Lewis claimed his 80th victory in Formula One, his seventh of the 2019 season and sixth at the British Grand Prix, making him the most successful driver at this event. Valtteri came home in P2 to complete the 1-2 for the team. Today's result marks the seventh win for Mercedes at the British Grand Prix, equalling the Italian Grand Prix as most successful race for the team.
Lewis (223 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 39 points from Valtteri (184 points). Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (407 points) lead Ferrari (243 points) by 164 points in the Constructors' Championship.
John Owen, Chief Designer, accepted the Constructors' trophy on behalf of the team.
Toto Wolff: To bounce back from our worst weekend of the season with a 1-2 at our home race is a great feeling. It was exciting to see our drivers fight hard on the track; it was a tough battle, but there's a lot of respect between the two of them and they always left each other enough space. I think both our drivers merited to win today. Valtteri had a really strong weekend; he outqualified Lewis at Silverstone, he led the race, he defended spectacularly, but the Safety Car came out in the wrong moment for him. Lewis was struggling a bit yesterday but drove a very strong race today and even managed to get the point for the fastest lap on 30 laps old Hard tyres; we're still not quite sure how he managed that. It's a great result for him in front of his home crowd. We're now looking forward to our second home race in Hockenheim in two weeks.
James Allison: This was a fantastic result for the team and a brilliant performance from our drivers and car alike. As a team, we were very, very strong today but that didn't make life easy on the pit wall: our two drivers were fighting hammer and tongs in the first stint, and likely would have been for the whole race but for the intervention of the Safety Car, which fell unfortunately for Valtteri. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic end result for Lewis in his home race and a really strong drive from Valtteri. After the close fight in qualifying, it was gratifying to see that our race pace was strong and that we were able to repeat the competitiveness we had seen on Friday during the long runs.
It was not an easy day for Scuderia Ferrari at the British Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc took the team's ninth podium of the season at Silverstone but Sebastian Vettel finished outside the points, after he collided with Max Verstappen on lap 37.
When the five red lights went out, Charles kept his third place, while Sebastian immediately passed Pierre Gasly to move up one. Then Max Verstappen closed on Charles and a exciting duel ensued over ten laps, as the two men passed and re-passed each other. The battle even continued to rage after both men made their first pit stops on lap 13. Verstappen actually managed to come out of pit lane very slightly ahead of Leclerc, but the Monegasque didn't give up and a few corners later, he got in front again, which had the crowd on their feet.
On lap 20, Antonio Giovinazzi went off track and the race director invoked the Virtual Safety Car. Sebastian Vettel made the most of this, pitting to go from Soft to Hard tyres, rejoining in third place. On the same lap, Verstappen made a second stop, which meant the Scuderia had to react, immediately calling in Charles again to switch him from the Mediums to the Hard. In the meantime, the real Safety Car had come out and the field closed up. Leclerc therefore found himself on the tail of Verstappen and Gasly in the Red Bulls. These two soon swapped places so that Charles was now following the Frenchman, whom he passed on lap 35 on the outside of the Loop corner.
Ahead of Charles, Verstappen had meanwhile closed on Sebastian. On lap 37, the Dutchman attacked the German down the Hangar Straight and went past. Vettel tried to respond at the next braking point, but the move went wrong and he ran into the back of the Red Bull. Verstappen managed to keep going, losing a few seconds, but Sebastian had to pit to change the front wing. The German was deemed to have caused the collision and given a 10 second penalty, added to his final race time, which dropped him to sixteenth.
The incident between Vettel and Verstappen promoted Charles to third place behind Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. The Monegasque was voted "Driver of the Day" after taking his fifth podium of the season, the fourth in a row, after finishing third in Canada and France and second in Austria.
Mattia Binotto Team Principal: "It was definitely a difficult race, when compared to yesterday's qualifying. Once again today, tyre wear compromised our pace, limiting our performance. It clearly demonstrates we still have work to do to close the gap when we are racing in specific circumstances.
"Charles drove a strong race and showed once again how good he is in a wheel to wheel situation.
"It was a shame that Seb's good showing in the race was spoilt by a mistake when fighting Verstappen.
"The Safety Car made Charles' race more difficult: stopping first was not really an option as it would have put Charles behind his rivals. All we could do therefore was react when Verstappen pitted. In the end, Charles had to attack the Red Bull again on track, which he succeeded in doing to take a well deserved podium."
