The traditional British weather that had threatened, but never really showed its face at the circuit over the weekend finally arrived for Sunday's fun, and the track was wet at the start, and then got wetter in the middle of the race, precipitating the sort of chaos that we always end up with when F1 drivers and rain get together. At the start, though, it looked like it was set to dry up, and the cars started in a mad fashion. Pole sitter Heikki Kovalainen got away well, but Mark Webber, in the Red Bull alongside on the front row, got a dismal start, and was swamped by the quick starting second row pair of Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. Hamilton's start was so quick as to see him alongside his team mate through Copse, but Kovalainen kept the lead as they raced through the Becketts complex, even giving his team mate a bit of a nudge as he held his line.
Further back, Webber's day went from bad to worse, as he spun in the standing water halfway around the lap, and dropped to the back, while Felipe Massa also endured an opening lap spin, and David Coulthard's final British Grand Prix ended, perhaps appropriately, in disaster, as he collided with Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso and both skdded into retirement.
The scrap at the front was thrilling, if brief, with Hamilton finally asserting himself on Kovalainen on lap 4 with a late-braking maneuvre into Stowe. Described by ITV's commentators as akin to the Mansell/Piquet battle from years gone by, it patently wasn't all that good, but it did release Hamilton into a lead he never relinquished.
He was challenged by Kimi Raikkonen, who was promoted past Kovalainen after a spin for the Finn's McLaren on lap 5, as the conditions continued to prove treacherous. Once into second, Raikkonen's car began to come to him, as he reeled in Hamilton right up to the first pit stops, when the two came in together and left in the same order, but with one crucial difference. Raikkonen didn't change his tyres, while Hamilton did, and in the end that decision destroyed the reigning champion's race.
Before the stops, there was plenty of action further back, as Webber and Massa conspired to put together ultimately fruitless recovery drives, passing cars left and right as they moved through the field, while Fernando Alonso put on a decent early stint on fully wet tyres, but he was to end up struggling along with Raikkonen on failing tyres in the middle stint.
As Raikkonen fell back, and Ferrari dithered with the idea of changing his rubber, so he dropped away from Hamilton and was passed by Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld, who took advantage of Kovalainen's pass by sliding up the inside of the Ferrari, and then outdragging the McLaren down the start/finish straight to move up to second place. It was a decent drive from Ickle after a year of dour performances, and he held second to the flag.
Raikkonen and Alonso pitted just after half distance, and fuelled up to the finish as well as changing tyres. The main issue for the drivers now became the weather, as the rain returned to soak the circuit. The laptimes tailed off, and all manner of spins and slips were seen from the competitors, as Hamilton and Kubica had grassy moments, and Piquet (after another decent drive) and Jenson Button (after another poor drive) slid into retirement.
Nevertheless, the frontrunners held their nerve on intermediate tyres and as they pitted for the last time, so the cloud broke and the rain stopped, leaving Hamilton and Heidfeld clear to take the top two places, albeit with Hamilton over a minute clear. Such was the level of dominance that Hamilton enjoyed after the spins and misfortune of the rest of the field, only the top three drivers finished on the same lap.
Behind them, the surprise mover as the heavens opened was Rubens Barrichello's Honda, who benefitted from a bit of Ross Brawn-inspired strategic play to maximise his wet tyres when the track was at it's wettest, as Boobens passed cars left and right to move up as high as second, only to drop back to third place after making his last stop for intermediates. Still, a welcome podium for Honda, and a sign that Brawn can be a serious asset for the team, as and when (and indeed if) they sort out their car.
Further back, as other cars pitted, Kimi and Alonso were elevated back up the order and the Finn passed his former title rival six laps from the end with a dive down the inside at Stowe, to wrap up fourth place, though it probably should have been a lot better. Alonso fell further back in the closing stages, as Heikki Kovalainen grabbed 5th, leaving the Renault man 6th, from Jarno Trulli, who snatched 7th from the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima (who had a couple of spins of his own, but then who didn't) on the final tour.
Nico Rosberg had looked on course for some points after starting from the pit lane, but the German drove into the back of Toyota's Timo Glock late on, to ruin their races. Mark Webber provided plenty of entertainment, but suffered another two or three spins on his slippery way to a disappointing 10th place, while Sebastien Bourdais, the recovering Glock, and the spin-happy Felipe Massa completed the thirteen finishers.
Robert Kubica endured a rare retirement after spinning into the gravel at the Abbey chicane with 20 laps to go, while both Force Indias ended their races early thanks to spins.
Despite the annoying ITV platitudes that gushed forth after the end of the race, it was easy to credit Hamilton with a decent drive, and one that elevates him to a three way share of the drivers championship with the two Ferrari drivers. Now the F1 gang moves onto the second half of the season, with the title battle looking set to have the makings of an all time classic.
And all it took was some accursed British weather.
| Race Result after 60 Laps | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time/Reason | Pts |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:39:09.440 | 10 |
| 2 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | +1:08.577 | 8 |
| 3 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | +1:22.273 | 6 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | +1 Lap | 5 |
| 5 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | +1 Lap | 4 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | +1 Lap | 3 |
| 7 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | +1 Lap | 2 |
| 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | +1 Lap | 1 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | +1 Lap | |
| 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | +1 Lap | |
| 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | +1 Lap | |
| 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | +1 Lap | |
| 13 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | +1 Lap | |
| R | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | Spinny | |
| R | Jenson Button | Honda | Spinny | |
| R | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | Spinny | |
| R | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India - Ferrari | Spinny | |
| R | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Ferrari | Spinny | |
| R | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | Crashy | |
| R | David Coulthard | Red Bull - Renault | Crashy |
Drivers Championship Standings -
1 Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa 48pts, 4 Kubica 46pts, 5 Heidfeld 36pts, 6 Kovalainen 24pts, 7 Trulli 20pts, 8 Webber 18pts, 9 Alonso 13pts, 10 Barrichello 11pts, 11 Rosberg, Nakajima 8pts, 13 Coulthard 6pts, 14 Vettel, Glock 5pts, 16 Button 3pts, 17 Piquet, Bourdais 2pts.
Constructors Championship Standings -
1 Ferrari 96pts, 2 BMW Sauber 82pts, 3 McLaren 72pts, 4 Toyota 25pts, 5 Red Bull 24pts, 6 Williams 16pts, 7 Renault 15pts, 8 Honda 14pts, 9 Toro Rosso 7pts.
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