FORMULA 1

[MIKA27]

5 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

I wish Hammy could've won it.  Would be the most epic drive in 20 years.  2nd place is utterly amazing.  He would've won by a country mile if he had a clean first lap.  

This season will be a neck and neck to the final race.

I'm not the biggest Hamilton fan, I am a Mercedes fan. But, it would have been great to see Lewis win to achieve the record.

[MIKA27]

HAMILTON: KIMI SAID SORRY, I ACCEPT IT AND WE MOVE ON

Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has accepted an apology from Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen and recognised that their first lap collision in Sunday’s British Grand Prix was a racing incident and not deliberate.

The Mercedes driver, who fought back from last to second after being sent spinning at the third corner by the veteran Finn, had spoken immediately after the race of the Italian team’s ‘interesting tactics’.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had suggested two collisions between Ferraris and his cars in three races were either deliberate or incompetent.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel also collided with Mercedes Valtteri Bottas in France last month.

“Kimi said sorry and I accept it and we move on. It was a racing incident and nothing more,” Hamilton posted on Instagram. “Sometimes we say dumb shit and we learn from it.”

Wolff’s comments had angered Ferrari principal Maurizio Arrivabene, particularly as he had referenced former Ferrari technical director James Allison, who is now working for Mercedes. “In James Allison’s words, ‘do you think it is deliberate or incompetence?’. So this leaves us with a judgement,” the Austrian had said.

Arrivabene told Sky Italia after the race that Allison should be ashamed if he had said that, “We’re here in England, sometimes they want to teach us how to be gentlemen, and he should start first. Really, this annoyed me so much.”

“It’s been a beautiful battle, a battle that I think the audience appreciated, there will be other battles where most likely Mercedes will win and this is a lesson for us to stay classy, a thing that they haven’t done today.”

Mercedes defended Allison on Twitter, emphasising he had not spoken to media and there had merely been a ‘jokey conversation’ during the race that Wolff repeated and that had been misinterpreted.

“We know it was just a stupid mistake on Kimi’s part. Like Seb in France. It’s the race but it’s still annoying twice on three GPs,” the team said.

Vettel now leads the championship standings by eight points and Ferrari top the constructors’ table by 20, leads that increased at Silverstone, the tenth round of the championship.

[Lotusguy]

11 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

I wish Hammy could've won it.  Would be the most epic drive in 20 years.  2nd place is utterly amazing.  He would've won by a country mile if he had a clean first lap.  

This season will be a neck and neck to the final race.

"He would have won if he had won"

 

Fact is, he has crappy starts and when not everything goes his way, he turns into a whiny little bitch.

[MIKA27]

Austria tyre "shock" triggered Renault's Silverstone strategy

Renault says that the "shock" of the tyre blistering issues it experienced in Austria led to the unusual strategy that propelled Nico Hulkenberg to sixth place in the British Grand Prix.
The Enstone team ran a unique strategy, with Hulkenberg and teammate Carlos Sainz the only drivers to start on the medium tyre before switching to the hard – which no other drivers used at all during the race.

Hulkenberg subsequently ran all the way to the flag, although Sainz pitted for softs under the safety car before crashing out after a collision with Romain Grosjean.

The successful strategy was a direct result of the frustration Sainz suffered in Austria, where the Renault – which has been hard on tyres all year – suffered more blistering issues than other cars.

"It was a strategy which was imposed upon us because of the current characteristic of the car," Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

"We're still coming from the shock of Austria, where our strategy was destroyed after the blistering that happened with Carlos, who otherwise would have done a great race.

"So it's coming from that situation, and learning out of it for a couple of days we made a decision to go for medium and hard compound.

"We were the only one to use the hard compound which we tested on Friday afternoon, and we could see that we had a decent pace on that compound in comparison to other teams, so we decided to go for that."

  

Renault is working hard to address its tyre issues, although Abiteboul acknowledged that it will take time for a proper solution to come through the system.

"We know that we have a car that is degrading the tyres much more than any other team, that's a fact, we know that.

"Our competitors know that also, so there is no point in hiding, so we have to focus on that by working on downforce, and the whole ride and compliance of the car, particularly at a track like this, which is very bumpy, with lots of high-speed corners, so the car is jumping, and the tyres are taking lots of energy and degrading.

"So we know the issue, we know we obviously have some solutions, but it's going to take us a bit of time."

