Start, Silverstone, 2019

Rate the race: 2019 British Grand Prix

2019 British Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the British Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2019 British Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (20%)
  • 9 (42%)
  • 8 (27%)
  • 7 (7%)
  • 6 (2%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (1%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 338

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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79 comments on “Rate the race: 2019 British Grand Prix”

  1. 8 out of 10

    1. 9. for once I must say that you ought tk say more than that.
      another action packed race, probably tne best actual racing of the season but, there’s a but, another super bittersweet race, bad stewards bad stewards, mercedes pitted bottas super early, just artificial f1

      1. I because in the end we were robbed of fight for 2nd between Verstappen and Bottas. Otherwise it was a cracker of race with no unnecessary stewarding(Leclerc vs Verstappen battle) and lots of on track action with great wheel to wheel racing.

    2. Gave it an 8 as well. I would have given this race a 9 if we didn’t get such a damper on the battle between Hamilton and Bottas.

      Overall, a great race. Great battles.. great tension.. some drama (courtesy Vettel).

  2. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
    14th July 2019, 15:36

    A solid 8/10. Would have liked for the safety car to allow Bottas to fight more, cause the opening laps were great. Leclerc and Verstappen were the class of the field today, awesome fight. Vettel is over at this Point, better retire in 2019 or 2020. Awesome drive by Sainz with some luck. Good race by Gasly as well. Awesome move on Vettel.

    Great race but needed something more to give it a 9 or 10.

  3. 9 for me, thrilling first half

  4. Another decent race.

  5. A decidedly mixed bag. As a piece of entertainment, it’s a 9 or even a 10. As a sporting event, it’s barely a 6.
    Let’s see the good bits:
    – Amazing battles, for the win too
    – Lot’s of action, all through the field
    – Leclerc vs Verstappen. The stuff of legends.

    But the bad:
    – Race decided by an unnecessary full Safety Car
    – Hamilton being Hamilton, not coming in when ordered, robbing Bottas of a deserved win
    – Vettel being an idiot, robbing Verstappen of a deserved second place
    – Leclerc, in revenge mode, doing a lot of stuff which a few years ago we’d consider dangerous

    Having said that (especially the last comment) – I am happy F1 has reached a point where they are truly allowed to race. In 2016, 2017, what Leclerc did on Verstappen (and probably, what Verstappen did to maintain his place on Leclerc) would be penalties. Happy they are not now. BUT: we are now so safety conscious, a beached car in a gravel trap on a wide circuit is a safety car. Sorry, but it just shouldn’t be. It ruined the race, gave the English driver an easy victory. And it just wasn’t needed.

  6. A decidedly mixed bag. As a piece of entertainment, it’s a 9 or even a 10. As a sporting event, it’s barely a 6.
    Let’s see the good bits:
    – Amazing battles, for the win too
    – Lot’s of action, all through the field
    – Leclerc vs Verstappen. The stuff of legends.

    But the bad:
    – Race decided by an unnecessary full Safety Car
    – Hamilton being Hamilton, not coming in when ordered, robbing Bottas of a deserved win
    – Vettel being an …, robbing Verstappen of a deserved second place
    – Leclerc, in revenge mode, doing a lot of stuff which a few years ago we’d consider dangerous

    Having said that (especially the last comment) – I am happy F1 has reached a point where they are truly allowed to race. In 2016, 2017, what Leclerc did on Verstappen (and probably, what Verstappen did to maintain his place on Leclerc) would be penalties. Happy they are not now. BUT: we are now so safety conscious, a beached car in a gravel trap on a wide circuit is a safety car. Sorry, but it just shouldn’t be. It ruined the race, gave the English driver an easy victory. And it just wasn’t needed.

    1. They had to lift GIO’s car with the tractor crane which probably always requires a safety car period these days due to Suzuka 2014.

    2. “Hamilton being Hamilton, not coming in when ordered, robbing Bottas of a deserved win” – why should Lewis have pitted? His tyres were good enough to set fastest lap on the last lap.