Christian Horner: "It was a really exciting first part of the race, with Max going wheel to wheel with Leclerc resulting in some great racing between the two of them. An early pit stop put Max just ahead but unfortunately he couldn't hold on to that position on the out lap. They were then fighting for the rest of the stint before the Safety Car was deployed. We took the opportunity to pit Max again so he could go to the end of the race and it then became a straight fight between Max and Sebastian, knowing he was within a pit stop of Bottas. Max managed to make a pass on the outside at Stowe but Seb misjudged his breaking and took Max's car out from behind. Despite the enormous hit, Max was able to get going again from the gravel to bring the car home. It was a frustrating race for him as there was potential for a podium today. Pierre's race was the continuation of a very strong weekend, running hard with the Ferraris and doing a very long stint on the hard tyre to get to the end of the race to achieve his best finish of the year. This has been a great confidence builder for him and hopefully he can use this to get some momentum going for his next race."
Renault F1 Team secured a double points finish in the Rolex British Grand Prix with Daniel Ricciardo seventh and Nico Hulkenberg tenth at Silverstone.
While Daniel and Nico finished from where they started on the grid, it was far from straightforward throughout the rollercoaster 52-lap race.
Daniel lost a position on lap one, with Nico gaining a place to ensure both cars remained firmly in the midfield mix.
Daniel pitted first for Medium tyres - attempting a two-stop strategy - with Nico coming in a lap later for Hards on a converted one-stop effort.
A Safety Car on lap 19 put paid to the original plan with Daniel stopping for Hards. Contact with Sergio Perez at the restart led to Nico falling back a place with Daniel advancing on new tyres towards those ahead of him.
Further drama in front followed allowing Daniel to fight for sixth - marginally missing out on that place at the flag - with Nico battling for tenth, which he eventually took on the last lap.
Nico started from tenth on Pirelli's used Soft (red) tyres, pitting on lap 13 for used Hard (white tyres). Daniel started in seventh on used Softs, pitting on lap 12 for new Mediums (yellow) and then on lap 20 for new Hards.
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: "Overall we can be satisfied with today's result of having both cars inside the top ten. However, we know that higher finishing positions were possible. Firstly, with Daniel, without the intervention of the Safety Car, but our reaction to pit him was the right one after a perfect execution of an undercut earlier in the race. Secondly, while Nico drove an excellent race to make the Hards last to the end, we could have stopped him earlier as he ran out of tyres before Daniel. He still deserves a lot of credit for taking the final point in adverse circumstances. But overall, at a power dominated track, in qualifying like in race, our competitiveness level has been stronger, even if the areas of weakness are still here and will be our focus for the coming weeks."
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen fell victim to an opening-lap incident and both retired shortly thereafter in Sunday's British Grand Prix, the 10th round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship at Silverstone Circuit.
Grosjean was 14th and Magnussen 16th on the starting grid and launched cleanly. Magnussen pulled alongside to the right of Grosjean while the two were negotiating turn five and the two made side-by-side contact, both VF-19's emerging with punctured rear tires. Both pitted to change from their Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires for a set of White hards and resumed, Grosjean in 19th and Magnussen in 20th.
Magnussen was called back to the pits after six laps, Grosjean after nine - both retired to the garage with accident damage.
With today's results, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team remained ninth in the constructor's championship with 16 points, three behind eighth-place Toro Rosso and Racing Points and 16 ahead of 10th-place Williams.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won today's British Grand Prix, crossing the finish line 24.928 seconds ahead of his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. It was Hamilton's milestone 80th career win, his seventh of the season and sixth at Silverstone. Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari took the final podium position of third.
Guenther Steiner: "It was a very disappointing race for us. I'm just stating the obvious here. The best that our drivers could bring to the battle was a shovel - to dig the hole we're in even deeper. We need to go back, regroup, and see what we do in future."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "Big congratulations and thank you again to the team here at the track and at the factory. We have again been the fourth-strongest team this weekend, and extended the gap to our main competitors in the midfield by one point. Overall, it was quite a tricky race today. On Carlos's side, after having a great start, overtaking both Alfas, he obviously benefitted from the timing of the Safety Car. It came just at the right time for Carlos to gain track position to other cars, and at the same time allowed him to run the race on the optimum, one-stop tyre strategy. Ricciardo was very strong towards the end of the race, and Carlos did a sensational job in battling through and keeping him behind until the finish line.
"Lando also had another great race start, overtaking Ricciardo on the first lap. Ricciardo then undercut Lando at the first pit-stop by stopping one lap earlier, and with the Safety Car we decided to split strategies between our cars, trying to gain track position for Lando. We then ran a two-stop strategy with fresh Hard tyres towards the end of the race, in order to try and overtake other cars which we thought might struggle with their tyres. Unfortunately for Lando, after driving a great race, it didn't end up with any points for him because the tyres on our main competitors lasted longer than we anticipated.
