2007 British Grand Prix

The 2007 British Grand Prix (formally the 2007 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix ) was the ninth race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship . It was held on 8 July 2007 at the Silverstone Circuit . [ 2 ] The race was won by Kimi Räikkönen after overtaking pole position driver Lewis Hamilton during the first round of pit stops. [ 3 ] Second place was taken by Fernando Alonso and Hamilton was third. With his ninth straight podium, Hamilton set the record for most consecutive podium f...

Following British driver Lewis Hamilton's win at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix , circuit director Richard Phillips reported that ticket sales had "gone through the roof". Phillips added, "we haven't seen this level of interest since Mansell -mania in the late 80s and early 90s". [ 5 ]

In day two of testing it was Jarno Trulli 's turn to take the Toyota car around Silverstone, and managed to set the fastest time before the session was slowed down by showers. While Ferrari continued to test new parts to their car, this time with Kimi Räikkönen taking to the seat, McLaren stuck with Pedro de la Rosa and worked on the race set up and aerodynamics . [ 11 ]

Day three saw Toyota drop down from taking the fastest times to take the fifth fastest time on a moderately damp track. Felipe Massa was the fastest man on the track after 87 laps of the British circuit testing various aerodynamic and mechanical adjustments to the car. Although delayed through an oil system problem Alonso finished off aerodynamics work and continued to set up the car for the coming British Grand Prix, finishing with a time slower than second placed Williams driver Nico Rosberg ....

Toyota returned to previous testing form in the second session, putting their drivers in with the McLaren drivers, both of them outpacing Alonso. Schumacher even managed to run exactly the same time as Hamilton. Ferrari meanwhile got the two fastest times of the session, with Räikkönen a full half a second faster than his Brazilian team-mate. Williams were close up behind Alonso, as BMW were running lower in the field than usual. [ 16 ] Although Kubica was not complaining, Nick Heidfeld said tha...

The second session was quite uneventful, with Alonso taking the fastest time again. Near the end of the session the six fastest drivers decided not to set any more times. This was a gamble for the two BMW drivers, as by the end of the session Heidfeld had been pushed down to tenth position. The six drivers who were eliminated from the final session were Liuzzi, Speed, Barrichello, Wurz, Coulthard and Webber. [ 22 ]

The two McLaren drivers were the first two drivers out on the track for the initial fuel burning phase, and initially, Alonso was the fastest on the track. After the first set of pit stops it looked like Alonso was going to take the pole. On the last set of laps, Alonso was on a faster time than he was before, but Räikkönen was on a faster. Both of them completed their laps and Räikkönen came out on top, despite an error coming out of the final corner. [ 21 ] Hamilton who had been sitting in fou...

Felipe Massa stalled on the grid, leading to a second formation lap and causing the Brazilian to start from the pit lane, joining Takuma Sato , who also started from the pits. Hamilton led from the start with Räikkönen closely following and Alonso a few seconds behind them. Hamilton led the race until lap sixteen, when he made his stop and rejoined in fifth; his car briefly lurched forward with the fuel hose attached when Hamilton reacted to the 'lollipop' board being turned over. Räikkönen stop...

Behind the leaders, Massa was forcing his way through the pack to make up as many places as possible from the back, and finished in fifth behind a defensive Robert Kubica . Nick Heidfeld took sixth, while Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella brought the two Renaults home in seventh and eighth. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button were taking advantage of being quite far back by investing in a one stop strategy and they finished ninth and tenth respectively. Nico Rosberg had a good race tak...

David Coulthard took a good eleventh position; his team-mate, Webber, retired due to a full hydraulics failure. Adrian Sutil retired after a large engine failure going towards the Stowe corner. Toyota suffered the worst problems as both of their cars went out of the race, Ralf Schumacher retiring with a wheel fixation problem, and his teammate, Trulli retiring with handling problems. Anthony Davidson, after a good weekend of practice and an unlucky qualifying session, had to retire his Super Agu...

Räikkönen continued from the second stint of pit stops to take the win a couple of seconds ahead of Alonso. [ 3 ] It was Räikkönen's second straight win after being victorious at the French Grand Prix the week before. Alonso, finishing second, told the Spanish press that he was adamant that he would catch up with Hamilton in the drivers championship saying that, "With normal races, sooner or later I will close the gap. I must always be one step higher than him on the podium." [ 25 ] The British ...

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