2013 FORMULA 1 : ROSBERG WINS BRITISH GRAND PRIX

2013 F1 British Grand Prix Champion : Nico Rosberg - #9 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team - Mercedes -Benz F1 W04

Nico Rosberg claimed his second win of the 2013 F1 season after emerging from a dramatic British Grand Prix just 0.7secs ahead of a charging Mark Webber.

The German appeared to be far from a contender for victory for much of the 52-lap race, losing his second place to Sebastian Vettel off the line and having to play a supporting role as, initially, Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton and, latterly, Vettel took charge at the front. Only when misfortune struck both the pacesetters did Rosberg's hopes take an upswing, the Monaco Grand Prix winner suddenly finding himself at the front….

Hamilton was the first to fall away, the Briton losing an advantage of over a second built up after holding on to his pole position from the start. Despite Vettel slotting into second place into turn one, Hamilton was able to extend his advantage and appeared in control of the race when his left-rear tyre let go in spectacular fashion on the Wellington Straight. With over half the lap remaining before he could pit for a replacement, the Briton plummeted down the order, with Vettel picking up a lead that many expected him to hold to the end.

Hamilton's tyre failure, which came on lap eight, was only the tip of the iceberg, as Felipe Massa was pitched into a spin at almost the same point on the track when the same tyre came apart on his Ferrari a lap later. While debris from an opening corner clash between Webber and Romain Grosjean could have been to blame given its proximity to the incidents, a third failure, suffered by Jean-Eric Vergne at the end of the Hangar Straight five laps later, cast the light back onto Pirelli, given similar incidents in previous races.

While teams – who had already responded by calling for the first round of pit-stops - frantically warned their drivers to keep off the kerbs, particularly at the quicker exits, Pirelli attempted to discover the cause of further embarrassment to its brand, again shying away from blaming its own product until the facts could be established.

Unsurprisingly, the safety car was scrambled to give the marshals cover to clear the track of debris, with Massa's team-mate Fernando Alonso and Webber taking the opportunity to pit for fresh tyres and, in the Australian's case, a new nose. More alarmingly, however, was Alonso's subsequent claim that he had suffered a left rear deflation as he approached the pits….

Despite concerns over possible further problems, the safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 21, with few of the 22 runners heeding the calls to exercise caution over the kerbs. Vettel needed no second bidding to stretch the Red Bull's legs, immediately opening a one-second gap across the start-finish line and doubling that advantage in the space of a couple of laps. Rosberg remained second, with Adrian Sutil – following a good initial start – still ahead of Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo.

Both Red Bull and Ferrari made little secret of the fact that they had increased the tyre pressures on the second set of rubber, but the change did not appear to affect Vettel as he continued to hold firm at the front through the middle of the race, pulling enough of an advantage to ensure that he remained ahead during the second round of stops. More debris at the Stowe pointed to a fourth tyre failure, although it took some time for Esteban Gutierrez's problem to filter through, and there was no recourse to the safety car until the closing laps – when Vettel's car ground to a halt rounding the final turn of lap 41….

The German had been coming under pressure from Rosberg, but still held a lead approaching two seconds when his transmission gave up the ghost exiting the Vale chicane. Unable to pit, Vettel crawled to a standstill on the main straight, but the stewards deemed that his RB9 remained in a dangerous spot and called for the race to be neutralised once again.

2013 Formula 1 : British Grand Prix Race result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	52	1:32:59.456	2	25
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	52	+0.7 secs	4	18
3	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	52	+7.1 secs	9	15
4	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	52	+7.7 secs	1	12
5	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	52	+11.2 secs	8	10
6	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	52	+14.5 secs	11	8
7	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	52	+16.3 secs	6	6
8	19	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	52	+16.5 secs	5	4
9	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	52	+17.9 secs	21	2
10	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+19.7 secs	14	1
11	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	52	+21.1 secs	15
12	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	52	+25.0 secs	16
13	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+25.9 secs	10
14	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+26.2 secs	17
15	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	52	+31.6 secs	18
16	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	52	+36.0 secs	19
17	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	52	+67.6 secs	20
18	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	52	+67.7 secs	22
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	51	+1 Lap	7
20	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	46	+6 Laps	13
Ret	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	41	Gearbox	3
Ret	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	35	Tyre	12

2013 Formula 1 : Drivers' Championship Standing

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	132
2	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	111
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	98
4	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	89
5	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	87
6	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	82
7	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	57
8	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	36
9	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	26
10	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	25
11	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	23
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Ferrari	13
13	Sergio Perez	Mexican	McLaren-Mercedes	12
14	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	STR-Ferrari	11
15	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Sauber-Ferrari	6
16	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Renault	0
17	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Renault	0
18	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
19	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Cosworth	0
20	Charles Pic	French	Caterham-Renault	0
21	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Cosworth	0
22	Giedo van der Garde	Dutch	Caterham-Renault	0

2013 Formula 1 : Teams' Championship Standing

Pos	Team	Points
1	Red Bull Racing-Renault	219
2	Mercedes	171
3	Ferrari	168
4	Lotus-Renault	124
5	Force India-Mercedes	59
6	McLaren-Mercedes	37
7	STR-Ferrari	24
8	Sauber-Ferrari	6
9	Williams-Renault	0
10	Marussia-Cosworth	0
11	Caterham-Renault	0