      If Lewis had pitted, he would have emerged ahead of Botas – Lewis having a 20+second lead when a stop only costs circa 17seconds.

      Sour grapes leave a bitter taste!

      1. @gnosticbrian this race leaves a bitter taste. And I have no reason to appreciate Bottas over Hamilton, just not a just result.

        1. Your opinion to which you are more than welcome; I don’t happen to share it but will not lose any sleep…

    3. William Jones
      14th July 2019, 15:42

      Virtual safety car, or Lewis one stopping also gave Lewis the victory, and as for your comments about the safety car being needless, do me a favour, go and volunteer as a marshal on that corner next year, then tell us all about what is appropriate for a car beached there.

      1. Wish they’d take me

        1. William Jones
          14th July 2019, 15:47

          You may need to prove your worth by volunteering through the year at local events, but until I was wheelchair bound, I marshalled dozens of races.

          1. William Jones
            14th July 2019, 15:51

            *Dozens of F1 races, and all thanks to me volunteering my time through the year.

    4. Do you really think Mercedes were trying to pit Hamilton to give the British Grand Prix to Bottas? I’m sorry, but I think you’re completely wrong on that.

      1. If they both pitted, at least there was a chance of a fair fight. Why did Merc call him in? Not up to me. Why he ignored them? Because Hamilton.

        1. William Jones
          14th July 2019, 15:50

          Why he {sic} ignored them? Because he had the tyres to get fastest lap of the race and isn’t playing Mario Kart with catchup in full effect. He earned that gap.

        2. @hahostolze He ignored them because he could – as proven by setting the fastest lap on worn hard tyres. Even when Bottas had much newer soft tyres.

        3. He ignored them because there was literally no point. As soon as Mercedes pitted Bottas onto mediums, Hamilton had won the race regardless of the safety car as from then, he was always gonna 1 stop.

        4. “Because Hamilton” or because it made no sense to do an additional stop? Hamilton set fastest lap so he clearly had the pace in the car towards the end. Why can’t we trust drivers and give them credit for making the call for themselves ? It’s funny that in changeable conditions if a driver made the right call to either pit or stay out they’d be credited as making the right choice but when a driver can clearly feel his tyres are fine and proved that by setting fastest lap you still get armchair experts saying he’s in the wrong. People moan that the drivers don’t do enough but then moan when they make the choice. It’s a bit pathetic to be honest, especially when Hamilton had a 3 second lead and had the choice for first pit stop.

        5. Hamilton ignored the orders because he is the driver of the car (it’s his job). So if he feels good, it is up to him to go for the win. Funnily enough ‘he’ being ‘Hamilton’ has made him a multi-world champion and a regular record breaker. He seems to be mowing down all others. That is why his team and his boss is happy to let him do what he feels is right. Any one who is not biased against him could see that. Ask yourself why he is paid so much dosh? Why would any team want him driving for them? Because he regularly brings in the gold. If you were in charge you would demoralize everyone to show them you are the big boss, while explaining the new found losing streak you created because you don’t trust the people around you. I’ll let the record books and history prove me right.

    5. @hahostolze I agree, and Vettel mucked it up however, double standards f1 again, what awful stewards again.
      Mercedes stiched up bottas, pitting too early and for no reason, not like any car behind had pitted, also the tyres were taking a couple laps to work, one of the races where an overcut could have worked and the bad luck but luck doesn’t mean that mercedes didn’t stich bottas up.
      like wwe action packed fake as hollywood.

      1. William Jones
        14th July 2019, 15:51

        “not like any car behind had pitted”

        Apart from the red bulls and the Ferrari’s.

        1. The Ferraris started on Softs (red colour) and were on a 2 stop strategy so, they had to pit early.

      2. “Mercedes stiched up bottas, pitting too early and for no reason, not like any car behind had pitted…” – really? On the race that I watched several of the chasing cars pitted before Bottas.

