The Aston Martin team arrived back from Austria at their ‘Technology Centre’ base just across the Dadford Road from the home of British motor racing – Silverstone, where this weekend’s race was hosted. This would be the 12th race of the season and mark the halfway point of the F1 racing calendar. Silverstone, with 18 fast-flowing corners, 4 straights & 2 DRS zones, offering plenty of overtaking opportunities, along with the hugely enthusiastic British fans & unpredictable weather is very much a driver’s favourite. It has hosted a Grand Prix since 1948 so there is plenty of history & nostalgia associated with the circuit and, as well as Aston Martin, is the ‘home’ race for 6 other teams. Coming to the race the Team was being realistic at its prospects. On the one hand Mike Krack, AM’s Team Principal, feels that their cars are “not that far off the pace (of the other teams) and are working night & day at the AMR Technology Campus to develop the car and improve its performance”. On the other he cautioned that "Silverstone will be another challenge for the team. It's unlikely to play to the strengths of the AMR24”. We would see.
The race weekend would follow the normal format and Alonso headed off early in the first free practice session (FP1) of the weekend to get some laps in before the skies released any precipitation. To prove the point that the track was slippery, with just 9 minutes of the session gone, Tsunoda spun his RB (Red Bull) into the gravel trap after losing the back of the car and out came the red flags. At that point, Alonso had set the 12th fastest time but Stroll hadn't even set a full lap yet, although he had gone round the circuit, but slowly. With the beached car removed the session restarted 8 minutes later and out came all the drivers to get their practice laps in. Halfway through the 60-minute session Alonso had posted the 7th fastest time and Stroll, the 10th. The 2 AM drivers moved down & then up the order as each driver evaluated various test modes, tyres and fuel levels, dropping to 11th (Stroll) & 14th (Alonso) and then to 2nd for Stroll and 6th for Alonso. With 10 minutes of the session left there were reports of drizzle on some areas of the cooling track and no driver improved on their times. That was the final result – a decent showing from the 2 Aston Martin drivers. As the second free practice session (FP2) commenced the prediction was of a 60% chance of rain before the end of the session so all the drivers got out onto the track to get as much practice as they could. With 15 minutes gone Alonso was lying 10th & Stroll 13th. Then, first of all Alonso posted the 2nd fastest time, on soft tyres, then Stroll repeated the feat, also on soft tyres. At the halfway point, Stroll had dropped to 6th & Alonso 8th. Although they continued to put in a number of additional practice laps they didn’t improve on their times and when light spots of rain were reported with just under 14 minutes to go Stroll was lying 9th & Alonso 11th. With the rain worsening, the Aston Martin drivers, along with the majority of the grid, started to come in and deciding to call it a day. That is where they finished, 9th & 11th, which was probably more reflective of AMR24s pace. Overnight into Saturday the circuit had been soaked by a severe thunderstorm meaning conditions were extremely wet by the time FP3 was starting and every driver had to use the intermediate wet weather tyres for the final practice session. Notwithstanding that, Gasly completely lost control of the rear of his Alpine after 10 minutes of practice and slid off the track into the gravel requiring the session to be red flagged. As the Astons had come our early & before that incident, Alonso had managed to set the 3rd fastest time & Stroll 9th fastest. When the session restarted all the drivers set out again to continue as much practice as they could before the rain that had been forecast arrived. At the halfway time point, with the track improving, Stroll was 11th & Alonso 12th. Just before the rain arrived Alonso managed to post the 8th fastest time but Stroll wasn’t able to improve, despite his efforts & he dropped to 13th. That is where they finished.
