, and having made the right call to change to another set of wets, was in contention for a podium before throwing it away. A few races back he'd have been crucified for this mistake, but this weekend there had been plenty enough positives to take away.

Timo Glock was matching his team-mate until the second half of the race, when as the rain fell harder and the circuit became more slippery, the German failed to find the right amount of aggression, went off several times and dropped down the order to an eventual 12th. Taking the final point, which should have in fact been two points had Trulli not passed him on the last lap, was Kazuki Nakajima who recorded his fourth top-8 finish of the season which brought him level with team-mate Nico Rosberg on points.

Nakajima was not fast in the first half of the race, but he was keeping his Williams on the track, and it was not until he too was placed on extreme wets that he started rocketing up from 14th to 7th. Once again, here was Kazuki belying his inexperience and confounding those who are expecting errors, and putting his FW30 into points-scoring positions in difficult races when others are falling by the wayside. He has now scored points in more races this season than his more fancied team-mate.

In truth, though, it was another troubled weekend for Rosberg and Williams as a whole. A suspension drama made the German's car a monster in Q1, as Williams once more found themselves at the tail of the midfield battling with Honda. Rosberg handled the conditions on Sunday no more impressively than Nakajima did, but probably would have finished ahead of Kazuki had he not lost his nosecone against Glock's Toyota, in another one of these car-damaging incidents of which he is having far too many this season.

Both Williams came home ahead of arguably the most disappointed man of the day in Webber. The Australian has shaken off the luckless tag this year when qualifying and racing around the lower half of the points, but whether by ill-fortune or misjudgement or a bit of both, when opportunity beckons for something better, his fans are still well-advised to stop holding their breath. Those who thought his front-row start could have translated into a large points haul should have known better than to get their hopes up.

This was Red Bull's first ever front-row grid position, although in their previous incarnation as Jaguar they had also managed a 2nd place start once. That too was at the hands of Webber, in Malaysia in 2004, which quickly turned into a disaster in the race. Here, although Mark's lap time was fuel-assisted to some extent, his pace in Q2 suggested that the Red Bull was well and truly hooked up and in dry conditions he may have given the podium a shake.

Had he not spun on the first lap, such was his pace - and no doubt he along with Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and the Honda drivers remain the best wet-weather exponents on the grid - that he would easily have stayed in the top five in the first stint, a position he could have held had he played his tyre strategy right. But whereas Mark is great at clawing his way to two or three points, he and his side of the Red Bull garage still can't consistently convert big opportunities into big points.

Doubly disappointing for Red Bull was that David Coulthard, who announced his retirement at the end of the season to near universal well-wishes, went out of his last British GP on the first lap after tangling with Vettel. Although he is still well beaten by Webber, DC's pace has picked up and gained respectability over the last few rounds, and with the pressure of fielding questions about his future off his shoulders, a liberated DC may still have a few fine drives in the ever-improving RB4 up his sleeve.

The incident with Vettel appeared to be DC's fault however, and David admitted as much, but that would have come as little consolation for the young German. He had qualified a sensational 8th in the Toro Rosso, a result which has been coming given his practice form over the last two or three events. And, bearing in mind his sensational drive in Japan last year, these were the kind of conditions in which Sebastian would have revelled. At least now he knows what Webber felt like after Sebastian took him out at Fuji...

Sebastien Bourdais did a respectable enough job in Q2 to start 13th ahead of Trulli, but in the wet conditions, often seen as one of the ultimate indicators of ability, he made little headway. Yes, Vettel is perhaps something of a special talent, but half a season has passed now and the excuses about needing time to adjust to F1 and the Toro Rosso may start to wear thin. He needs to start matching Vettel if he is to prove to Toro Rosso and the paddock at large that he is worth his place on more than just his Champ Car record.

Which just leaves Force India - and here again were conditions in which they could shine. Adrian Sutil leapt up to 11th up lap two, but was slipping down the field when he spun off, and Giancarlo Fisichella made no impression before also going off when being lapped by Hamilton. If they can't capitalise on a day like this, what hope of points do they have? Especially when Fisi, worryingly, is showing signs of doing his usual party trick of starting a season brightly but fading into anonymity as the year progresses.