Abiteboul admitted that he hadn't expected Renault to outscore its main rivals at Silverstone in the battle for fourth place.

"It's a track where given the characteristics of the car, the performance power deficit, and a couple of other factors, we knew that we were on the back foot. But I think we managed to turn that around, which is great.

"We're looking forward to the next two events, which should be more favourable to us given the characteristics of cars and tracks. So hopefully we should be able again to outscore our direct competitors. But we can see that on Sundays nothing can be taken for granted."

[MIKA27]

Raikkonen just "messed up" in Hamilton clash, says Rosberg

Former world champion Nico Rosberg thinks it is rubbish to suggest that there was anything deliberate about Kimi Raikkonen's clash with Lewis Hamilton at the British Grand Prix.
While comments from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes made in the heat of the moment after the Silverstone race stirred up the idea that the first lap collision could have been on purpose, Rosberg thinks that the incident was simply down to Raikkonen messing up.

Rosberg says that the fact that Ferrari did not impose team orders in Austria to drop Raikkonen behind Vettel was a clear sign that the Finn is not out there just driving to help him teammate to the title.

Speaking on his own video blog on YouTube, Rosberg said about whether or not Raikkonen hit Hamilton on purpose: "The answer is pretty simple. 100 percent not on purpose.

"We also saw that in Austria because even there, Kimi is not driving for Sebastian. In Austria, Kimi was second and Sebastian third and there was no letting Sebastian past at all. They didn't even consider that.

"Kimi is driving for his own thing. Kimi was out there and just completely messed it up, braked way too late, locked up and torpedoed into Lewis.

"It is unusual for Kimi because usually those kind of things don't happen to him. So a bit strange. But definitely not on purpose, and well deserved to get a 10-second penalty and two points."

Despite Hamilton making insinuations about Ferrari's 'tactics' on the podium after the British GP, he clarified on Monday that he now accepted Raikkonen's apology and had perhaps been 'dumb' to suggest anything else.

"Kimi said sorry and I accept it and we move on," he wrote on Instagram. "It was a racing incident and nothing more.

"Sometimes we say dumb shit and we learn from it."

[MIKA27]

Red Bull "hugely exposed" by "insane" Ferrari speed - Horner

Christian Horner says his Formula 1 drivers were "hugely exposed" by the "insane" speed advantage Ferrari enjoyed over Red Bull at the British Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen was unable to keep Kimi Raikkonen behind as they battled over fourth place in the closing stages of Silverstone's F1 race, despite Raikkonen making a mistake and running wide at Stowe at the final safety car restart.

Verstappen had earlier repelled Raikkonen's attacks by driving around the outside of the Ferrari at Luffield and defending into Copse, but Horner said Ferrari's power advantage rendered his driver's hard work redundant.

"We were just hugely exposed today, in both defence and attack," Horner said.

"You could see at the restart with Kimi, it was a bit like Mexico 2015 the amount of additional power.

"We ran our qualifying mode at the restart versus Kimi's and you can see the difference.

"You could see how hard Max was having to work to keep Kimi behind him - their overspeed at the restart was insane.

"And at the second restart he had a moment at Stowe yet was still all over Max into Turns 2 and 3.

"And unfortunately for Daniel he just couldn't attack Valtteri [Bottas] while having a superior tyre and grip and performance.

"Even with the DRS open we were still dropping back."

Horner said Silverstone's abundance of full-throttle corners under the current aerodynamic regulations amplifies Renault's power deficit to Ferrari and Mercedes, forcing Red Bull into set-up compromises that hurt its competitiveness further.

"The problem with Silverstone now is that it's such a wide open throttle circuit, you're talking 82% in qualifying full throttle," Horner added.

"So corners like Copse, Becketts, Stowe – they're not quite the challenge they were in these cars, because everybody is flat through Copse now.

"It just scrubs speed, so it's made it much more power-centric, because where you really need the power is when you put steering lock into the car and you put scrub into the car.

"That's when the power really kicks in. And we see it time and time again – Turn 3 at Barcelona, Turn 3 in Sochi, Turn 7 in Austria – it's a known issue.

"If you look at the rear wings on the cars, we're running Spa levels of downforce [at Silverstone] and everybody else is running that bit more.