"A special thanks to our team back at the factory who made a big push in the last week to get updates on the cars which were originally planned for the next race. Finally, a special thanks to all of the McLaren employees and fans who came to Silverstone this weekend."
Otmar Szafnauer: "It's wasn't our day and we come away from our home race empty-handed. The safety car proved costly for us with both cars pitting shortly before it was deployed. We had hoped to get both cars home on one-stop strategies, but the safety car hurt us more than most and some of the cars we were racing effectively got a free pit stop. That's racing and luck wasn't on our side today. It's a shame because we had cars capable of scoring points. A brake balance issue for Sergio contributed to the contact he made with Nico [Hulkenberg] and ended any chance of a recovery. We switched Lance to a two-stop race late on, in the hope that the fresh rubber might allow him to pick off some of the one-stopping cars, but we ran out of laps in the end."
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "Bringing home four points is a good result but it's always a bit disappointing when one car doesn't see the chequered flag. Overall it was a good team performance: Kimi drove a solid race and was able to make the most of the opportunities that came his way. Antonio would have been close to him, but unfortunately a mechanical issue meant his race ended in a gravel trap. Once again, we were able to fight in the midfield but we still need to work hard to retain the ground we made up."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Today's race has been quite eventful and, although we have scored points, we will be leaving here questioning what we could have done better. Alex put in a fantastic drive, especially when we consider he was managing an issue with his car all race which was limiting pit strategy options at various points. Even if he did a great job managing his prime tyres, they were finished two laps from the end of the race and he could not keep Hulkenberg behind. Dany's race was slightly less eventful, and we took the opportunity to move to the base tyre during the Safety Car period, which allowed him to attack in the last third of the race but unfortunately, he ran out of time to get past Kimi. We have extracted a level of performance from our cars more in line with expectation here, which is positive, but the closeness of the midfield means there is no room for error and we have to keep developing aggressively."
Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "Thanks to strong pace and a good strategy, Daniil went from 17th to finish in the points. Unfortunately, Alex dropped out of the points in the closing stages, as he was unable to make the second tyre stop that he needed. This was PU-related, as the data showed a high voltage issue, so we told the team it was inadvisable to make a second stop on safety grounds. Of course, we will now analyse this issue very carefully. It wasn't the best race for us, but for the fans it was another really exciting Grand Prix. We will now concentrate as usual on our development programme, as we head for another pair of back to back races."
George Russell finished 14th and Robert Kubica 15th in the British Grand Prix. The Brit started 19th and Robert 20th on the grid, both on the medium Pirelli tyre. George and Robert pitted during the Safety Car on laps 20 and 21, both for the hard Pirelli tyre.
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: Both drivers had solid races, were able to understand today's conditions and manage their tyres to complete comfortable one-stop races. The timing of the Safety Car allowed us to pit both cars for the hard Pirelli tyre and run relatively relaxed stints to the end of the race. We were flattered by the misadventure of others but that is all part of racing and so in fact we benefited from two reliable cars and two well-judged drives.
Our attention now turns to two days of 2020 tyre testing on behalf of Pirelli before we move on to Germany and the challenges of Hockenheim.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling British Grand Prix for the sixth time with an unexpected one-stop strategy, having switched from medium to hard tyres under the safety car before the halfway point of the race. He was the only one of the top three to stop just once, winning with a margin of more than 20 seconds and shattering the existing lap record at the end of a race in which every P Zero compound performed extremely well.
There was a wide variety of strategies seen throughout the 52-lap race, with four different strategies in the top five.
Only Mercedes and Red Bull started on the medium tyre from the top 10 of the grid, with Mercedes finishing first and second, and Red Bull fourth and fifth.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was the highest-placed driver to begin the race on the Red soft tyre, finishing the grand prix in his qualifying position of third.
The safety car marked a turning point, with nearly all of the frontrunners (with the exception of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas) using it to make a pit stop.
Conditions remained dry and cool throughout the race, but there was no rain at all, unlike the previous two days at Silverstone.
Mario Isola: "All three compounds played an integral part in a fantastic race today, with perhaps the most remarkable performance coming from the hard tyre with Lewis Hamilton, who claimed the fastest lap just before taking the chequered flag, on a set of tyres that had already covered 32 laps. And this on one of the most demanding circuits of the year, with energy loads in excess of 4g through some of the corners. From start to finish we saw a highly entertaining race with plenty of action and close battles. The safety car was a decisive element, which effectively split the race into two sprints as most drivers took advantage of it to make a pit stop. The decision to pit Hamilton from the medium to the hard during this safety car proved to be a key element of his victory. Now we look forward to continuing our development of the 2020 compounds, with two days of testing with Red Bull and Williams at Silverstone."
