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vro0m · 5 months

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vro0m's rewatch - 177/332

2016 British GP

British GP time, round uh… 10, already.

Oh dear it's WET. They're gonna start behind the safety car and Brundle thinks it's a mistake because he's an idiot.

The grid : Lewis on pole, Nico, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Valtteri, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Perez. Seb is P11 due to a grid penalty. Ericsson apparently crashed in quali and had to go through a medical to be allowed to race. He's starting from the pitlane because they had to rebuild the car.

Anyway Lewis arrived looking very happy. He actually set a track record with his quali lap, after getting his first Q3 lap deleted for track limits. He's the first man with 4 poles here. He was 0.3 ahead of Nico and 1 second clear of Max.

Johnny talks to Lewis as he's signing caps near the stands. He says they have the best fans in the world and being there never gets old. They have sound issues so the mic cuts off. It's been doing so in every interview. Johnny says being on pole must be very important for him in the championship. "Well I've gotta win the race first so…" he says pragmatically. Johnny is still talking but Lewis is just up on the stand throwing the caps over the barriers in the crowd. "Oh he's gone," Johnny says but they're still live so he tries to get his attention back. He gets up there with him. He asks what he's gonna to do for these fans that are here for him today. Lewis doesn't acknowledge him and keeps throwing the caps so Johnny amps it up a bit. "WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO LEWIS HAMILTOOOOOOON?" he yells announcer style. The crowd roars. Lewis doesn't answer. Johnny repeats "what are you gonna do?" Lewis mumbles : "What I can, what I can." Then he's climbing the fence so that's it, Johnny is not following him there.

Simon says the day before he was supposed to spend 10 minutes with the crowd and stayed an hour. We see him sign a Wellington Boot. ANGELA IS HERE AGAIN! Ahhhh.

Oh ho ho, the skysports team went karting with him ! Happy place. First thing they do is show him an old photo of his karting days.

He's in a blue and yellow suit smiling wide, holding a trophy. He asks where it was so they read the trophy plaque. Trent valley kart club, he arrived second. "Why you got a picture of me in second," he asks. "still pretty happy I was in second," he adds. "I was much happier then, finishing second!" They laugh. They show him a photo of Johnny Herbert as well. "Is it 1947?" he jokes, deadpan. Finally, it's a photo of Brundle, with a semi long mop of hair that Lewis compares to the Beatles.

They're gonna race in teams of 2 so they bring in other sky reporters to join them. Lewis, Johnny and Brundle will all have a team and they need to choose between Simon and the two others as teammates. Who gets the first pick is decided by a turn at one of those fair games where you have to hit a button with a hammer as hard as you can.

Lewis says it's usually the guy with the bigger belly that has the most strength so he suggests Johnny goes first. "Johnny don't let that team down!" Johnny says it's hammer time so Lewis should go first. "Johnny, Johnny," Lewis interrupts, smiling. "You're always commenting on me so I have to rip into you when I can." In the end Brundle goes first, he does terribly. Herbert does pretty well. But Lewis wins even though there was an issue with his turn. Simon asks Lewis who he's choosing : the Italian, the German, "or the slowest driver" as he points to himself. Lewis exhales. "Are you really the slowest?" – "I don't know. But I am from Britain." – "That's what I'm thinking. I think I'll stick with the Brits." They touch hands. "But don't let me down!" – "I probably will," Simon says. Johnny chooses Sascha Roos. That means Brundle is with Davide Valsecchi.

The race begins! 5 laps per driver. Simon takes the lead ! He's slow in the relay though. Someone else has not stopped when they should have. Lewis is second but Johnny overtakes him. In the end, Brundle finished first, Lewis second and Johnny third. Simon says Brundle did more laps than the others. Time to debrief. "Let's start with a bit of gloating," Simon starts. He has a victorious gesture and shakes Lewis' hand who says "You're saying that we won. I've not had any confirmation of that."

"I can count to ten, so can you, these two, not so sure," he says, while the other two snicker. "In your dreams," Brundle says.

Moving on to the real topic. "Week at the British grand prix, though," Simon says. "Yeah this is actually the worst preparation that I could possibly have," Lewis jokes, still deadpan as they laugh. "But uh… I'm always game so…" he adds with a grin. "I just didn't love doing it (as he massages his lower back). The 'other one' would definitely not have (done or condoned?) this, that's for sure." Simon laughs. "But you did let me win," Brundle says, "whereas you don't tend to wanna let him win." – "Well I didn't actually let you win, I would never, ever do that. Ever." Lewis says. "I was actually, I was thinking we were gonna have a race that's why I tried blocking you." He says given they only had 5 laps he thought they bunch on and have a race when Brundle just went past. "Absolutely right," Brundle laughs. About the weekend Lewis says it gets better and better every year. "Regardless of the result we get, it's just an epic weekend." Brundle asks if there's any baggage coming with the last race weekend in the team. (You know, the collision with Nico, again.) "My backpack's completely empty," he says, somewhat defiantly.

"I feel very light, great, I'm just gonna try and focus on the great things" such as the fans and what a great weekend it can be. "And the fact that I wanna win it." – "So between the two races then," Brundle begins, "there wouldn't be phonecalls–" – "My phone's been off the last two days," Lewis calmly cuts him off. "Been chilling. Chilling. By a nice river with the biggest smile on my face cause (he breaks into laughter) I won the last race!"

Simon asks how he's enjoying this championship battle compared to the others' he's won. "I think it's one of the hardest if not probably the hardest season I've had so far, generally because of the issues that we've had, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, I think, there's no better time actually to have a difficult season but… I feel very strong, so… " He smiles. "We shall see how it goes."

The sun is shining although the horizon is dark as they get ready for the start.

And here they go! Behind the safety car.

Seb says there's "quite a bit of standing water" on specific parts of the track. The SC doesn't come in yet. Lewis agrees. "Big puddles of aquaplaning still." Another lap. Lewis says they can move to inters "pretty soon". Then he adds the SC is too slow to build temperature. This is getting critical now, the SC should come in. "Can we go, Charlie?" Lewis asks almost moodily. Finally, SC coming in at the end of lap 5. Ricciardo is asked about the tyres and asks for inters and ohhh my god. Lewis almost collided with the safety car. Careful now! They were just joking that it's only the second race of the season Lewis has been leading at the end of the first lap after starting on pole, better not be taken out by the safety car this time.

Here we go for good! Great restart for Lewis. Plenty of cars dive in the pits immediately but not the top 4. Loads of traffic in the pitlane, two cars almost collided. Nico is struggling in these conditions and Max is ready to attack any moment now. Daniel pits the next lap. Yellow flags! Wehrlein is beached in the gravel. Double waved yellows. Virtual safety car. Everybody slows down. "If we can survive the aquaplaning," Daniel said when asked about the tyres. This one did not. Lewis pits! Nico and Max as well. Nico hasn't had to wait at all. Good job Merc! They go again. Nico is constantly losing time on Lewis.

Lap 10. Lewis, Nico +5.2, Max +2.7, Perez +4.6, Ricciardo +5.6, Raikkonen +4.7, Sainz +2.6, Massa +1.8, Valtteri +0.7, and Hulkenberg +0.5. This battle for P7 also includes Alonso, 0.6 behind Hulkenberg and Seb 0.9 behind him. Hulkenberg overtook Valtteri but Valtteri got the place back. Haryanto spun but got back on track. Ericsson has issues with his engine. And then Verstappen sets the fastest lap of the race and Valtteri spins! He lost 5 places or something! Ericsson is retiring, probably. Nico is warned it's important to look after the tyres. He's closing the gap to Lewis very quickly suddenly… Hulkenberg is attacking Massa for P8. Can't make it quite yet, the Williams has good straight line speed. Max is also catching Nico quickly, but Lewis sets the fastest lap again. Hulkenberg attacks Massa finally but Massa defends firmly. Also in the aerial view it's clear Hulkenberg almost lost it several times slipping around. Max is told he's on Lewis' pace and everybody else is a second slower. The gaps have stabilised though. Max thinks we're getting close to dry tyres. Hulkenberg is still chasing Massa but he's under pressure from Alonso and goes wide. Alonso can't get past but Hulkenberg lost time on Massa. Then they catch up again. And Max is only half a second behind Nico! The cars are starting to look for water to cool down the tyres. Seb is the first to pit for dry tyres. Meanwhile, Max does the same thing Hulkenberg did : attacking Nico he almost lost it and collided with him. And Max overtakes him soon after! Nico is truly struggling. He tries to come back at him but can't. I'm gonna need a replay. Ahhh Nico made a mistake. He slid slightly after clipping the kerb. This might be Max's Race. As in his big break or something I feel like. I know he's already won once but as far as I remember it wasn't that type of race. He's doing a good job and playing with the adults there. Loads of pit stops are underway. AND AN INCREDIBLE MISTAKE AT RENAULT ! Palmer was allowed to leave the box without a right rear! He stops pretty much immediately but still they have to slowly roll him back the few metres to get it on. Lewis pits! And Nico, at the same time, again! Of course he was too far behind for it to be an issue in the pits. Daniel is in, Perez is in… Max is still out. Critical moment. AND SEB SPUN! Damn. At the end of the first 10 laps I almost said I expected it to be pretty straightforward then I thought better because you never know in F1 and indeed. Max pits as well the next lap. Lewis is back in the lead. Palmer and Renault are under investigation for unsafe release, of course. Meanwhile Grosjean is driving around really slowly. Kvyat sets the fastest lap somehow. Then Nasr. Sainz almost lost it, and Kvyat went really wide as well.

Lap 20. Palmer gets a 10 second stop go penalty. That's severe given it was the team's fault. The order goes Lewis, Max +5.7, Nico +4.4, Perez +10.8, Ricciardo +1.4, Raikkonen +13.9, Sainz +2.5, Hulkenberg +7.3, Massa +1.5, and he's actually wheel to wheel with Alonso but stays ahead. For now. Max is currently faster than Lewis. The Massa - Alonso battle is ongoing but the Williams stays ahead unlike Perez who gets overtaken by Ricciardo, for P4. And this time Lewis sets the fastest lap. Is he responding? Annnd Max loses it and goes very wide. Crazy how stable Lewis is with his car in these conditions btw. On the radio, Bono tells him : "Let's just keep an open mind, people might be trying to go to the end." Lewis answers : "I wanna go to the end on these." Raikkonen did about the same thing Max did earlier. And Nico is picking up the pace, he sets the fastest lap. Ohhh and Alonso spun violently and ended up in the gravel! He still manages to save it and leave again but he just has lost so many places. He gets overtaken by Valtteri, tries to muscle through, can't, but then Val goes wide as well and gets himself attacked by Nasr! He manages to defend though. Meanwhile Nico sets another fastest lap. And then it's Sainz spinning! Jesus christ I've rarely seen so many cars lose their grip in a single race! Yellow flags in sector 1… Haryanto is beached in the gravel. Given the tracks you can tell he slid sideways through it all until he met the barriers. There’s no catching that. Oh… and Lewis is off track as well. And on again. I don't know what mistake he made but he must have lost precious time. Meanwhile Nico is half a second behind Max now. Oh yeah Lewis slightly lost the rear into turn one and managed to catch it but locked up which is why he went wide. Ah and Max actually did the exact same thing right behind him which is why Nico is so close! Seb overtakes Kvyat for P10, it was very close wheel to wheel racing. Clean af. Sexy.

It's lap 30. Lewis, Max +3.7, Nico +1. Then the others are lost in the sauce. Daniel is +15.5 behind the podium, followed by Perez +10.1, Raikkonen +18.2, Hulkenberg +2.3, Sainz +4.9, Massa +4.6, and Seb +1.6. Max was getting himself out of DRS threat from Nico but he made a small mistake in the traffic and the Merc is now half a second behind him. He's complaining about the blue flags. Nico attacks Max with DRS but can't make it. Can they really all make it to the end on these tyres ? And Perez slipped. Nico attacks again, but still no. He keeps pressuring him. The commentators sound already completely enamoured with him. Nico says Max has changed trajectory twice to defend which isn't allowed. I didn't see it happening. Nico moves down the outside but that's still not enough! He's only 0.2 behind him. Max says he's struggling with the rear now. Everybody's wondering if he's gonna pit but he stays out. Seb attacked Massa but he couldn't make the turn and Massa says he got pushed out. He's gonna have to give the position back for sure. And Nico finally overtakes Max! Seb is under investigation.

It's lap 40. We're getting close to the end. Nico sets the fastest lap. He's 7.9 seconds behind Lewis. It might get spicy. Verstappen is +2, then Daniel +15.5, Perez +24.1, Raikkonen +3.7, Hulkenberg +10.0, Sainz +3.9, Seb +7.5, and Kvyat +3.7. Palmer is finally retiring. Seb gets a 5 second time penalty for the move on Massa. 10 laps to go. Lewis asks if Massa got the blue flag and Bono says he got them twice. The gap to Nico is down to 6.6. Lewis has picked up the pace as well. (Ferrari has confirmed they're keeping their drivers next year.) Nico is seriously accelerating again, gaining 0.6 on Lewis in a lap. It's down to 5.9. Raikkonen is relentlessly attacking Perez for P5. But suddenly Nico loses 3 seconds and finds himself 1.8 seconds away from Max?! "Gearbox problem! Gearbox problem!" – "Driver default 101, chassis default 01. Chassis default 01," he's told. Are they allowed to help over the radio again? Brundle answers my question : they're allowed if there's imminent failure coming up if they don't. Meanwhile, Raikkonen got ahead of Perez. Nico is told to avoid 7th gear but that confuses him : "What‘s that mean? I have to shift through it." He's told he has to indeed.

5 laps to go. Max is 1.2 behind now. Lewis should be safe. Aha. But now Max is told Nico is under investigation for some of these radio comms. Stupid radio ban rule. The commentators reiterate as well that the ban is stupid. And Brundle says last time he said so, he got team employees agreeing with him about it, but even then the word is they're gonna be tightened even further rather than loosened. And Nico will be investigated after the race. Crofty notes that for now, though, he's about to get his first podium of the season that's not a P1, which is kinda crazy as far as stats go. Final lap.

And it's the end of the race!

Lewis wins Silverstone for the third time in a row! Nico P2, Max P3. For now anyway.

Lewis goes around the track waving to everyone. "Awesome stuff Lewis! Great job man, British grand prix !" Bono's elated voice comes on, over clapping and cheers from the team in the background. Lewis thanks everybody for their hard work, including at the factory.

Once out of the car, after hugging his team, Lewis jumps the barrier and goes for a run, waving still to his public. He bows. Then he runs back.

In the cool down room, he's out of breath. He congratulates his rivals. Then it's silent for a bit. He avoids the camera as usual. Then he sighs and whoops in joy and disbelief. He asks Max when he overtook Nico. "The intermediates," he says, before quickly explaining he got overtaken back afterwards on the medium tyres. "I was catching!" Max adds in a pleased tone. "On the intermediates," he adds when Lewis turns back to him. "Not really," Lewis says, then they chuckle. Nico is not acknowledged, although he's standing right there.

On the podium, Nico gets booed yet again. The crowd is chanting Lewis' name. There'd be stuff to be said. How heartbreaking it must be to be Nico at times. Lewis kisses his trophy and throws it in the air.

"How are you guys doin', you good?" Lewis asks the crowd that erupts in cheer. "I don't know if you can be as happy as me but I'm really happy." He thanks them for coming, they're the best fans. While Mark Webber, who's conducting the interviews, lists stats, the crowd starts chanting Lewis' name again. Lewis says he's glad the good English weather came out, the conditions were very tricky at the start. It was difficult for all of them not to make mistakes. That's what he loves about this race, it's never smooth sailing, there's always things happening. "Plus look at these guys, you don't see this anywhere around the world," he adds. "And, you don't hear a lot of booing, which means we've got good British spirit here." There's no way he didn't hear them boo Nico earlier, is that his attempt at telling them not to or? Because immediately after this, as Webber moves to Nico, the boos are even louder than before. Webber tries to quiet down the crowd. Lewis stands there, impassive. Back to Lewis, Webber points out he's just 4 points off Nico now. Lewis says he loves Budapest which is the next race. He's done everything to try and save his engine, he's on his last one already. He thanks the fans again and tells them to keep their fingers crossed. "I'm catching him," he points towards Nico.

Right afterwards, he's off crowdsurfing without a care in the world. Up on the barriers in front of the huge crowd, all hands extend towards him like iron shards to a magnet.

Niki says winning in England is fantastic, for the whole team but especially for Lewis. The drivers needed it a bit especially after Austria. He shrugs at the idea of the stewards having something to say about Nico's radio comms. Crofty says twitter is wondering why the team wouldn't help Lewis in Baku although they both had an issue then, and they are now helping Nico. This is f1blr - grade ridiculous. The journalists are pretty much all agreeing on the fact that the issue with the radio comms was the last part, when Nico was told he needed to shift through the seventh gear, which would be driver coaching.

Lewis says it never gets old and it always feels like the first time winning there. He talks about the atmosphere etc.

She asks if he'd like to race there every week. He says happily, although the weather is kind of up and down. He interrupts himself to wave to "a little kid".

He claims most drivers would like it better if it was drier, but he thinks it makes for a better show, and it puts you more to the test. "And today… Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Which I like." He smiles.

