On paper this looked like the same old story. Mercedes-GP one-two finish with Lewis Hamilton grinning post-race as teammate Nico Rosberg sat slumped, a resigned expression on his face, wondering what could have been.
While the resolution was a familiar tale of the 2015 Formula One season, how that scenario arose was wonderfully different because Sunday’s British Grand Prix served up the season’s most entertaining race.
Awful starts from both Mercedes men, allied to the late arrival of rain at Silverstone, made for an intriguing afternoon, with the outcome only settled in the closing moments.
While they did not dominate as they are used to, this was arguably the most impressive display from Mercedes this season as they achieved a sixth one-two in nine races, despite having run third and fourth for most of the first 20 laps.
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Mercedes have had their strategy wrong in the past, most notably the botched calls made in Malaysia and Monaco when the safety car made appearances.
But the German marque got everything spot on yesterday after Hamilton and Rosberg had heavy wheelspin at the start, which allowed the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to lead.
Hamilton moved ahead of Bottas on the opening lap, only to lose the position when he ran wide in a failed move to overtake Massa following a safety car period.
That was on Lap 1 when a collision involving several drivers eliminated the Lotus cars of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, as well as the McLaren of Jenson Button.
Proceedings then ran like a game of chess until Lap 20 as Massa, Bottas, Hamilton and Rosberg raced together, rarely covered by more than two seconds.
The faster Mercedes cars were unable to do anything about the Williams cars, who use Mercedes engines and had the horsepower to rebuff the attentions of Hamilton.
Mercedes chose to pit Hamilton on Lap 21, a move that would transform his race, as he took advantage of clear air to leapfrog Massa, who pitted one lap later, and then Bottas two laps later, to take the lead.
Hamilton opened up a lead of six seconds over Massa as he exploited the superior pace of the Mercedes, but then came the curve ball as rain began to fall, which made conditions slippery.
Rosberg had been stuck behind Massa and Bottas in fourth, powerless to do anything about championship rival Hamilton slipping away up the road, but, as the track got wetter, the grip advantage of the Mercedes W106 chassis was evident as Rosberg breezed past the two Williams drivers to take second.
This was a major damage limitation job as Rosberg had been set to lose 13 points to Hamilton before the arrival of the rain, as he had no way around the Williams cars.
Having overcome that obstacle, though, an even better result suddenly appeared possible.
Rosberg began to reel in the world champion at about two seconds a lap, but Hamilton pitted on Lap 45 for intermediate tyres, just as the rain began to fall more heavily.
It proved inspired timing as Rosberg, who stayed out an extra lap, struggled for grip and came out of his pit stop eight seconds behind Hamilton to put an end to the tussle for victory.
The double world champion’s third win at his home race extends his lead in the drivers’ standings to 17 points and he was relieved to have timed his final pit stop correctly.
“The rain came and I lost temperature in my front tyres,” Hamilton, 30, said. “It’s always trickier for the guy in the lead, you are the first one to get to it and it’s questionable how much risk you take.
“I think it’s the first time I made the perfectly right choice to say I was coming in, because I could see the rain coming more.”
Rosberg said that the arrival of the heavy rain had cost him a chance at a win that had looked unlikely when he was in fourth place.
“I was hoping it [the conditions] would stay like that and I thought I could attack Lewis at some point,” the German said. “Then Lewis boxed and I was pretty sure it was the wrong call. It was still touch and go at that time, so I was actually quite happy that he boxed.
“But it was the right call in the end – it started raining more on that lap, so that was it.
“I had to take that chance, because just following Lewis into the box is a definite lose for me, so I might as well stay out for one more lap at least, and it didn’t work out.”
Formula One standings
Top 10 drivers, country, points
Lewis Hamilton, GBR, 194
Nico Rosberg, GER, 177
Sebastian Vettel, GER, 135
Valtteri Bottas, FIN, 77
Kimi Raikkonen, FIN, 76
Felipe Massa, BRA, 74
Daniel Ricciardo, AUS, 36
Daniil Kvyat, RUS, 27
Nico Hulkenberg, GER, 24
Romain Grosjean, FRA, 17
Constructors
Team, points
Mercedes-GP, 371
Ferrari, 211
Williams, 151
Red Bull Racing, 63
Force India, 39
Lotus, 29
Sauber, 21
Toro Rosso, 19
McLaren, 5
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