    6. Bottas deserved win? He’s probably embarassed that Hamilton took fastest lap on 30 lap old hard tyres.

    7. Completely agree. Again Hamilton benefits of a decision by the Race direction with an unnecessary safty car. This guy just doens’t run out of luck…

      1. Not sure if serious.
        If serious, and you really think there was no need for a safety car – I suggest you visit Silverstone and see an F1 car go through there.

        Another car into that gravel trap would have been potentially catastrophic, and the only way to shift the Alfa was with a tractor.

        Hamilton was lucky, but was as fast as Bottas was after the safety car and only needed a single stop anyway – where Bottas was tied to a two stop by that point.

        Hamilton was always winning this race, safety car or not, as soon a Bottas put mediums on in his first stop and Hamilton stayed out long enough to make a one stop possible.

  7. Good race, Mercedes championship domination apart. However I can’t believe Vettel was penalized. When he was behind Max’s car, he clearly tries to go to the right. Then Max does one of his often brake-swerves to the right and Vettel has no other chance than braking and losing control. Hadn’t he swerved, Vettel’d have moved to the right and Max’d have kept his position.

  8. I rate it a 9/10. Great race, but we got robbed of a real fight for the win due to the safety car. The SC was totally unnecessary, and handed the Brit the win of the British GP. How convenient.

  9. Absolutely brilliant! Feel a bit bad for Bottas but that’s racing. I guess Ferrari’ll have to throw all their weight behind Charles now if they’re to salvage anything from this season. 2013 spec Vettel seems a distant memory now. Fantastic battles all the way through the field and nice to see some non-DRS overtaking.

  10. 8 from me, Classic before the safety car and hints afterwards right up until Vettel went and stuffed it all up.

  11. Marvelous! Absolutely marvelous!
    10!

    Mercedes were just in a league of their own! They managed to work around tyre blunder for Bottas and pit him without losing any position!
    Loved how Lewis refused to pit for Softs, so much can go wrong during the pit… and he just new how fast he can be!
    And the Flag… just perfect!

    Vettel did another high-profile mistake and duly finished last. He looks more and more a broken man… the same as he looked in the last part of last season when it was clear the championship fight is lost.
    I don’t like Max, but I really feel for him. Today he fought as clean as at all possible! To get a punch from Vettel is not deserved by any means.

    1. The only minus – Leclerc DotD? Seriously?
      For what?

      It’s a joke.

  12. 7/10 for me.. Midfield championship battle is the only positive about this season

  13. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    14th July 2019, 15:44

    Wish the Leclerc/Verstappen battle hadn’t been ended by the safety car. Absolutely great stuff to watch. That Safety car was’t really needed.
    Gasly looked mush better this race than he has done before. First time he finished in front of Verstappen, and his pace was a whole lot better.
    Vettel showed little racecraft today. Verstappen and Leclerc were wheel by wheel for laps. Vettel rammed Verstappen off after 2 corners…. He really starts to look less and less like a possible championship contending driver.

  14. petebaldwin (@)
    14th July 2019, 15:45

    8 for me. Really enjoyable race. If the safety car hadn’t happened, it could easily have been a 10.

    1. That’s basically where I am. It was easily a 9 until GIO parked it in the sandtrap.

      Some of the best racing we’ve seen all year, however. Cannot believe Max got to the end after that jolt.

  15. Nice entertainment but sad about the safety car ruining BOT vs HAM. Would have been good to see HAM trying to one stop and hold off BOT.

  16. The people who voted 1/10 need to remember: “Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.”

  17. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    14th July 2019, 15:48

    The early laps were pretty breathtaking, to be honest. The fights between Bottas & Hamilton and Leclerc & Verstappen were fantastic to watch. Bottas holding Hamilton off and still leading was brilliant.

    Though the saftey car did rather wreck the whole thing and hand Hamilton victory despite Bottas doing nothing wrong. That REALLY sucked. Also the pace difference between the Mercedes and everyone else also seriously sucked – 1st & 2nd was a fight between one team.