"In qualifying I think every single corner we were quicker than Sebastian [Vettel], but we just hose time down the straights."

[MIKA27]

Ericsson admits DRS finger trouble to blame for crash

Marcus Ericsson has admitted his failure to close his Sauber Formula 1 car's DRS in time was the cause of his big crash in the British Grand Prix.
The Swedish driver was running 14th and challenging the Force India of Sergio Perez when he went off into the barriers at the start of the 32nd lap at high speed at the Abbey right-hander.

Ericsson had his DRS engaged at the time, with a third zone having been added at this year's Silverstone race covering the start/finish straight and the first two corners, Abbey and Farm.

Although at first Ericsson believed there had been a problem with the system, he revealed that subsequent analysis by Sauber showed that he in fact didn't hit the button to manually disengage it.

"I was behind Checo [Perez], and when you're racing and you have this DRS zone you want to be as late as possible to switch it off and early as possible to switch it on," explained Ericsson.

"I wasn't sure after the incident if it was a failure or not, but we've looked at the data and it seems like... I have the button behind my steering wheel and it's quite bumpy on entry and you go on the kerb, and I think I slipped and didn't hit it.

"Basically I turned in with the DRS open and then you're a passenger as the car just turns, that was the reason why it happened."

Ericsson was convinced the incident cost him a chance to finish in the top 10.

"I think points were on the cards," he said. "At that point I was just behind Checo and Pierre [Gasly] was right ahead. I felt at that point really strong and had fresher tyres than both of them."

Loose wheel costs Leclerc P6 shot
Charles Leclerc's race ended when Sauber sent the Monegasque out of the pits with a loose wheel and ordered him to stop the car - costing him the chance to fight with Renault's Nico Hulkenberg for sixth place.

"It was a very good race until that pitstop," said Leclerc. "It's a shame because we were fighting for P6, at the end Nico finished P6 and the undercut was working very well.

"The pitstop was good again, and we would have gained quite a lot on new tyres. I was quite close to him that lap we pitted, so I think we could have been in front."

Sauber boss Frederic Vasseur said he would take away the positives of being able to challenge Renault rather than dwell on the loss of a potential major points haul.

"It’s a shame because the pace was there, the start was good," Vasseur told Motorsport.com. "But I think we have to keep in mind the positive side of the weekend, that we are improving. 

"The pace was there in qualifying, and even in the first 20 laps when we were fighting with Renault. I think it’s a good improvement.

"Now we have to turn the page and focus on the next one. We’ll have an update for Hockenheim. We are improving step-by-step.”

[MIKA27]

Ricciardo: Unlucky end to triple-header "sucks"

Daniel Riccardo says being unlucky "sucks" and "sounds shit" after concluding a difficult Formula 1 triple-header with a British Grand Prix that left him eager for a break.
Ricciardo picked up front wing damage in France two weeks ago, which was followed up by a mechanical failure in Austria and fifth in Britain after a poorly-timed safety car.

Though Red Bull was no match for Mercedes or Ferrari at Silverstone Ricciardo was running third before making a second pitstop for fresh tyres, which gave track position to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton moments before the safety car emerged.

He could not make it past a fading Valtteri Bottas late on and admitted "we didn't have the legs" to challenge.

"I could get close, I could get within a distance, but I couldn't get any closer, and just started to kill my tyres getting close to him," Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

"The grip we had to catch him then didn't stay once we were closer to him. It was a bit tricky to follow, and if we don't get the exit off the corner, they've got quite a few ponies.

"I'm actually looking forward to a week off now. The triple header, every race we had something not going our way.

"We pitted pretty last minute and then the safety car came out, so we lost positions there.

"We were just a bit unlucky. Unlucky sucks, though. It sounds shit, so whatever."

Ricciardo at least finished the grand prix, which meant he ended a three-race run of being outqualified and outraced by teammate Max Verstappen.

  

But the 29-year-old has still not stood on the podium since his win in Monaco.

He ended that weekend third in the championship, 38 points from the top, but has dropped a place and is now 65 points behind Sebastian Vettel.

"Since Monaco we haven't really had things go our way," Ricciardo said. "I'll still take a Monaco win, but I don't want that to be the last hurrah.

"We've had bits and pieces not go our way for the last three, so we'll just try and turn it around in Hockenheim and Budapest.

"But I'm looking forward to a week away from race cars."

