Tyred Out

The British Grand Prix started off well with Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes leading the race from pole position, closely followed by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and fellow Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg. It was not to last though as, within a handful of laps, Hamilton's left rear tyre disintegrated coming out of turn 5. Having only just passed the start/finish straight he was forced to limp around the rest of the lap before he could enter the pits for fresh rubber, dropping him from first to last.

This was not to be the only tyre issue during the race as Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) and Sergi Perez (McLaren) all had major blow outs, some quite spectacularly, while battling for position at high speed. The amount of debris from these tyres required the deployment of a pair of road sweepers under safety car conditions. There was much debate about the reason for the tyre failures during the GP. If it wasn't from a sharp kerb/circuit issue then Pirelli will need to get its act together pretty quickly.

Toward the end of the race Vettel's Red Bull suddenly lost power, cruising to a standstill on the racetrack. A huge cheer went up from the pit straight grandstand, not, I feel, from any sense of dislike for the triple world champion himself but more for the fact that, like myself, the predominately British crowd knew that this would blunt his lead over the other drivers.

I don't know about you but I like a championship to be decided at the last Grand Prix of the season between two or three drivers, under immense pressure to claim the title of Formula 1 World Champion. How exciting was it when Lewis and Sebastian won their first titles? Nobody could have guessed the final outcome until the final lap had been completed by each of the drivers in the hunt. That's when F1 is at its best.

Rosberg claimed victory on this day, flanked on the podium byRed Bull's Mark Webber, who had a tough but determined race after being knocked off track at the first corner, and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, second in the championship and desperate for his third title.

As a McLaren fan I wasn't impressed to see Sergio Perez retire close to the end of the race with car damage from his high speed blowout or Jenson Button crawling across the line in an unlucky 13th place. The twitter hashtag #BelieveInMcLaren has been adopted by the team in recent weeks. I haven't given up on them but it isn't easy to watch such a successful team failing so miserably.