Hamilton 16th as Vettel wins British Grand Prix


CMC

Monday, June 22, 2009

SILVERSTONE, England (CMC) - Britain's Lewis Hamilton could only manage a 16th place finish as Germany's Sebastien Vettel sped to a magnificent victory in the British Formula One Grand Prix event yesterday.

Clocking one hour, 22 minutes, 49.328 seconds, Vettel won ahead of his Red Bull-Renault team-mate Mark Webber of Australia, to record his second win of the year.

Rubens Barrichello was third and fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth.

Hamilton, the reigning F1 champion with Grenadian roots, had started 18th on the grid.

"I gave it my all today. Despite fighting for the lower positions," Hamilton said.

With only nine points so far in the season, Hamilton is 11th in the drivers' standings, a whopping 55 off the leader Jenson Button (64) and Hamilton was happy he still had the support of the home fans.

"The best thing about this weekend has been the fans: they really gave me some consolation by cheering me on throughout the race. I would love to have given them a result to make them happy and my country proud, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us before that will be realistic," he said.

Championship leader Jenson Button's Brawn, who has won six of the eight events this year, struggled to sixth on Sunday.

Vettel took advantage of his team-mate Mark Webber being caught behind Brawn's Barrichello to build a striking early lead and in the end added to his victory at the Chinese Grand Prix in April.