The 2014 British Grand Prix (formally the 2014 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 July 2014 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom before a crowd of 122,000 people. It was the ninth round of the 2014 Formula One World Championship, and the 65th British Grand Prix to be held as part of the series. Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team won the 52-lap race, from a sixth position start. Williams driver Valtteri Bottas finished second, with Daniel Ricciardo third for the Red Bull squad. It was Hamilton's fifth victory of 2014 and the 27th of his career.
Heading into the event, Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg led the World Drivers' Championship and his team Mercedes led the World Constructors' Championship. Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg recorded the fastest lap in qualifying to start from pole position. The race was suspended for one hour, five minutes after a first-lap accident involving Kimi Räikkönen left a section of guardrail barrier needing repair. Rosberg led for 18 laps after the restart as Hamilton moved to second, then made a pit stop for tyres, giving the lead to Hamilton for six laps. Hamilton took the lead for good when Rosberg retired from a gearbox fault on the 29th lap; he won by more than 30 seconds over Bottas. Ricciardo held off McLaren's Jenson Button in the final laps to take third.
Rosberg's non-finish left him with a reduced lead of four championship points over Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship. Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso of Ferrari maintained third and fourth respectively, and Bottas passed Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel for fifth. In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes held a 158-point lead over Red Bull and Ferrari was third. Williams overtook Force India for fourth with ten races left in the season.
Background The 2014 British Grand Prix was the 9th of the 19 races in the 2014 Formula One World Championship and the 65th edition of the event as a round of the World Championship. It was held at the 18-turn Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England on 6 July. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought a white-banded Medium and orange-banded Hard dry-compounds to the race as well as two wet-weather compounds, the intermediate and full wet tyres. The drag reduction system (DRS), an adjustable flap at the back of each car that helps with overtaking when activated, had two activation zones for the race: one on the Wellington Straight linking the Arena and Brooklands turns, and one on the Hangar Straight between Chapel and Stowe corners. After the 2013 race, artificial grass was removed at the exits at three corner, the inside side barrier at the entrance to Brooklands corner was enlarged, and circuit drainage was improved.
After the two weeks earlier, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the World Drivers' Championship with 165 championship points, ahead of his second-placed teammate Lewis Hamilton with 136 championship points. Daniel Ricciardo of the Red Bull team was third with 83 championship points, and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso followed close behind in fourth with 79 championship points. Sebastian Vettel, in the second Red Bull car, was fifth with 60 championship points. Mercedes led the World Constructors' Championship with 301 championship points with Red Bull second with 143 championship points, Ferrari with 98 championship points, and Force India with 87 championship points battling Williams with 85 championship points for fourth position.
After a series of errors in the previous four rounds left Hamilton 29 points behind Rosberg, the Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda suggested this would motivate Hamilton to perform better at the British Grand Prix and saw no reason to guide him in his driving, "Lewis will fight back, there is no worry on my case about this at all. He is not in any way disturbed. He will keep fighting. Don't worry." Valtteri Bottas said Williams intended to run well at Silverstone and sought to build on the momentum from Austria, "I am really looking forward to Silverstone. It's always a great event and means a lot to us as it's the team's home Grand Prix, so hopefully some of the guys from the factory can come up and support us as well." Ricciardo said he was looking forward to the race as he liked the Silverstone track.
There were a total of 11 teams (each representing a different constructor) each fielded two race drivers for the Grand Prix with four driver changes for the first practice session. Williams development driver Susie Wolff drove for the team in lieu of Bottas, becoming the first woman to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix weekend since Giovanna Amati's attempted to qualify for the 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix. Force India gave Daniel Juncadella, the team's reserve and simulator driver and Mercedes-Benz Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters racer, his first Formula One race appearance in Nico Hülkenberg's car at Silverstone. Former GP2 Series competitor Robin Frijns drove Kamui Kobayashi's Caterham for the second time in the 2014 season; the in April was the first. Finally, and for the fourth time in 2014, Giedo van der Garde took Adrian Sutil's Sauber seat.
Practice
Per the regulations for the 2014 season, three practice sessions were held: two 90-minute sessions on Friday and another 60-minute session on Saturday. In the first session, Rosberg set the fastest lap at 1:35.424. Hamilton, Alonso, Ricciardo, Kimi Räikkönen, Vettel, Jenson Button, Daniil Kvyat, Jean-Éric Vergne and Kevin Magnussen were in positions two to ten. Four minutes in, Felipe Massa ran onto artificial grass at the exit of Stowe corner and was sent backwards into a sideways spin, hitting the outside tyre barrier at . His damaged Williams FW36 car stopped near the entry to the pit lane and the session was halted for 17 minutes as track marshals removed it. Later, an oil pressure problem caused Wolff's engine to shut down after four laps, and Marcus Ericsson spun at Becketts turn. After the session, Ricciardo and Rosberg were summoned to the stewards for overtaking Alonso and Kvyat under red flag conditions. Both drivers were deemed to have driven safely under series regulations after data examination and their explanations convinced the stewards not to penalise them.
