Another 1-2 For Mercedes At 2015 British Grand Prix

It was not the normal, garden-variety 1-2 Mercedes finish we have come to expect in the 2015 Formula One season but, nevertheless, Mercedes continued their dominance with yet another 1-2 finish at the 2015 British Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton took first place, 10.9 seconds ahead of his teammate, Nico Rosberg, in second place. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, was another 25 seconds back and took his now-customary third place.

While, ultimately, the results were the same – it was only after a brief interruption from the Williams racing Brazilian driver, Felipe Massa, and Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas, who both piloted their Mercedes-powered cars past both Mercedes cars at the start of the race. It might have been a Williams 1-2 finish had Lotus’ Romain Grosjean not disrupted the back end of the race pack on the first lap by colliding with his Lotus teammate, Pastor Maldonado, which then caused McLaren’s Fernando Alonso to swerve into his teammate, Jenson Button. This back-of-the-pack chaos not only took out three drivers – Maldonado, Grosjean and Button – on the first lap, but also caused a restart, which gave Hamilton and Rosberg new life.

Although Massa and Bottas were able to fend off Hamilton and Rosberg for almost half the race, inevitably, Hamilton took the lead from Massa and, as rain threatened and then hit, Rosberg passed both Massa and Bottas. Vettel also took advantage of the weather conditions, passing both Massa and Bottas as a squall briefly hit the track, to claim the final podium spot. Retirements along the way, combined with the opening lap carnage, meant that only 13 cars finished the race and of those, only seven were on the lead lap.

With the results, Hamilton maintains his overall lead in the 2015 Formula One points standings with 194 points to Rosberg’s 177 points and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel still holding his iron grip on third with 135 points.

The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest at 5 a.m. [PDT] on CNBC on July 26, 2015.

2015 British Grand Prix – Silverstone Circuit – 52 laps – 190 miles

1 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes

2 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes

3 Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari

4 Felipe Massa – Williams

5 Valtteri Bottas – Williams

6 Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull

7 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India

8 Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari

9 Sergio Perez – Force India

10 Fernando Alonso – McLaren

11 Marcus Ericsson – Sauber
12 Roberto Merhi – Marussia
13 Will Stevens – Marussia
14 Carlos Sainz Jr. – Toro Rosso – Mechanical Failure
15 Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull – Mechanical Failure
16 Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso – Crash
17 Pastor Maldonado – Lotus – Crash
18 Romain Grosjean – Lotus – Crash
19 Jenson Button – McLaren – Crash
20 Felipe Nasr – Sauber – DNS [Gearbox]