By the time the all-important Qualifying session came round some blue sky could be seen amid the grey clouds. The Astons came out early Q1 and after their first runs Stroll had placed his car 7th and Alonso put his in 10th. Just after that it was Perez’s turn to perform what Gasly had in practice and put his Red Bull in the gravel. As in the morning, the session was red flagged, but unlike in FP3, the clock was stopped. His car was retrieved but he couldn’t take any further part in Qualifying as the car wasn’t going to be returned to the garage in time. At the restart it was announced that Stroll was under investigation by the Stewards for being released from the AM garage while a red light was on and that both AM drivers were under investigation for trying to nudge their way into the queue of cars that were lining up in the pit lane to get on track. Putting that to one side the drivers focused on qualifying and on their last laps managed to set the 3rd & 4th fastest times but finished Q1 with Alonso in 9th & Stroll 12th by the time all the drivers passed the chequered flag. At the beginning of Q2 Alonso began the session by setting the fastest time, with Stroll achieving 8th. Alonso then went P1 again on his 2nd run halfway through the session, with Stroll improving a place. At the end of Q2 Alonso had set the 3rd fastest time and Stroll 10th – the first time both Aston Martins had qualified in the top 10 since the race at Montreal in June. Alonso wasn’t able to repeat the feat in the final Qualifying session as he was hampered by traffic (Sainz & Piastri), and could only manage 10th, but Stroll placed himself 8th, despite a self-confessed messy final lap. For the record books, the top 3 positions were all achieved by British drivers, Russell on pole & Hamilton in 2nd, both in Mercedes cars and Norris in a McLaren, 3rd. It was the first time this had been achieved since the South African Grand Prix in 1968, when Jim Clark took pole, ahead of Graham Hill & Jackie Stewart. You can imagine this was very popular with the home crowd. After Qualifying, the Stewards showed leniency towards the AM drivers for their infringements, giving Stroll just a reprimand after he explained that he didn’t have time to react safely to the red light coming on and also deciding the barging in was just a minor infraction of the rules & common practice in the pits during red flag periods – phew!
In front of a capacity and hugely excited crowd, sensing a possible victory by a Briton, all the cars got off the start cleanly, with Stroll enjoying a good start, moving up to 7th while Alonso remained in 10th, after an attempt by him to pass Hulkenberg, who went off track and rejoined, seemingly gaining an advantage & pushing Alonso into Albon, causing the Williams driver some damage, but no further action was taken by the Stewards. By lap 6, Leclerc in a Ferrari was right on Stroll’s tail & within DRS range and Alonso trailed Hulkenberg by ~1.5 seconds. Eventually, on lap 13, Leclerc found a way past Stoll & 5 laps later Alonso had managed to reduce the gap to Hulkenberg, just as the crowd’s umbrellas were starting to go up. Fearing more rain Leclerc was called into the pits allowing the AMs past, who continued to stay out. Dealing with the moist conditions better, Hulkenberg managed to catch and pass Stroll and then Alonso overtook his team mate on lap 21. At the halfway stage of the 52 lap race the AMs were 8th (Alonso) & 9th (Stroll), some 30 seconds behind the race leader, Norris. With the rain becoming more persistent Stroll came into the pits for intermediate weather tyres & came out 13th. Most of the remaining drivers started to come in as well, including Alonso, on lap 28 & he came out in 9th position, some 10 seconds behind Stroll & just 1 second ahead of Tsunoda. At the front, there had been a number of changes of lead, with first of all Hamilton passing pole-sitter Russell on lap 18 and then Norris overtaking both of them, which Piastri also did a few laps later. Then they all came into the pits for intermediate tyres, but Mercedes executed a much slicker pit-stop, double-stacking the cars, whilst McLaren left Piastri out with old tyres on a wet track, meaning he lost time. Then, much to the dismay of the home fans, Russell was forced to retire due to a suspected water system issue. This allowed the Aston Martins to move up to 7th (Stroll) & 8th (Alonso). With 12 laps to go the battle upfront was continuing and Hamilton came into the pits 1 lap sooner than race leader, Norris, who overshot his box position & it having it take McLaren 4.5 seconds to change his tyres, meaning Hamilton took over the lead of the race more than 50 seconds of the AMs. With just 5 laps to go Verstappen, whose Red Bull had found more pace on the latest set of tyres, re-took Norris to go 2nd and that is how the race finished, much to the delight of the fans. Lewis Hamilton had won a race, his 104th for the 1st time since November 2021. For Aston Martin, Stroll was classified P7 & Alonso P8, meaning they picked up a combined 10 points - a good result, with both cars finishing in the top 10.
After the race Lance Stroll commented, “It's good to end this triple header with a more competitive weekend; it's a big uplift for the team and we'll look to take that momentum into Hungary." Alonso said, “I felt more competitive this weekend and it seemed we were in our natural position, which is more encouraging than the last few races.”
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the race weekend, despite the heavy rain – there was plenty of action, Lewis was a worthy winner & the Aston Martin’s finished in solid positions.
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