Rachel says when she interviewed him the day before, he said when he gets pole it delivers a "mental blow" to whoever he's racing against. Does he believe he has the mental edge over everyone else at the moment, not just Nico? She says they've looked for it but they haven't been able to find a time Nico overtook him on track for the win (Huh, really? sounds unlikely. If true it says a lot about a lot. During the 2023 Singapore GP we talked about Lewis' strength being racecraft rather than quali laps, and I wouldn't say race craft is Nico's forte. But I’m pretty sure he’s overtaken him at the start for the win before, hasn’t he?) She says his confidence on track, during the race, and in his racecraft must be "supreme". He says in terms of his racecraft, sure. It's been with him since he was 10. He thinks for a bit. It was a long winded question, I think he's a bit lost. He says he's growing with the car and he feels very confident and very comfortable within himself. Centred. Super happy. Which he believes also reflects on his performance. He says he doesn't mind who he has to go up against, he's ready. Bratty smile.

He says he's sure they would say they are as well but hopefully he'd have the edge on them.

She says again the gap is now 4 points but it could go down to 1 depending on a penalty Nico could get. She says at the time in the season when everything was going wrong, could he have believed it? He says it's been a tough year, he was 43 points behind and they had a big crash and it felt like scraping rock bottom.

But through fan messages, through family, through friends, through faith, he continued to push and it's crazy to think how things have changed. There's still a long way to go and things could go any way, they're getting closer. "He's had a pretty good year, to be honest, you know?" he smiles.

It requires him having a simpler year in terms of issues going forward. "And then these kinds of performances for the rest of the year."

Simple as that huh?

After the team photo, he of course takes a while climbing fences, holding hands, signing stuff. Oh my god he's got himself down IN the crowd. They're carrying him again.

Then he climbs back up again. Skysports is waiting for their interview all the while lol.

He gets there out of breath again, but literally bouncing up and down with a huge grin. He again says they "unequivocally" have the best fans in the world. "You never see that anywhere." He says Italy has good fans but he thinks the passion in the UK is equal if not greater. Hill reminds him he's British though. "True, true," he admits. Hill salutes his performance and asks if he thinks he's getting stronger. "I would like to think I'm getting stronger," he smiles. "Even though I'm getting older! I definitely think I'm in my prime right now." He says this difficult year has been an opportunity for growth and learning. He says he feels light, energetic, stronger than ever in this car that weekend and he's sure a large portion of that is because of the fans. The energy is electrifying and he could feel it in the car. He says the start was made trickier by the fact that he was in the lead whether when you're behind someone you can gauge track conditions by how he's doing.

Johnny asks what's key for him to win the title : consistency or raw speed? Lewis hums and says he thinks raw speed isn't the issue. He mentions again the engine and trying to make it last for as long as possible. (He'll have to start from the back once after the break for sure though.) Reliability has played a huge part in the fight and he's pretty sure he wouldn't be 4 points behind if it wasn't for that. But these things are tests to try us and who would have thought he'd come here and dominate the weekend? Someone points out the engine is gonna give up at some point though and Lewis jokes he hopes not and then explains everything he did during the race to try to minimise the damage to it.

Hill asks about the relationship inside the team and the booing. He adds he thinks he tried to put a stop to it on the podium. In a very high pitched voice he starts : "Yeah I mean…" then he composes himself "I think we're better than that." Pause for dramatic effect. "I honestly think us as brits and us the British fans, I think we're better than that. We've had a great day, we don't even need to stoop to the level of some people who have done it in the past. I think we're above that." Simon points out he had to deal with it himself in Austria. "What I'm saying is we're above that," Lewis says over him. He says no matter where you end up, second, first, it should always be positive. "There's no need for it."

Simon asks again if Lewis thinks he has a psychological advantage as we're getting to the halfway point of the season. He says he feels like when he's at his strongest he doesn't feel any problems. "Let's just leave it at that." To Johnny he answers he doesn't think anyone is unbeatable, that's not how he approaches it, but he's been able to cultivate a strong mental attitude dealing with the downs.

Brundle asks what he thinks about the whole radio ban issue. Lewis says he mentioned it after the race in Baku, he said it's the way it is. They know the rule. But in certain circumstances it's not good for the sport. Because it's become so technical. He thinks 'he' had a problem today that ‘he’ had no way of answering and they had to break the rule.

(It's interesting this habit he's got into of not saying his name btw.)

Simon talks of Andy Murray playing a final at that time, Lewis hopes he kills it and then they can see each other in London that night. He's throwing a party for someone he won't name who's also been successful and now he's won himself so it can be his party as well.

Last note : Ted says Merc is eyeing Wehrlein and that's why they're offering only a 2 year deal to Nico at that point. In the end, the stewards' decision didn't come in time for the broadcast but he received a 10 second penalty and ended up P3 behind Max.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #vro0m's race reviews #2016 #2016 british gp

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