Verstappen's race ended late on after suffering a brake-by-wire failure while running ahead of Ricciardo that led to a gearbox problem.

It was an abrupt to a run of three podium finishes that peaked with victory in Austria.

He told Sky: "It's not a nice way to finish it, but luckily last week was good and the other two before were also positive.

"It's racing sometimes. I've had it many times before, and it will also happen in the future.

"Of course I wish to finish fifth here at least to collect some points because now we have nothing."

[MIKA27]

Gasly hits out at "completely ridiculous" penalty

Pierre Gasly says that the decision of the FIA stewards to hand his 10th place in the British Grand Prix back to Formula 1 rival Sergio Perez was "completely ridiculous".
Gasly made contact with Perez in the closing laps of the race as they battled for 10th place, and an investigation was launched after they made contact when the Toro Rosso driver made a successful pass.

After reviewing the incident the stewards handed Gasly a five-second penalty, which promoted Perez to 10th and dropped him back to 13th, with Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll also benefiting.

In addition, Gasly received two penalty points.

The Frenchman has called for more consistency after comparing his incident with other recent instances where no action was taken.

"For me it's ridiculous, completely ridiculous," Gasly told Motorsport.com. "That's racing, and honestly there was really small contact.

"It happens sometimes. We have a 2m wide car, on a track which is probably 12m wide, so at some point sometimes you have contact. Clearly this wasn't a big hit. For me it didn't deserve to have a penalty.

"And if you look at all the situations that happened in this race, between Magnussen and Grosjean, no further action, Sainz and Grosjean, who completely hit the wall, no further action. And for something like this, a five second penalty and two penalty points, it's completely ridiculous.

  

"Looking at the last race, I got hit on lap one, I lost half of my floor on the rear, and no further action. Then there was also the incident quite similar for the race winner [Max Verstappen] in lap one, and no further action.

"They need to do something. To be inconsistent like this in unacceptable at a high level. There is nothing which explains such a penalty. If they don't do things for others, then they shouldn't penalise this."

Gasly wasn't surprised that Perez presented a strong case to the stewards.

"Of course, he finished P11 without a point, so he tried to blame me as much as he can. I've told him honestly I enjoyed the fight, it was close racing, close wheels, and at the end of the day, we are racing drivers, that's what we should push for.

"By doing this sort of penalty it's just stopping us from racing, so it's a big shame.

"Doing this pushes the drivers not to take any risks, and have boring races, and no overtaking except on the straight with the DRS, which is honestly not exciting at all."

Gasly said it was particularly frustrating to lose a hard won points, and hinted that he would like the team to appeal the decision.

"It was a one point, when we're not consistently in the points, everything is valuable. I'll push and maybe we'll do an appeal."

[MIKA27]

Grosjean sorry for hitting team-mate Magnussen in British GP - Haas

Romain Grosjean has apologised to Haas Formula 1 team-mate Kevin Magnussen for hitting him on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, team boss Gunther Steiner has revealed.

The pair were fighting for seventh place after the start and entered the Turn 3 right-hander at Village side-by-side, both locking up under braking.

Grosjean, on the inside of the corner, slid into Magnussen, hitting his team-mate with his left front wheel and significantly damaging the floor of the Dane's VF-18.

Both lost track position as a result of the incident and couldn't recover fully, with Magnussen finishing ninth and Grosjean later retiring after a fast crash with Renault's Carlos Sainz.

As the race concluded, a frustrated Magnussen radioed to his team: "Good job guys, but I'm not happy. You all know why. Not good enough. You guys deserve better."

Speaking to the media afterwards, Steiner reckoned Grosjean missed his braking point in the collision with Magnussen.

"I just saw it on TV, I didn't look at it five or six times in a row," he said.

"Romain apologised to Kevin, I guess he waited with his braking a little bit too long.

"There was a piece of floor missing [from Magnussen's car], you could see we lost downforce and the balance, he lost downforce on one side.

"I think they recovered pretty good once they got the tyres to work, just to deal with that.

"The car wasn't really slow but we had quite big damage on the right-hand side of the floor, quite a big chunk missing."

Speaking to TV crews after the race, Grosjean added: "We've got the fourth fastest car on the grid and we're not managing to finish seventh and eighth, so that was the big negative of the race.

"We've got to understand as much as we can that incident and make sure it doesn't happen again. The race was compromised from that point."

