ESPN rounds up all the reaction from up and down the Silverstone paddock following the 2017 British Grand Prix.
Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas (2nd): "What a race! I'm really happy for us as a team, to get the second 1-2 of the season. Of course I would have liked to win, but I'm happy anyway because that was definitely one of my best ever races. I had to fight hardcore out there a couple of times, but I ended up in a good position. We could actually go longer than expected in the first stint on the Softs and the tyres were really good. In the last stint the team told me to just take care of the tyres, because we saw a few failures out there for some other teams, but for me they were fine. We're just at the half-way point of the season and it could definitely be worst. It's still just my first year with the team and I'm still right in the championship fight As a team we did a really good job today. The strategy right from the start of the race worked really well. It was a flawless race for us and the 1-2 was our prize - the team really deserve this. We definitely got lucky with Kimi's puncture in the end, to take P2, but that's racing and today luck was on our side."
Lewis Hamilton (1st): "I'm so happy... this has got to be one of my sweetest wins here. I was gunning for this victory. There was so much negativity ahead of the race, with people questioning how I prepared for the race. But this weekend has been one of my strongest of the weekend. I made a solid start and then after that I managed the car and the balance, and the boys did a fantastic pit stop. I really can't find a fault at the moment. The team did an exceptional job this weekend and Valtteri obviously drover a stormer today - I'm proud of him. It's great to have him in the team. I'm surprised to see the issues the Ferrari had because I didn't see any debris. I did not expect to come away from this weekend just one point behind Sebastian. This result really opens up the championship - and we go to Hungary next, where I've always gone well. Every time I came around Turn 7, I could see the fans cheering every single lap. It was really reminiscent of 2008, my first Grand Prix win here. I've got some great supporters here, not only in the crowd, but in the garage as well. I've got my brother here, some of my aunties and family has come too. There's this amazing young kid who's come from South Africa, Michael, who is fighting cancer. It was amazing to see him. And Billy Monger is with us, who is just such an inspiration."
Toto Wolff, team principal: "I think that was probably the best race I have been part of since joining the team in 2013! We are so delighted for Lewis: he prepared for the weekend in the way he knew was right for him, then came here and delivered in qualifying and the race. He got pole, led every lap, won the race and also set the fastest lap; it was a perfect performance. And then Valtteri rounded it off for the team by climbing all the way from P9 to P2, with a little bit of good fortune along the way but applying consistent pressure on every lap of the race. He picked his way through the field, kept the performance in the tyres at the right time and he richly deserved his second place finish; it was a brilliant drive. We are now at the halfway point of the season with 250 points still to score. There will be a lot of talk about the championship standings but not within the team. We have our eyes on one thing only and that's the next race in Hungary, so we can go into the summer break in an even stronger condition. Well done to everybody in Brixworth and Brackley for this result - it's a true credit to the amazing work you have done so far this year."
James Allison, Technical Director: "This is a sport that asks so much of the people who compete in it, drivers and teams alike, and it is on days like these that it repays every tiny bit of effort one hundred fold. They are beyond description in the degree of pleasure, satisfaction and joy that they bring us all. Lewis has all but wiped out the deficit to Vettel in one hammer blow and the team has taken another big leaps in the constructors' race thanks to a tremendous display from Valtteri, whose work this afternoon completely erased the gearbox penalty he was forced to take this weekend. It feels like we are starting to build some good momentum in recent races and hopefully we can deliver the same sort of performance in two weeks' time before heading into the summer break. Our work in the next fortnight will focus on optimising every single detail so that we arrive in Hungary prepared for all of the challenges that race can throw at us."
Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo (5th): "I hope they showed a lot of that on TV. I just felt like the whole race I was overtaking cars and I hope the fans enjoyed it. We made up a chunk of positions early on and then I got a bit greedy, went off track and ended up at the back again. It was great fun coming back through the field and I gave it everything. I caught Hulkenberg with a few laps to go and then Seb had his issue which handed me fifth, so danke Sebastian. I've been really happy with how I've been putting my Sundays together for the last handful of races, it's been strong and to get fifth from the back today? I really couldn't ask for more. Last week I was the hunted and this week the hunter, I love the fight of this sport and today I felt I could really enjoy that. I would give this race ten out of ten in terms of fun. I think you could say that in the last six races the Honey Badger has certainly shown up on Sunday and it's been great fun."
