The British Grand Prix started on a dry track but the partial cloud cover meant that track temperatures were cooler and tire degradation calculations would be re-calculated for a win at Silverstone. Who knew that tires would be a key drama at Silverstone?

Having won the last three British grands prix, Lewis Hamilton put in a stellar pole position lap and was in the zone to win his fourth consecutive home races.

Lewis took the win in fine and dominant fashion and showed that he was intent on winning all weekend long with a strong pole position and faultless race. His teammate helped buffer his points haul and claimed his own jump up the drivers’ championship table.

Win

A big win for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton who secured his 57th race victory and tied a record for five British Grand Prix wins. A faultless drive from pole, Hamilton was singularly focused on winning the race and maximizing his performance.

A big win for Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas who started 9th and with some Ferrari difficulties, inherited second place but it wasn’t just luck, the Finn drove a metronomic race to reach the podium on a good strategy and fantastic driving.

A win for the British fans who were out in force and while the majority were there to support their man Lewis Hamilton, there were plenty of fans for nearly every driver on the grid once again showing that the British fans are some of the best fans in the world and the British Grand Prix is a race that must and should always be on the calendar. It is a non-negotiable and Liberty Media need to make that happen.

A win for Daniel Ricciardo and his teammate, Max Verstappen, who secured 4th and 5th with Ricciardo coming from the back of the grid and Verstappen making an unscheduled stop to avoid a tire issue like Ferrari had. The two maximized their places and points and Ricciardo had a terrific battle through the field.

A huge win for Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who qualified incredibly well and secured 6th for the team even while struggling with a D-Rate issue in the waning laps. An inspired drive from a driver who is often overlooked but he’s delivering massive result for the team and someone besides me should be talking about this. He held off two Force India cars and that’s a new performance level for Nico and Renault.

A win for Force India who managed to get both rivers in the points and a big nod to Esteban Ocon who is starting to beat his teammate, Sergio Perez, and establish his place in the team as well as put the Mexican on notice.

A slight win for McLaren and Stoffel Vandoorne for getting his car into 11th and to the checkered flag. His teammate didn’t have such luck but the Belgian drove a good race and spent most of it defending but was only 3s off 10th place.

Fail

Jolyon Palmer’s race never got started due to hydraulics issues and a long brake pedal as came to a stop during the formation lap. The Renault driver can’t seem to buy any luck as he never started his home Grand Prix.

A fail for Toro Rosso who had Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz in a first lap incident ending the Spaniards race with both blaming each other.

After taking all those grid penalties for changed parts due to reliability, McLaren retired Fernando Alonso who had no power. It’s a story line that McLaren, Fernando fans and practically the whole world are tired of hearing.

It would be hard to give Pirelli a fail for a tire issue but with both Ferrari’s losing their front left tires in the last three laps of the race and Red Bull pitting Max Verstappen to prevent such an occasion and even Lewis Hamilton radioing blisters and saying he thought his tire might blow up as they chatted in the cool-down room, it is strange and as Toto Wolff said, “It was odd that three different cars developed fatal blistering at the end.”

A fail for Ferrari who needed a good race and qualified well but in the end tire issues ruined both Kim and Sebastian’s races. Vettel had a poor start with brakes on fire and struggled to get around Verstappen and then didn’t have the pace on the second stint to hold off Bottas or make ground on Raikkonen. The tire lost tire pressure and his race was compromised. Losing all but one of his points in the title championship means this was a weekend the German didn’t need and with possible grid penalties for engine component changes, it doesn’t bode well for his championship fight.

A fail for Williams who qualified poorly and raced much the same. Unlike last week, Williams couldn’t find their race pace and lost, once again, to Force India and perhaps that doesn’t’ matter to the team but it does for fans of the team.

WTH

It was a Fail but it also is a WTH regarding Renault and Palmer when you have Jolyon struggling to even start races or finish them while his teammate is running well into the points and battling for 6th in the British GP. These gaps of performance and reliability for Renault are a real bugbear and something the team needs to get on top of regardless of who they have in the second car.

It was a WTH moment regarding Ferrari and their Pirelli issues and while the tire maker says that the two incidents were different causes (and they were quick to point that out), it doesn’t negate the issue over a delaminating tire in Kimi’s case. Initial reports suggest that the team went too long and too hard on Vettel’s tire and Kimi’s was a different issue causing the delaminating so we’ll have to wait and see what caused that issue as Kimi’s tires were fresher that Sebastian’s.

No matter how good or planned the NBC production crew are, the amount of advertising breaks inevitably end up timed to miss every key moment of the race. NBC is a ad-supported broadcast and that’s understandable but it just seems that the amount of ads they have sold and the near-impossible job of trying to slot them in means we miss all the key pit stops, passes and action on track. A very tough situation for NBC and you can never predict what will happen but it’s frustrating. I would pay NBC a premium if I could get a broadcast without ads and I think many Americans would too.

A WTH for the movie franchise, Cars, because David Hobbs isn’t in the new Cars 3 movie. 

Britsh GP Results:

Drivers’ Championship Points:

Constructors’ Championship Points: