2013 British Grand Prix

  2013 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 8 of 19 in the 2013 Formula One season
Silverstone Circuit
Date	30 June 2013
Official name	2013 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix[1]
Location	Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, United Kingdom
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.891 km (3.661 mi)
Distance	52 laps, 306.198 km (190.263 mi)
Weather	Dry
Attendance	120,000
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:29.607
Fastest lap
Driver	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:33.401 on lap 52 (lap record)[N 1]
Podium
First	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Second	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Third	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2013 British Grand Prix (formally the 2013 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that took place on 30 June 2013 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom. It was the eighth round of the 2013 season, and the 68th British Grand Prix. The 52-lap race was won by Nico Rosberg for the Mercedes team, from a second position start. Mark Webber finished second in a Red Bull car, with Fernando Alonso third in a Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton took pole position ahead of teammate Rosberg, with Championship leader Sebastian Vettel third. The race was marred by several tyre punctures. Hamilton, along with Felipe Massa, Jean-Éric Vergne and Sergio Pérez suffered left-rear tyre blowouts, while Esteban Gutiérrez was subject to a left-front tyre blowout and Alonso's right-rear deflated just before a pitstop.

Report

Background

The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams, each of two drivers. The teams, also known as "constructors", were Red Bull-Renault, Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Lotus-Renault, Mercedes, Sauber-Ferrari, Force India-Mercedes, Williams-Renault, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, Caterham-Renault and Marussia-Cosworth.

Before the race, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel led the Drivers' Championship with 132; Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was second on 96 points. Behind them in the Drivers' Championship, Kimi Räikkönen was third on 88 points in a Lotus, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber on 77 and 69 points respectively. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull were leading with 201 points and Ferrari were second on 145 points, with Mercedes third on 134 points.

On 27 June, Webber announced he was to retire at the end of the season and enter the 2014 World Endurance Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours, saying: "I'm very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world."^[2]

The drag reduction system (DRS) had two activation zones for the race; one was on the straight between turns 5 and 6, and the second on the hangar straight between turns 14 and 15.^[1] The sport's sole tyre supplier Pirelli, provided two specifications of dry slick tyres for the race, designated Hard (also referred to as the "prime" tyre) and Medium (also referred to as the "option" tyre).^[3] The Hard compound was distinguished by an orange band with the Medium compound being distinguished by a white band. As was the case for all the 2013 Grands Prix, the rules stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during the course of the race, and each driver was limited to eleven sets of dry tyres for the weekend.^[4]

Practice and qualifying

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race – two on Friday, and one on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes; the third session, on Saturday morning, lasted for an hour.^[4]

The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished the session 18th or lower. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 17. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position.^[4]

Williams' Valtteri Bottas, Sauber's Esteban Gutiérrez, Caterham's Charles Pic, Marussia's Jules Bianchi, Caterham's Giedo van der Garde and Marussia's Max Chilton were all knocked out in Q1.

McLaren's Jenson Button, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, Toro Rosso's Jean-Éric Vergne, McLaren's Sergio Pérez, Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg and Williams' Pastor Maldonado were all eliminated in Q2. Vergne was on for a good lap during the latter stages of Qualifying but a slow middle sector meant that his time was not enough to finish in the top 10.

Lewis Hamilton took pole position with a time of 1:29.607 followed by his team mate Nico Rosberg and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel followed by Webber, Di Resta, Ricciardo, Sutil, Grosjean, Räikkönen and Alonso completing the top ten. Di Resta would later get a penalty for his car being under 1.5 kg under the minimum weight, so was then taken to the back of the grid, which meant Ricciardo would move up to a career best fifth, and the rest follows. The reason for the car being under the minimum weight remains unknown.

Race

Lewis Hamilton suffered a tyre puncture on lap 7.

The conditions were sunny before the race. The air temperature was 23 °C (73 °F) and the track temperature was 31 °C (88 °F); conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race.^[5] The race-day attendance was 120,000.^[6]

Sebastian Vettel, walks away from his car, having suffered a gearbox failure while leading with 19 laps to go

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led from the start, with Vettel behind him after Rosberg was slow off the line. Red Bull's Webber had a poor start and damaged his front wing after contact with Lotus' Romain Grosjean into turn 1. On lap 7, Hamilton - who had been leading the race by slightly over 2 seconds from Vettel - suffered a left-rear tyre failure on the Wellington Straight and dropped to last place as he trundled back to the pits. On lap 11, Massa - having made a great start to move up from eleventh to fifth by the end of the first lap - also suffered a tyre failure and spun, while a subsequent tyre explosion on Vergne's car brought out the safety car on lap 16. Vergne eventually retired from the race with floor damage.