    As for Vettel that was 100% his fault. I usually think he’s underserved of some of the criticism he gets but that was unbelievably bad and robbed Verstappen of what could have been 2nd. Suprised the Red Bull survived the impact. Ferrari don’t seem as much of a threat to Mercedes as Red Bull now.

    1. To RBR I’d say they’re pretty much a threat, especially given their Quali speed. But, it’s obvious now Ferrari is no match for Mercedes in race trim, sometimes even for RBR… although some (mostly Mercedes fans, of course) still keep rolling the lie that Ferrari is a title contender etc etc. I was kinda amazed to see how much speed through the fast corners VER carried compared to LEC, also on the straights… although Ferrari should have been unbeatable on the straights.

      1. I actuall think Verstappen could have beaten at least one of the Mercs, though SC miced up the complete field.
        Even with a badly damaged car Max was gaining on Gasly and obviously was faster than both Ferrari’s…

  18. 9/10. Good racing on a proper race track.

  19. 9/10 for me. Great to watch Verstappen and Leclerc battle and switching between them. I think the car can follow much more closer now and give us much exciting battle to watch. Shame on Vettel incident with Verstappen.

  20. One of the best British GP’s in recent year. I feel like Bottas is getting a tad bit too much praise though, he had his teammate driving on his tailpipe in dirty air for 10+ laps and still managed to wear out his tyres in clean air first and was only matching Lewis on pace with tyres 18-19 laps fresher before the safety car..And lost fastest lap to his teammate who was on hard tyres 30+ laps old..

    Vettel completely ruined the battle for 3rd..Absolutely unbelieveable that he was blaming Max, one of the worst world champions when it comes to fighting wheel to wheel in my opinion.

    1. Bottas said he was managing the gap after his stop, which makes sense since he needed to make his tyres last. Lewis clearly had more pace and probably would’ve won without the safety car, just a shame we didn’t get to see it.

      Vettel’s reaction was spur of the moment, at least on reflection he realised he screwed up.

  21. I thought a 9. Really enjoyed the race but thought Bottas the real winner and Lewis lucky again, but that’s racing. Mid/lead battles were great, young Charles showing some elbows, great race.

  22. BOT again getting the worse strategy in order to give HAM the win. Also, that SC period seemed kinda forced. Must be just another God blessing for HAM… just because he was home.

    LEC = DOTW.

    VET = I think his carreer at the top is finished after the Ferrari period. I hardly believe any of the top and even midfield teams will want his services given his performances since the start of 2017.

    1. William Jones
      14th July 2019, 15:58

      I’m selling Manor Racing branded tin foil hats, want one, totally legit.

  23. 9 for Verstappen and Leclerc battle

  24. 9. Another great race with real racing, in the first third especially, Bottas defending from Ham, Verstappen versus Leclerc etc. Vettel providing another blunder moment to his portfolio for the past three seasons. Bottas looking seriously annoyed about the tyre choices, though he seemed a lot slower than Lewis and I thought the latter was a bit too generous again in their early battle, he could have closed the door harder.

  25. 9. It’s not often that a race – any race, not just F1 – has me squirming in my seat, but this one did.
    Very often races where the leader is a long way ahead get boring with ten or so laps to go, but not this one. Hamilton taking fastest lap on the very last lap on astoundingly old tyres was just superb.
    On the other hand, Vettel needs to think about his future very carefully.

  26. Gave it a 7, should have given it 8, had my attention from beginning to end, and that ain’t bad, it would be a disaster for F1 if Silverstone was ever ‘canned’.

  27. One of the best races I’ve seen. Was grinning most of the way through and hats off to the Silverstone cameras and camera work- that was really impressive.

    1. Apart from cutting away to the crowd after Ham overtook Bottas, meanwhile Bottas was lining up the re-pass for the lead. That one annoyed me quite a bit.