Max Verstappen (4th): "It is a positive day. I am happy to finish the race and get some solid points once again. We got a bit lucky with Seb's puncture at the end and I pitted to be safe as I knew I had enough room behind me. The front left didn't feel great and having seen what happened to the Ferrari we played it safe. If I had seen Kimi pit at the end I may have stayed out to try and get a jump on him, but we made the precautionary stop to make sure we finished. With a lot of fast rights here it takes its toll on the front left so we knew there would be issues late on. At the beginning I knew I was quite a bit slower than Seb so I just did my best to stay in front and have some fun; it was the only thing I could do and luckily he didn't manage to pass me on track, so after that little battle my race became a bit lonely. Our pace was pretty good and the car felt competitive during the race - it felt better than it did in qualifying so now we need to understand why we struggled yesterday. Fourth is a good result - probably one place better than we expected which is always nice. We have some upgrades coming in Hungary which I am hoping will make some steps towards being able to fight with the top two teams."
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel (7th): "It was a difficult race. The brakes got fire on the grid and I think this is the reason why I had no grip at the start: they were too hot. During the last laps, after the problem with the front left tire, I tried to get the car back and recover some points. It was difficult today because I was stuck at the beginning behind Max, but I am not the one to judge what happened between him and me. After that I think the pace was good, considering the fact that I was on the Soft tires. Valtteri was on other compound, the Supersofts, so it was clear that he would have been strong. Today was not a great day, but we'll see what happens in Hungary, on a different track.''
Kimi Raikkonen (3rd): "My race wasn't going too bad until a few laps before the end. I suddenly had the problem, my front left tire let go with no warning; the air stayed in the tire but the rubber part, came off. It's disappointing because without that issue the second place was secured, and we deserved a better result. We had made some changes to the car and they seemed to have improved the feeling. When it's like this you are confident and you can push; I hope that it will be a similar story in the future races. However, today we were lacking a little bit of speed against our rivals. We did what we could but obviously there's some work to be done to catch up the Mercedes in places like this. This is definitely not our strongest type of circuit. I'm interested to see what happens in the next race, I guess the Hungarian track should suit our car better.''
Force India
Esteban Ocon (8th): "I had a brilliant start - it felt like four wheel drive and I moved up a couple of positions, but I lost out to Hulkenberg at the end of the first lap. After that, I had a good battle with my teammate for most of the afternoon and the team let us race - just like Canada. Sergio was fast and giving me pressure, but I was able to stay ahead. It's very satisfying to see us score points again with both cars. Our consistency is our strength this year - on all tracks we are there with good speed and scoring points. We need to keep this up in the second half of the year."
Sergio Perez (9th): "It's been a difficult race and I have a feeling we didn't get to demonstrate our true pace. We should have finished higher, but in the end we still bring home points with both cars. I had a poor start and that compromised the rest of the afternoon, because I couldn't recover from it. Silverstone is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake, and even though I spent all my race within DRS range of Esteban, I never had a real opportunity to pass him. Being so close to the car in front damaged my tyres and cost me lots of downforce so there was nothing I could do. You can look back at the race and think of things that could have been done differently, but it's always easy to say this after the race. As we get to the half-way point in the season, I feel very positive about our performance. We have been doing really well as a team and I hope we can get back to our real level in the next race and after the break."
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: "It's very satisfying to see both our cars finish inside the points at our home race. We've added six important points to our tally and strengthened our fourth place in the championship. It was a straightforward race from our perspective with Esteban getting the jump on Checo at the start. From there it was line astern to the flag with both drivers following similar one-stop strategies. Keeping up this consistency is important and, as we reach the half-way point of the season, I'm feeling very proud of what we have achieved from the first ten races. I have equally high hopes for the rest of the season as we continue to develop the VJM10."