Having inherited the lead following Hamilton's tyre failure, Vettel led the race until lap 42 when he suffered a gearbox failure and stopped near the start-finish line, having been over 2 seconds ahead of Rosberg beforehand. This brought out a second safety car. Rosberg, Webber, and Alonso all made pit stops for new tyres, but Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen stayed out.

Damon Hill interviewed the top three finishers during the podium ceremony.

The race resumed on lap 46 with Rosberg in the lead. Webber and Alonso were able to overtake Räikkönen for a podium finish. Hamilton managed to finish fourth after recovering from the early tyre failure and passing Räikkönen on the penultimate lap. Massa also made a good recovery after his own tyre failure (and subsequent spin) and a slower-than-average pit stop, managing to finish sixth. McLaren's Pérez suffered a tyre failure on the restart and was forced to retire with car damage. Grosjean also retired before the end of the race.^[5]

Nico Rosberg went on to win the race, holding off Red Bull's Mark Webber by just 0.7 seconds with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso over 7 seconds down the road in 3rd. Mark Webber also set the lap record (1:33.401), beating the previous record set by Kimi Räikkönen in 2012.

Post-race

The top three finishers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies, and were interviewed by 1996 World Drivers' Champion Damon Hill.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.995	1:31.224	1:29.607	1
2	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:31.355	1:31.028	1:30.059	2
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:31.559	1:30.990	1:30.211	3
4	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:31.605	1:31.002	1:30.220	4
5	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:32.097	1:31.182	1:30.757	5
6	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.002	1:31.097	1:30.908	6
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:31.466	1:31.530	1:30.955	7
8	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:31.400	1:31.592	1:30.962	8
9	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:32.266	1:31.387	1:30.979	9
10	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.979	1:31.649		10
11	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:32.241	1:31.779		11
12	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:32.105	1:31.785		12
13	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.953	1:32.082		13
14	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1:32.168	1:32.211		14
15	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:32.512	1:32.359		15
16	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:32.664			16
17	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:32.666			17
18	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1:33.866			18
19	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1:34.108			19
20	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1:35.481			22^2
21	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1:35.858			20
EX	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.062	1:31.291	1:30.736	21^1
107% time: 1:37.364
Source:[7]

Notes:

• ^1  — Paul di Resta was excluded from the results after his car was found to be underweight after qualifying. He was subsequently moved to the back of the grid.^[8]
• ^2  — Giedo van der Garde was given a five-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Nico Hülkenberg at the previous race.^[9] He was later given a second grid penalty for a gearbox change, placing him 22nd and last.^[10]

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	52	1:32:59.456	2	25
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	52	+0.765	4	18
3	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	52	+7.124	9	15
4	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	52	+7.756	1	12
5	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	52	+11.257	8	10
6	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	52	+14.573	11	8
7	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	52	+16.335	6	6
8	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	52	+16.543	5	4
9	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	52	+17.943	21	2
10	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+19.709	14	1
11	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	52	+21.135	15
12	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	52	+25.094	16
13	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+25.969	10
14	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+26.285	17
15	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	52	+31.613	18
16	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	52	+36.097	19
17	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	52	+1:07.660	20
18	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	52	+1:07.759	22
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	51	Handling	7
20	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	46	Puncture damage	13
Ret	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	41	Gearbox	3
Ret	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	35	Puncture damage	12
Source:[11]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Sebastian Vettel 132 2 Fernando Alonso 111 3 Kimi Räikkönen 98 4 Lewis Hamilton 89 5 Mark Webber 87

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault 219 1 2 Mercedes 171 1 3 Ferrari 168 4 Lotus-Renault 124 5 Force India-Mercedes 59

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Footnotes

1. Although Lewis Hamilton set a lap time of 1:29.607 in qualifying, Mark Webber's time of 1:33.401 is recognised as the lap record as it was set under race conditions.

References

1. "2013 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
2. Benson, Andrew (27 June 2013). "Mark Webber to leave Formula 1 at the end of 2013 season". BBC Sport (BBC). Retrieved 2 July 2014.
3. "Pirelli: Tyre construction to remain the same for Silverstone". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 13 June 2013. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
4. "2013 Formula One Sporting Regulations" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 9 December 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
5. Creighton, Geoff; Hughes, Emelyn (30 June 2013). "As it happened: The British Grand Prix". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 3 July 2014.
6. "British Grand Prix 'back to its best' with third highest attendance of all time". Silverstone.co.uk. 30 June 2013. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
7. "Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix 2013 - Provisional Results". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
8. "British GP: Paul Di Resta disqualified from qualifying". BBC Sport. Andrew Benson. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
9. "Van der Garde given grid penalty". Eurosport. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
10. "2013 FORMULA 1 SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX – RACE – RESULTS". Formula 1. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
11. "2013 FORMULA 1 Santander British Grand Prix Provisional Results". Formula 1. Archived from the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2013.

External links

• Official Event Site