      1. That, and a lot more mistakes where the ontrack action was simply missed. Director was really poor today.

  28. Josh (@canadianjosh)
    14th July 2019, 16:32

    I gave an 8.
    Ferrari are run by jacka55es. Don’t know if the favouritism they show to one over the other is an Italian thing but it’s pretty pathetic. If that country ever has to go to war I hope the Ferrari strategists don’t make any of the military’s decisions because…….
    Leclerc Verstappen is breathtaking to watch. The two best wheel to wheel drivers right now. I’m sure Feranado was smiling if he was wastching. Love Silverstone.

  29. 8/10.

    A good entertaining race. Kept me interested all the way through. A great battle between Max and Charles and Lewis and Valtteri to begin with. All of these raced with great skill and fairness.

    I would have thought a virtual safety car would have been sufficient to deal with the Gio incident. However I’m sure the race officials know what they are doing. It did spoil the flow of the race a little.

    Another howler by Seb though. What did he think he was doing? As I said here a few weeks ago he just seems to panic in close quarters situations. He really needs to get over this or his career is going to much shorter than any of us thought. It could very well be argued that in the top 3 teams all but Gasly are doing a better job than Seb. When will Ferrari’s patience run out?

  30. Very good race but could’ve been an epic. Unfortunately the safety car killed any race for the lead, but still good racing through the field. Ham, Bot, Ver and Lec showed how it’s done with hard but fair racing, Vet showed how it’s not done….

  31. 8 for me.
    Good enough race to keep me glued to the screen.
    Ver and Lec stole the show again.
    Vettel?

  32. This race was a 10 compared to the rest of the season for whatever reason Silverstone always gives great races

    1. Did the people questioning why Mercedes pitted Bottas early not see the numerous lockups he was making running at the front?

      1. William Jones
        14th July 2019, 23:10

        I suspect half of them weren’t even watching the race, just had it on in the background

  33. I give it a 9 out of 10. Multiple battles thru out the race. Minimal intervention by the stewards, The battles were, for the most part, fair and respectful. Even Vettel’s crash into the back of Verstappen was, imho, a mistake driven by desperation.

  34. It seemed that Valteri, running in clean air, was harder on his tyres than Lewis running in the dirty air behind him. A set-up optimised for qualifying?

  35. I gave Austria a 9, so had to give an 8.
    Both were phenomenal but 1st position was pretty clear since Lap 20.

  36. I’m really not one for conspiracy theories but the timing of that safety car…

  37. Mark in Florida
    14th July 2019, 21:30

    7 out of 10 for me. Ill timed safety car robbed Bottas of a win. Then Merc screwing up his tire strategy forced another pit stop at the end of the race. Merc got the result that they wanted for the British Grand Prix. Bottas you’re a number two driver get used to it. Vettle taking out Verstappen was simply karma in operation, couldn’t have happened to two more deserving individuals. It was the highlight of the race for me. Leclerc finally caught a break for once. Maybe Ferrari will stop messing up Leclercs pit calls just to benefit Vettle. Back a winning horse not a horse that should be in a blue factory.

  38. The battle were very, very nice. But once again Ferrari could not keep up with Merc. The lack of a serious battle for the lead killed some of the fun. Feel bad for Bottas that he lost due to the safety car. He put up a good fight in the opening laps, and though Lewis appeared to be faster, I’m not sure how Lewis would have gone past.

  39. I almost gave it a 7 but went with 8 instead. It was an excellent race, though to me this should really be the floor for a grand prix not near the pinnacle. Either the cars are too easy for these guys to drive, or the circuits are far too forgiving. I think it is a bit of both. It was great seeing cars in the gravel today. Mistakes should be punished.

  40. Great close side-by-side battling, two possible strategies, safety car flipping cars around (much like a rain shower might), controversial clashes…
    I can’t imagine what race might be better, but with action improving, I’m excited to see how we go!

    10/10.

  41. Soooooo, to those who complained in austria how people voted high cause mercedes didn’t win? Well, this one gets an 8 from me and a 9 majority despite mercedes 1-2, maybe that’s related to a long lasting battle between ferrari and red bull.

