Silverstone: Germany's Nico Rosberg won the British Grand Prix for Mercedes after a spate of exploding tyres almost caused the race to be stopped here on Sunday. Rosberg took the lead 11 laps from the end when world champion Sebastian Vettel suffered a rare mechanical breakdown and rolled to a halt.
Roseberg beat Red Bull's Mark Webber by 0.7 seconds after a thrilling last seven laps following the second safety car. Meanwhile, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who had qualified ninth after what he said was his worst Saturday of the season, finished third and cut Vettel's lead to 21 points.
“This is a great moment for me and our team to win in the home of motor racing at Silverstone” said Nico after his win on Sunday. “We have such great momentum in our Silver Arrows team and I'm very proud to be part of it.
Speaking about the win, Rosberg said, “This win is for every single person who has been involved in building our car. It was a shame for Lewis today, and I had also a problem with my tyre but I was lucky because of the Safety Car. It was so special to win today, especially in front of fellow team members and their families as our factory is only ten minutes away from the track.”
He added, “The race was really exciting. I had to manage the tyres really carefully, I was told to avoid the kerbs. At the end, it was difficult to hold Mark and to look after my tyres but I was able to keep the position, and take a great victory for us. Now we can look forward to another home race next weekend at the Nürburgring.”
Meanwhile Mark Webber said, “What a day! I don’t think any of us expected it to unfold like this. The start was pretty bad, we have to look into that as we had had a good run of starts recently. Then I had contact with Grosjean and the wing was damaged; the boys did a great job in the stop when they changed it, After that we got into the race. I was praying for a safety car, but not for the reason they were coming, as you knew you could be next. When you have something like that, it’s Russian Roulette; when you see that many tyre issues for the fellow competitors then it’s never comforting.”
“I made the most of those safety cars – and today the strategy was one of the best we’ve done. I think it worked very, very well. I worked hard to manipulate the pace when I had to and then it was Nico and I left at the end. It would have been nice to have had a few more laps, but that’s how it was today. It was nearly a really special day, but it was still a nice day,” he added.