The stewards investigated the collision between the Haas cars but opted to take no further action, ruling that the crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, which happened seconds earlier at the same corner, "influenced both" Magnussen and Grosjean.

The collision between Sainz and Grosjean at the fast Copse right-hander, which ended with both cars in the gravel, also yielded no sanctions.

"The drivers gave clear evidence that agreed - Car 55 [Sainz] had a run on the outside of Car 8 [Grosjean] going into the very fast Turn 9," the ruling read.

"While the driver of car 55 did slightly tighten his line towards the apex, the drivers agreed that this was not the entire reason for the incident.

"The driver of Car 8 explained that he had braked where he would not normally brake at the entry of the turn to avoid an incident, but as soon as his front wing was in turbulence from Car 55 he had a slight understeer and, as the cars were very close, they made contact and subsequently both cars crashed.

"It was a racing incident, and the stewards determined that neither [driver] was wholly or predominantly at fault, and took no further action."

[MIKA27]

Sebastian Vettel had to 'surprise' Valtteri Bottas to win British GP

Sebastian Vettel says he had to "surprise" Formula 1 rival Valtteri Bottas to pull off the overtake that guaranteed him victory in the British Grand Prix.

A pitstop during a Marcus Ericsson-induced late-race safety car left long-time leader Vettel running second behind Bottas, although the German had the advantage of running a fresh soft tyre set against Bottas' worn mediums.

But Bottas rebuffed Vettel's attacks on the restart, and following another safety car period for a crash involving Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz, the Finn continued to hold his own out front - narrowly seeing off Vettel's attempts around the outside at Brooklands and Luffield.

Vettel eased off for a couple of tours but then lunged down the inside of Bottas at Brooklands on lap 47 of 52, securing the win.

"It was quite intense," Vettel recalled after the race. "Obviously I had the advantage on the tyres, but he had clean air, so in high-speed stuff I was able to follow but it was difficult the closer I got.

"I sort of sniffed my chance already in the first laps after the restart out of Turn 4 [The Loop] and then on the Wellington straight down to Turn 6 [Brooklands].

"The final move, I was able to surprise him, I think he thought that I wouldn't dare [to go to] the inside and the braking zone was coming quite fast.

"I would've liked to be closer [exiting Aintree] but I wasn't, but I still thought it's good enough to have a shot, so I gave it everything.

"I tried also the outside before, and he was very late on the brakes, and so was I, and I couldn't really go anywhere - so I thought 'OK, time to do that again, and I have to somehow surprise him'.

"I was a little bit further back, and close to the braking zone he was covering the inside - but then still gave me a little bit of room to make the move happen."

Vettel admitted he thought he risked overshooting the corner in making the move.

"It felt great when I was side by side - I wasn't sure if I'd make the corner but I did," he said.

"Once I was ahead, obviously I could use that advantage to pull out a gap and control the race from there.

"But it was crucial, it wasn't easy, they seemed to be very strong in the straights."

[MIKA27]

Alonso unimpressed with ‘soft’ stewarding

Fernando Alonso feels the British GP stewards were “soft” at Silverstone after failing to penalise Kevin Magnussen for his latest antics.

Fresh from Friday’s troubles in which Alonso accused Magnussen of trying to hit him not once but twice, the two again found themselves racing wheel-to-wheel during Sunday’s 52-lap race.

Battling for position, Alonso felt Magnussen pushed him into the gravel as he attempted to overtake him.

“The incident was at Turn 7, I went around the outside and when I came back to the normal line I was pushed off, into the gravel,” Alonso said.

“We’ve been told you have to leave room for the other car but some don’t and nothing happens.

“And then, as we were stuck behind a big group there was no possibility to attack those at the front of that group.

“I think we lost at least one place, but at the end we finished ahead of Magnussen, anyway.”

Alosno later overtook the the Haas driver, finishing eighth while Magnussen was ninth on the day.

The double World Champion added to ESPN: “He fought hard, like he always does, and the FIA was a little soft today, in my opinion.

“It was fine as in the last lap I could re-overtake him, so in the end there was maybe not a big difference in terms of position, so I’m happy for that, happy with the position, and with getting more points for the team.”

[BrightonCorgi]

9 hours ago, Lotusguy said:

"He would have won if he had won"

 

Fact is, he has crappy starts and when not everything goes his way, he turns into a whiny little bitch.