    Mercedes was clearly the fastest car, there was no chance whatsoever for any of the others to get 2nd place, if not for a strategy error by mercedes, verstappen and vettel would’ve had a small chance to get past him thanks to that, but even that is doubtful.

    Unclear if ferrari or red bull were faster, verstappen seemed to be the fastest of all and gasly seemed to compete with vettel, gasly definitely did better than usual.

    Also some action in the midfield as always but really it’s red bull and ferrari who made up this race, without them it’d have been terrible, and there were also a couple of battles early on between mercedes.

    I don’t like when a driver wins thanks to a SC or VSC btw, just like australia 2018, I like when a driver wins by doing the fastest lap on the last lap however.

    I don’t like when a driver crashes out another, ruining a good race, like vettel on verstappen, at least vettel had damage that meant he could’ve retired after that crash, well deserved.

  42. Even when we have such a fantastic race, the comment section is still a dumpster fire of toss

  43. 9/10 The only thing missing was some other car being able to fight with the dominant Mercs. Other than that simply great! Silverstone never disappoints. It’s inconceivable they’d ever contemplated dropping it.

  44. I thought it was a brilliant race and I rated it an 8.5

    They may only broadcast one race live on free to air in the UK now, but we were treated with the one race we got this year.

    In the opening laps there was the Bottas and Hamilton battle, then there was the Leclerc and Verstappen battle which even carried on during and after their pit stops. Every lap or so in that opening period I kept saying to myself how good the race was.

    A safety car can often spice up a dull race but as there was nothing wrong with this race as soon as the safety was announced I said to myself it would negatively affect this race and I think that is what happened.

    The safety car handed Hamilton the lead as he had been delaying his stop, without the safety car it looked like Hamilton would have re-joined just behind Bottas again and they could have resumed their battle for the lead.

    I personally think that Hamilton probably would have won even without the safety car, he was obviously quicker than Bottas throughout the race, if Hamilton had still switched to the hard tyres if it had been a regular stop he would have had a stop in hand on Bottas and would have won that way, if he had followed Bottas’s two stop strategy I think he would had found a way past eventually.

    Despite how fast Hamilton was I was still surprised he managed to set fastest lap on the last lap on old hard tyres when Bottas had only recently stopped for used but fresher soft tyres.

    There was another high profile and costly mistake from Vettel, the fact that we had witnessed other leading drivers involved in wheel to wheel battles throughout the race without clashing didn’t help the matter.

    After he ran into Verstappen and they both ended up in the gravel I thought it would be race over for at least one of them but they both managed to drive out of the gravel trap and finish the race although Vettel had to drove slowly round to make a pit stop first.

    Sadly the latter stages could not live up to the start of the race and things settled down later on.

    It was so good to see a race in full and live, although I might not have been saying that if it had been a dull processional race, I thought the race was so good I actually watched the highlights broadcast later on that night and that proved again just how much poorer only seeing the race highlights is.

    Even if the highlights show all the moves and overtakes you still miss out on the build up to those moves and you do not get a full picture of the race, for example how quickly a driver closes a gap.

    As it was Channel 4’s only live race of the year they pulled out all the stops with a three man commentary team with Mark Webber joining the regular duo of Ben Edwards and David Coulthard, whilst it may be overkill if this was for every single race, the expanded commentary line up was another great feature and worked really well.

    It was a shame that Channel 4 had to reduce their planned coverage for the British Grand Prix as with the England team reaching (and winning in dramatic fashion) the final of the Cricket World Cup, Sky allowed it to be broadcast on terrestrial TV, which was the right decision, I just thought this race had plenty of incidents which could have been analysed more in-depth after the race.

    One negative about the TV coverage, but something that is beyond Channel 4’s control was that some of the camera work and shot selection was poor, for example when Hamilton overtook Bottas early on they switched to footage of the crowd before the move was over, also there were a few instances where when they were following a particular battle they switched to a different camera before the cars had got to that section of track so there was a second or so of an empty circuit on screen.

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