Williams
Felipe Massa (10th): "I'm definitely happy with the race after starting 14th, having had a very good start and opening lap, to finish 10th. For sure the most difficult part of the race was overtaking the Force Indias at the end. I was quicker, but maybe not quick enough to have the opportunity to overtake. I'm still not happy with the qualifying yesterday. When you start out of position things are a lot more difficult than they should be so today maybe we could have fought for more points. Unfortunately, starting 14th didn't allow us to do that, but I'm happy with my race. We just need to make sure our starting position is better in the next race.
Lance Stroll (12th): "It was not a good race for us. The start was good and I moved up to P12. The first stint was also okay, and then also at the start of the second stint things weren't bad. But then we picked up some damage on the car, which I believe was a broken barge board. I started to feel something was wrong, we suspected it was the tyres and so I stopped again. However, this was for nothing really as it just got worse from there. I just brought the car home but some damage on the car destroyed our race. Now I'm just looking forward to Hungary.''
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: "We had planned to do a one-stop, starting on the soft tyre. From 14th and 15th that looked like the best way to try and gain some places. The race went reasonably to plan, the only issue was that the supersoft didn't degrade in the way we had hoped for those around us in the first stint, as then we would have had an advantage in the closing stages. Felipe was able to challenge the two Force Indias at the end, but couldn't overtake. Lance drove a good, solid race, but he suffered some bodywork damage, at which point he was losing too much laptime and was degrading the rear tyres. We pitted for another set, but it was a struggle to the finish. Overall, it's a disappointing result at our home race. The car was quicker than our result would indicate. We need to learn from this experience and be better next time."
McLaren
Fernando Alonso (DNF): "Tough times. A difficult weekend for us, starting last with the penalties, then in the race, when I was following a group of cars, I had another issue. Hopefully, it hasn't done any damage to the engine and we'll be able to keep using it in the future. Stoffel was 11th today, so I think we weren't quick enough to be in the points today and I think I could have ended up 13th, 14th, and the retirement is a little bit less painful. Now I am looking ahead to Hungary, which should be a better weekend for us."
Stoffel Vandoorne (11th): "It's a shame to once again finish just outside the points - but there are plenty of positives to take away from this weekend. The pace we showed in the race today was very encouraging: to run as close as we did to both Force Indias and a Williams on a circuit like this is a real positive. Not everything went perfectly in the race - my pitstop didn't go too smoothly, so I came out side by side with Felipe and lost a position. That was a shame, because there was definitely a chance to finish ahead of him because our pace was very similar to his. Unfortunately, no points - but today was very encouraging, and I'm sure our time will come."
Eric Boullier, McLaren-Honda Racing Director: "From the back of the grid Fernando made a strong start, carving his way through the backmarkers, and was holding a solid 14th place by one-third distance. Meanwhile Stoffel was holding a steady ninth place. It was therefore very disappointing when Fernando was forced to retire on lap 35, as a result of a drop in fuel pressure that led to a loss of power. We're still investigating the cause of that failure. With 10 laps to go, Stoffel was locked in a battle for 10th place with Felipe [Massa]. In the end his hopes of scoring a world championship point were to come to naught, but his was a solid and impressive drive nonetheless. From here we go to the Hungaroring, over whose many twists and turns, linked as they are by short straights, we hope to be a little more competitive."
Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co. Ltd Head of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: "This weekend ended on a frustrating note as Stoffel just missed out on a championship point at our home race. Up until today, things had been looking up and we had been showing some encouraging pace. Stoffel started his race from a good position and he showed competitive pace in the midfield throughout the race. He pushed as hard as possible so therefore it was disappointing he finished 11th just outside of the points. Although Fernando had to start from back of the grid, he improved his position during the first part of the race, and was close to Stoffel. Sadly, he had a fuel system-related issue and had to retire from the race. We are now investigating the cause. Having said this, I still think we leave Silverstone with some positivity. We had improved pace and our competiveness has also improved over the last few races. Next up is Hungary which is a track that suits our package better, so I hope we can have a good race. We will continue our best efforts towards scoring some points at the next round."
Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat (15th): "Even if I was able to continue after the collision with Carlos, my race was also compromised and I'm obviously not happy with what happened. I was ahead and on a dirty line, so it's normal to have some understeer, and then, all of a sudden, the crash took place. These things happen and sometimes they're unavoidable. It's a real shame, as this has damaged both us drivers and the team, which I feel very sorry for. There's not much more that can be done now, we just need to learn from this and move forward."