He contends Kimi's hit wasn't so accidental...

[Lotusguy]

He contends Kimi's hit wasn't so accidental...

And he reversed his opinion shortly thereafter, once the heat of the moment had passed.

If he wants to win the world championship, he needs to work on his starts.

[BrightonCorgi]

1 hour ago, Lotusguy said:

If he wants to win the world championship, he needs to work on his starts.

Great competitive season so far.  I thought there was another race he started in the back and made the podium as well this season?  Hamilton is the best grand prix driver since Schumacher and may end up being even better than that.  I don't have a favorite driver or team.

[Lotusguy]

Great competitive season so far.  I thought there was another race he started in the back and made the podium as well this season?  Hamilton is the best grand prix driver since Schumacher and may end up being even better than that.  I don't have a favorite driver or team.

We’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one. The only talent in the same echelon as Schumacher in the last 30 years was Senna.

[LLC]

We’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one. The only talent in the same echelon as Schumacher in the last 30 years was Senna.

Agreed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MIKA27]

3 hours ago, Lotusguy said:

We’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one. The only talent in the same echelon as Schumacher in the last 30 years was Senna.

 

1 hour ago, LLC said:

 

Agreed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Is this some American/Canadian rivalry?  Glad no one mentioned Jacques Villeneuve. I would have quit posting.  

[MIKA27]

ARRIVABENE: JAMES ALLISON SHOULD BE ASHAMED

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff is not shy to throw his crew under the bus, this week it was the team’s technical boss James Allison whose “deliberate or incompetence” quote was used by the Austrian when strongly hinting to media that Ferrari team tactics were questionable.

The suggestion was that Kimi Raikkonen’s first lap shunt with Lewis Hamilton was deliberate, which triggered an incensed Maurizio Arrivabene.

So much so that the media-shy Ferrari team chief, after the race at Silverstone, sought out Sky Italia TV team, to scold Allison, “Who is incompetent? Kimi? Who is he to judge what the drivers are doing in the car? If he really said something like that, he should be ashamed!

“Allison worked at Maranello for many years, but now we are here in England teaching him to be a gentleman. I accept it from [pundit] Jacques Villeneuve because he was a driver. But this guy?”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner is sitting on the fence and relishing the dual between the archrivals, “When you have that growing tension, speculation is unavoidable when these incidents occur.”

“But I believe it’s nothing more than a racing incident. I would be surprised if there was anything else or if Kimi is that kind of driver,” added Horner.

After the race Raikkonen, who received a ten seconds penalty for his role in the incident, was quick to admit his mistake, Hamilton has since accepted this as an apology and gone out of his way to diffuse the growing tensions.

Sebastian Vettel went on to win the race, with Hamilton recovering from last to claim second place and Raikkonen coming home third, with both Ferrari and their German driver extending their lead in the constructors’ and drivers’ championship standings after ten rounds.

Wolff’s name dropping came a week after chief strategy James Vowles was hung out to dry by Mercedes when he admitted, live to millions, over the radio that his tactical gaffe cost Hamilton at the Austrian Grand Prix.

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MINTTU: IF YOU CRY LIKE A GIRL WHEN YOU LOSE, DO BALLET

Minttu Raikkonen has fired shots at Mercedes after her husband Kimi Raikkonen was roundly criticised by the German team after he pranged into Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix.

Mercedes, led by Hamilton suggested dirty tactics in the wake of the race in which Raikkonen’s Ferrari tagged the rear of Hamilton’s Mercedes and sent the world spinning.

In a nutshell: Raikkonen was given a ten seconds penalty for his shenanigans; Hamilton stormed through the field to finish second and Vettel took top honours, extending his and Ferrari’s lead in both championships. Mercedes cried foul!

Step up Minttu Raikkonen, Kimi’s pretty wife, and the lady of few words (until now!) fired on Instagram: “If you cry like a girl when you lose, do ballet.”

Shortly after she clarified that Mercedes, not Lewis, was the target of her wrath by replacing the early taunt with: “Just to be clear, I was not talking about the driver but the team who was crying afterwards that someone did something on purpose.”

Hamilton, who recovered to finish a well deserved second, has been quick to douse the flames he lit when immediately after the race he questioned Ferrari tactics but, in truth, it was the second costly contact between silver cars and red cars in the space of a two weeks and things were said in the heat of the moment.

