F1 News
Date:
30/June/2013
Nico Rosberg took his second victory of the season in
Sunday’s British F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone, during a race marred by a series
of spectacular tyre failures.
Rosberg’s Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was the first
victim, the pole sitter’s left rear tyre disintegrating while leading his home
grand prix on lap 8 of 52.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne
then suffered eerily similar failures, prompting a safety car period to clear
debris.
With eleven laps remaining, a second safety car was required
to retrieve the stricken Red Bull of title leader Sebastian Vettel, whose Renault-powered
RB9 ground to a halt with a suspected gearbox problem whilst on course for
victory.
After the restart McLaren’s Sergio Perez became the fourth
driver to shed a left rear tyre, the carcass of which was thrown high into the
air along the Hangar Straight.
The race continued and the final laps saw Vettel’s team-mate
Mark Webber dramatically hunt down Rosberg, falling just 0.7s short at the
chequered flag.
Rosberg, winner in Monaco, said: “It’s a very, very special
day. Our factory is so close and our team has done such a fantastic job to come
through during the season. We have such momentum going at the moment,
“With Lewis, definitely I feel sorry for all the British
fans. It would have been a great race for Lewis here in front of his home crowd
- but when Sebastian stopped, I won’t lie, I wasn’t disappointed by that! From
then it was a great race to win.”
Rosberg, like the others drivers, was warned of the tyre
incidents over the radio. The young German revealed he too came close to a
failure.
“I was staying off the kerbs and I got a tyre problem
myself, but I was able to pit before it broke apart because the safety car came
out. I was a bit lucky there.
“After that, when Mark was chasing me, it was a compromise
between how fast is he coming at me and how much am I going to take out of the
tyres. That was really difficult to judge.”
Webber finished the first lap in 14th place after
a poor start and then damage to the front wing of his Red Bull following
contact with Romain Grosjean at turn one.
“With ten laps to go when you can see the win in sight. It
is mixed feelings when you finish seven-tenths behind,” said the Australian,
who will retire at the end of the season.
“I would have liked a few more laps but Nico deserved the
win. We were a little bit fortunate with the safety cars, but you’ve got to be
there to capitalise. I’m very happy with second, team have done a good job and
- last time here in Formula One in front of the British fans - thank you very
much.”
Webber was unsurprisingly concerned at the number of Pirelli
tyre failures but chose to pick his words carefully. “This is not a slow
circuit, it’s very quick... It’s not December yet, so I’ll stay quiet.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was directly behind Perez when his
rear tyre let go.
“With Sergio I was so scared and so lucky because I missed
the contact by one centimetre,” said Alonso. “It’s hard to believe that the
kerbs were the problem today, because we’ve been racing here for 12 years with
those kerbs.”
Alonso completed the podium and has reduced Vettel’s
Championship advantage to 21 points after eight of 19 rounds. Hamilton recovered
to fourth place.