Carlos Sainz (DNF): "I'm not going to say much about what happened today on lap 1 with Daniil, the images talk for themselves - it's just very frustrating to have not finished another race. Of course I'm disappointed and it's not the way you want your race to go, but I just need to think of it as a stage of my year - with 20 races, there's always going to be this kind of situation at some point... That's why I'm not worried and very calm. Fortunately, it's a weekend where not a lot of points were on the table, especially because we needed some tricky scenarios like rain but this never happened, so we didn't lose that much. The only big shame is that we haven't scored any points again this weekend, but we need to keep our heads up - I'd like to cheer the mechanics and the whole team up as they must also be disappointed about this and hopefully in Hungary we can turn it around and have a good race weekend as a team. I'm confident it will be better next time out."
Haas
Kevin Magnussen (12th): "I felt the Toro Rosso hit my tire at the start, but nothing happened. Fortunately, there was no puncture. I just didn't quite get the first lap. It was always going to be difficult when you start on the reverse strategy on the harder tire. That first stint kind of kept me out of the points. The pace was good in the car, I just had to do a long stint on the tires and wait for the guys in front to pit and then put in a lot of good lap times. I came back a bit at the end, but it wasn't enough. Whenever you're fighting outside of the points, it's never that interesting. Still, I'll take the positives. We were quick and had good pace in the race."
Romain Grosjean (13th): "Tough day in the office. We didn't have much pace today with either tire. I got stuck in traffic initially, which killed the supersoft. I pitted for the softs, and again, traffic all the way. We tried a gamble at the end putting new supersofts on, hoping that something would happen at the front, but nothing did. We just need to understand why our race pace wasn't as good as it was in qualifying and go from there."
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "It's been an average weekend. We didn't get in the points, but Kevin's race pace was good. We lost a few positions at the start and that's where we ended up. Again, we had a similar race pace to all our competitors - we were just in a worse spot. I'm still confident in our car. In the midfield, we can battle. This time we were just at the lower end of our group. It changes around every weekend. It's not what we wanted, but still, we finished with both cars. On we go to Hungary."
Renault
Nico Hulkenberg (6th): "We are very happy with the race result today. P6 is a big success for the team. We were able to get a good lap in qualifying and then to carry it through to the race. We had a strong race pace, and were able to keep ahead of both Force Indias, which is really positive. We lost some power at the end, especially down the straights, which made it easier for Daniel to pass me, but then we gained back a position from Seb [Vettel] when he had his problem. Overall this is a very positive result. The new upgrades worked really well, we were able to push the car and I'm really pleased for the team."
Jolyon Palmer (DNF): "Going out at the start of the race is really frustrating. We had a hydraulic leak on the first lap, which is pretty gutting as I think we were in a good position. Eleventh with new tyres, a car that was working really well with lots of different options on strategy: all was looking good to get some points. I have had so much support all weekend that it would have been sweet to get them here. All the same we can see that the car has taken a step forward, but we just need to look at reliability now."
Sauber
Pascal Wehrlein (17th): "The race did not go as we hoped it would. When the safety car came out at the beginning of the race, we made the decision to complete the mandatory pit stop and change to medium tyres. I then returned to the pit one lap later in order to switch to soft tyres, with the goal to drive on them until the end of the race. Unfortunately the tyres lost more and more grip, due to which I had to change again. I hope that we have a better weekend in Budapest."
Marcus Ericsson (14th): "It was a fairly good race for me. I maximized the performance of the car and my lap times were decent, especially during the second half of the race. Of course we want to be higher up and fight for points, but our pace was not competitive enough for that this weekend. We did manage to make the best of it - the team did a good job in improving the car set-up throughout our stay in Silverstone. We have to keep pushing now in order to have a stronger weekend in Budapest."
Pirelli
Mario Isola, Head of Car Racing: "The British Grand Prix contained a sting in the tail for the two Ferrari drivers, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen both unfortunately experiencing a tyre issue close to the hard-fought finish; that's a real pity and we'll obviously now look into exactly why this happened together with the team. The race was run at an incredible pace this year, with the fastest lap being nearly five seconds faster than the 2016 equivalent."