His team should have known better but led by an incensed Toto Wolff they fueled the fire, which has backfired massively as they have since been rebuked universally for their accusations.

So much so that Hamilton went on Instagram to diffuse the tensions: “Kimi said sorry and we move on. It was a racing incident and nothing more.”

Adding that “sometimes we say dumb” things and “we learn from it.”

The world champion then gave the reason for his comments to his 6.7 million-plus followers: “I lost nearly 3kg trying to get back to the top for you and my team. I barely had any energy at the end to stand, let alone talk.”

“If you can’t understand and appreciate that, then I fully understand. However, was nothing to do with anger, literally just exhausted both mentally and physically,” added the reigning world champion.

Over to you Minttu…

[MIKA27]

LAUDA: IT WORKED OUT FOR LEWIS NOT FOR BOTTAS

On Sunday in England, when a mundane race turned on its head with a safety car period, Mercedes’s reaction was again questioned as they failed to bring in either of their cars for fresh rubber, while Ferrari seized the opportunity to pop fresh rubber on to both their cars.

It turned out to an inspired call by the Reds and another dubious strategy decision from the Silver Arrows pit gantry, but Lauda rubbished suggestions that the world champions erred, “We were absolutely right, we did nothing wrong.”

“Valtteri had some problems with the tyres near the end, yes, but if he had come in the pits he would have had even more trouble. I think Lewis could have won the race without crashing on the first lap, but nevertheless to come from last to second, is fantastic.”

“The question is it’s such a close call, Bottas did a very good job to defend his position with Vettel as long as he could, but then it was over. It worked out for Lewis, it didn’t work out for Bottas,” explained Lauda.

Bottas accepted that in the heat of battle the right call was made, but conceded that in retrospect it was the wrong way to go, “We took the risk to stay out and try to win the race.”

“At that point, if the team had asked me if I wanted to win or secure second place, I would have said ‘go for the win’ but looking back, for the result it would have been better to stop. That’s a fact,” added Bottas who finished fourth and now lies fifth in the championship after ten rounds.

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Cyril Abiteboul hails ‘outstanding’ race from Nico Hulkenberg

Renault's Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul has hailed the efforts of Nico Hulkenberg, who secured a sixth-place finish at the British Grand Prix.

Hulkenberg started from outside the top 10 on the grid but surged up the order courtesy of a strong lap, and fended off Sauber's Charles Leclerc during the first stint of the race.

Hulkenberg preserved seventh, which became sixth when Red Bull's Max Verstappen suffered a brake-by-wire failure during the latter stages.

Abiteboul said: “On a track we knew would be challenging for us, we managed to outscore our direct competitors' thanks to an excellent start, good strategy, well-executed stops and an outstanding drive from Nico.

"It’s a great reward, almost a relief after we were on the back foot following our difficult qualifying."

Hulkenberg ran a Medium/Hard strategy and reckoned sixth was the maximum achievable, as Renault moved 19 points clear of Haas in the battle for fourth in the Constructors' Championship.

"I’m very happy, that was positive," added Hulkenberg. "I think it was the maximum result we could ask for . We had a good start, then a solid first lap straight up to P6.

"There was obviously some chaos going on in Turns 2 and 3, where I managed to sneak through and pick up some places. After that, it was a case of managing the tyres and the race.

"We’d elected to go on the Hard tyre, which was maybe a bit slower on pace, but we wanted to go for the one stop.

"A strong race all in all, especially with picking up another position at the end when the Red Bull spun. I’m happy. Eight points for the team is a good day."

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Sergey Sirotkin: British GP finale 'painful' to cap dismal weekend

Sergey Sirotkin says the final part of his British Grand Prix was “painful” and that he “drove with hope” due to running a harder compound tyre than his nearest rivals.

Williams endured a dismal weekend on home ground as upgrades to the FW41, primarily in the form of a new rear wing, led to aero stalls, causing both Sirotkin and Lance Stroll to spin off in qualifying.

Williams changed the rear wing specification, resulting in a pit lane start for both drivers, though neither was able to mount a challenge for points in the race.

Sirotkin was ahead of team-mate Stroll at the rear of the pack but fell behind at the second Safety Car restart, as he ran used Mediums compared to the fresh Softs employed by his rivals.

The Russian ultimately came across the line 10 seconds behind Stroll and commented: “Well honestly it was a very disappointing race.

“I mean as a driver when you want to be there and want to be fighting, to feel what I felt throughout the race is a very difficult feeling.

“[During the Safety Car period] I was the only car around me with a bit worn harder compound and it was very tough obviously to keep it alive through the Safety Car.

“I could see I was picking up lot of rubbish from the track, surprisingly, and even then I mentioned this straight away on the radio.

“I had a lot of vibration, absolutely no grip, even pretty visually could see the surface of the tyre was nowhere.

“Then on the [second] restart for the first two laps it was just about trying to keep the car on track and just drive and hope that after a certain amount of laps the situation will come back.

“It partly did come back but if you look around everyone else was with the fresh Soft tyre straight out of the box so I mean obviously the grip level was incomparable, not in my favour unfortunately.

“After that it was just… when you are a racing driver and you want to be there fighting for positions it’s just very painful what you feel for what I felt for the last stint.”

Sirotkin is the only driver on the grid yet to score a point this season, and has not managed to complete a single race lap inside the top 10.

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Bottas: Last laps were 'like driving on ice'

Valtteri Bottas described his final laps of the British Grand Prix as if it were 'like driving on ice' as he tried to fend off Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel for the race win.

Bottas was on worn Medium tyres towards the latter stages of the race and was slowly clawing the gap back to Vettel until the Safety Car was called out for the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson who had buried himself into the barrier at the exit of Turn 1.

Ferrari and Red Bull serviced their drivers for fresh Soft tyres while both Bottas and team-mate Lewis Hamilton stayed out, giving the Finn the race lead.

After the second Safety Car period, caused by the crash between Carlos Sainz Jr. and Romain Grosjean had ended, the Finn once again came under attack from the championship leader.

Bottas defended his position for several laps but was eventually overhauled by Vettel, and also lost ground to Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, coming home fourth.

"After the first Safety Car restart, I was leading, it was actually quite OK," said Bottas.

"It was only a couple of laps where he had a proper shot. But then after the second Safety Car, initially it was fine, but he started getting really close and I had to push every lap like a qualifying lap.

"I think it was about five laps before the end, it was like driving on ice, I started to lose all grip, especially from the rear end. The traction was getting weaker. That's why he was getting close to me out of slow-speed corners and getting DRS.

"I was really trying everything I could to defend, but it was really a matter of time. The same thing for Lewis and for Kimi. We tried, but nothing we could do."

Bottas moved into fifth-place in the Drivers' Championship, jumping Max Verstappen, who failed to finish the race due to a brake-by-wire failure.

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Charles Leclerc: Sauber was on course to top F1's midfield battle at Silverstone

Charles Leclerc reckons he and Sauber could have beaten Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg to sixth place at Formula 1’s British Grand Prix without his race-ending pit stop problem.

Leclerc was battling with Hulkenberg for the head of the midfield pack when he came in on Lap 18 of 52 to discard his Soft tyres for a fresh set of Mediums.

However, Sauber did not firmly affix his rear-right tyre and Leclerc was forced to halt his C37 a few turns later, with the team receiving a €5,000 fine for the unsafe release

"It’s a shame because we were fighting for P6 because in the end Nico finished P6 and I think the undercut was working very well, but it happens,” he said.

“I think we would have got him strategically because the pit stop was very, very good again and again we would have gained quite a lot going on new tyres.

“I was quite close to him on this lap, that’s why we pitted on that lap, so strategically I think we could have been in front.”

Leclerc nonetheless stressed that he bore no ill-feeling towards the team for the botched stop, stressing that he took only positives from the weekend.

“In the last few races we topped twice the best pit stop of the race and once we were second I think, so we have been extremely competitive from the beginning of the year for that,” he said.

“When you push everything to the limit sometimes it happens that you make mistakes, just like me in the car, the mechanics made a mistake but it happens to everyone,” he said.

“So this is not a big thing. But definitely the positive side of it, thinking that we would have struggled so much and in the end it’s probably one of the best ones of the season so far.

“In terms of performance we were close to best of the rest, especially in qualifying we were just very close to the Haas until Q3 when they put something a bit more, but we are getting there.”

Sauber remains ninth in the Constructors' Championship.