Lewis Hamilton led from lights to flag to win the 2020 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but he came within seconds of disaster after dramatically suffering tyre delamination just a few corners from the finish line.
The same issue had already cost his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas a seemingly inevitable second place, which went instead to Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc joined them on the podium for Ferrari.
Renault's Daniel Ricciardo made a late move to pick up fourth ahead of Lando Norris, whose McLaren team mate Carlos Sainz also suffered a final lap tyre failure.
The race also saw early accidents for Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat, while Nico Hulkenberg failed to even make it to the start after his Racing Point failed to fire up in pit lane.
Blue skies and benign white clouds had been deployed over Silverstone in time for the pre-race ceremonies that included a more united commitment from F1 against racism, and a fly-past by a Spitfire thanking the UK's national health service for its work combating coronavirus.
After that, 19 drivers took up their positions on the starting grid with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the front of the field. Sadly the 20th was missing, the Racing Point of super-sub driver Nico Hulkenberg having failed to fire up in time to take the start of the race.
When the lights went out, Hamilton and Bottas both got away cleanly with the Finn initially getting the better start. Hamilton stuttered but then quickly recovered into turn 1 to pull away from his team mate. There was nothing that Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc could do from the second row, while behind them Carlos Sainz got a strong launch to get the jump on both his team mate Lando Norris and Lance Stroll in the remaining Racing Point, with Daniel Ricciardo following the McLaren through to similarly make two early gains.
Kevin Magnussen had also picked up positions, but at the end of the first lap he battered the penultimate kerb heavily, and as he fought to gather up the Haas he was collected by the Red Bull of Alexander Albon. Magnussen was sent spinning through the gravel and hit the outside barrier at the final corner, triggering a safety car in the process. Albon escaped damage to the RB16 but opted to make an early stop for fresh tyres as a precaution, and was subsequently handed a five second penalty for punting Magnussen off the track.
The race resumed on lap 6 with Hamilton making no mistakes handling the restart. The main battle was over seventh place between Norris and Stroll which went in favour of the McLaren, leaving Stroll battling to fend off the feisty Renault of Esteban Ocon. However there was little sign of progress for Sebastian Vettel who continued to circulate in tenth place where he had begun the race, one of just five drivers to have started on the soft compound tyres.
The race had just settled into its rhythm when a new safety car was scrambled on lap 13 following an accident for Daniil Kvyat at Maggotts-Becketts, a problem at the right rear sending the AlphaTauri into a heavy impact with the barrier. Everyone who could react in time was straight into pit lane to make a slightly early stop for the long-distance hard compound, but the top three were forced to wait another lap before they could do likewise. Going against the grain was Romain Grosjean, who stayed on on mediums and rose to fifth place for the restart as a result of the Haas strategy call.
The safety car pulled in at the end of lap 18 with Hamilton and Bottas safely away in the lead ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc, and Grosjean inevitably forming a bottleneck ahead of Sainz and Ricciardo. That allowed Norris to pull off a sweeping pass on the Renault but the young Briton's attempt to carry the momentum into a move on Sainz saw him run wide and briefly off track, after which he decided to settle for securing seventh. That allowed Sainz to focus on dispatching the Haas, which was finally achieved on lap 23 after which Grosjean was shown a black and white warning flag for driver standards. Two laps later and Norris was also able to briskly dispatch the Haas going through Stowe.
As the race passed the halfway point, Hamilton maintained a comfortable 1.5s lead over Bottas with Verstappen a further seven seconds in arrears. Leclerc was well off the pace in fourth ahead of Sainz, Norris, Grosjean, Ricciardo, Stroll and Ocon, with Vettel still trudging around in 11th in front of Antonio Giovinazzi, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and the two Williams cars of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, who had been busy passing Kimi Raikkonen leaving the Alfa Romeo in last place.
Albon made his second stop of the afternoon (and also served his five second penalty) at the end of lap 31, switching to mediums in hopes of having a performance advantage toward the end of the race over those on older, harder tyres. However it put him 15s behind Raikkonen at the back of the field, meaning he had a mountain to climb in the absence of any further safety cars to tighten up the running order.
Grosjean's efforts to mix up the strategy reached a natural conclusion when he was dispatched by both Ricciardo and Ocon in quick succession, forcing him to make his deferred pit stop on lap 37. A slow service saw him drop behind Albon at the back, and a lap later Albon was picking up another position having hunted down and passed Raikkonen moving him into 15th with his sights set on Latifi and then Russell.
Even though the running order was looking set with ten laps to go, there were alarm bells sounding at Mercedes with both drivers reporting a line of blisters forming on the front tyres affecting the handling of the car. It meant that neither man could risk any closing lap heroics, as there the gap back to Verstappen was insufficient to make a second stop and retain the lead.
Stroll was the latest recipient of a driver standards warning on lap 46 as he attempted to fend off Ocon, but the Renault eventually succeeded in winning the position. Three laps later, Stroll also lost a place to Gasly down the inside of turn 1 after the Frenchman had previously dispatched the moribund Vettel. Further back, Raikkonen was out of the running with damage to his front wing.
With two laps remaining, Mercedes' fears about the state of their drivers' tyres were realised when Bottas suffered a sudden tyre failure which saw him run off the track, ceding second place to Verstappen. Moments later, Sainz also suffered a tyre delamination and was similarly forced to make an emergency pit stop.
In response to the drama, Verstappen made a safety stop and used the opportunity to take on new sort tyres on the Red Bull with an eye on picking up the bonus point for fastest lap. Hamilton stayed out, and on the final lap it was clear that his tyres were also failing: holding on to the bitter end, he just managed to make it across the line with less than six seconds in hand over Verstappen despite having started the final lap with a 30s advantage.
Leclerc picked up third place, while a late charge from Ricciardo put Renault up to fourth ahead of Norris, Ocon, Gasly, Albon and Stroll, with Vettel picking up the final point for tenth. Bottas lost too much time limping back to pit lane and crossed the line in 11th followed by Russell, Sainz, Giovinazzi, Latifi and Grosjean, with Raikkonen classified last of the finishers albeit a lap down.
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