Hamilton used soft compound tyres to record the fastest lap of the second session with a 1:35.508 lap set early in the session; his running was curtailed because his engine cut out with 30 minutes to go. Rosberg, Alonso, the Red Bull pair of Ricciardo and Vettel, Bottas, Button, Magunssen, Räikkönen and Vergne rounded out the top ten. A localised explosion tore through the left-hand side of Bottas' engine cover and loosened it with five minutes to go. Vergne's left-front wheel detached at Abbey corner and he had to stop at the side of the track. On Saturday morning, FIA race director Charlie Whiting adopted a "zero tolerance policy" and cautioned drivers not to run wide leaving Copse and Club without being forced or their lap times would be deleted in a bid to enforce stricter regulations on driving off the track. Overnight rain made the track wet and a north-westerly wind was a factor in the final session; four drivers chose not to set a timed lap and some went off the slippery track. Vettel set the fastest lap of 1:52.522, with his teammate Ricciardo second. Pastor Maldonado, Romain Grosjean, Sutil, Kvyat, Magnussen, Button, Bottas and Räikkönen completed the top ten. Jules Bianchi broke his front wing in an impact with the barrier at Stowe corner. Sutil also avoided hitting the wall at Stowe turn and exited the corner's gravel trap.
Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes, eliminating cars that finished qualifying 17th or below. The 107% rule was in effect, requiring drivers to reach a time within 107 per cent of the fastest lap to qualify. The second part lasted 15 minutes, eliminating cars that finished 11th to 16th. The final session lasted 12 minutes and determined pole position to tenth. Cars who progressed to the final session were not allowed to change tyres for the race's start, using the tyres with which they set their best lap times in the second session. A damp track worsened as rain began to fall with increasing, if intermittent, severity; all drivers used intermediate compound tyres for the first two sessions. The rain stopped at the start of the third session and drivers used dry tyres in its first minutes. Rain soon returned and they drove to the pit lane. Several drivers returned to the circuit with three minutes left for one last try at improving their laps. Rosberg took his fourth pole position of the season and the eighth of his career with a 1:35.766 lap. He was joined on the grid's front row by Vettel who bowed out of his first try due to the rain. Third-place Button went wide at Aintree corner and oversteered on the run to the Hangar Straight and began from the top three at Silverstone for the first time since the 2005 British Grand Prix. Hülkenberg in fourth briefly held pole position as he was the first driver to improve his lap on the drying track. Magnussen was fifth. Hamilton provisionally held the pole position after all first timed laps; he fell to sixth after he abandoned his final attempt because it was slower and he felt the track was not dry enough to improve his lap times.
Sergio Pérez in seventh ran wide at Chapel turn and lost heat in his tyres. Eighth-placed Ricciardo did not anticipate the improvement in track conditions and he remained in the pit lane. The Toro Rosso duo of Kvyat and Vergne were ninth and tenth. Grosjean was the fastest driver not to advance to the final session, because a yellow flag at Brooklands corner required him to slow. Marussia fuelled their cars for the second session and its reaction to the changing weather saw Bianchi qualify 12th and Max Chilton 13th. However, Chilton incurred a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox after the third practice session. Esteban Gutiérrez lost traction in his vehicle on a kerb leaving Brooklands corner and was sent backwards into a guardrail barrier at Luffield turn. He was 14th and also incurred a ten-place grid penalty for an unsafe release at the preceding round in Austria. Maldonado in 15th had a fuel pressure problem in the second session requiring him to stop his car. He was demoted five places for not providing the FIA with at least of fuel for analysis. Hence, Sutil started 13th after he lost control of his car's rear and got beached in a gravel trap. A strategy error left the Williams pair of Bottas and Massa to drive on a wet track on dry compound tyres and took 14th and 15th. Alonso in 16th (who spun at Brooklands turn) and his teammate Räikkönen in 17th were also caught out by the weather and used the incorrect tyre compound, after Ferrari spent longer than most teams deciding their strategy. The Caterham cars of Ericsson and Kamui Kobayashi were slow enough to transgress the 107 per cent rule. The stewards granted them dispensation to start the race.
Qualifying classification The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold.