British Grand Prix voted best race of 2013

British Grand Prix tops survey of F1 race fans
Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes
Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes
© Jakob Ebrey Photography

This year's British Grand Prix has been voted the best race of the 2013 F1 season.

In a survey of fans conducted by Sky Sports via Twitter, the Silverstone event secured 38 per cent of the overall vote, with Hungary and Brazil finishing second and third, acquiring 30 per cent and 13 per cent of the vote respectively.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the British GP, finishing ahead of Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber. However, the action-packed race is possibly best remembered for a number of dramatic tyre blow-outs, Sebastian Vettel's late retirement and a thrilling end to the race.

Having secured pole position in qualifying, Lewis Hamilton went on to establish a two-second lead over Vettel during the opening laps of the race, however, on lap seven he was the first driver to experience a tyre blow, forcing him to nurse his car back to the pits.

Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez all went on to experience similar blow-outs, which resulted in several safety car sessions and - after a technical issue forced Vettel to retire - an exciting, unpredictable finale.

With Rosberg leading the race, it was Webber and the recovering Hamilton who made the most of safety car sessions and tyre stops. Webber picked off Raikkonen and Alonso in the closing stages and was within a second of Rosberg by the final lap, eventually finishing just seven tenths of a second behind the race winner.

Meanwhile, Hamilton superbly battled his way back to fourth by the end of the race, overtaking Raikkonen on the penultimate lap and finishing just 0.632 seconds behind third-placed Alonso, just missing out on a sensational podium finish.

Richard Phillips, managing director of Silverstone Circuits Limited, said: "The British Grand Prix was back to its very best this year. There was a real festival atmosphere; the sun shone, we had huge crowds here on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - 294,000 over all three days and 120,000 on the Sunday, which was our third biggest attendance of all time - and the race itself was full of drama, keeping us all on the edge of our seats. I don't think the event could have gone any better.

"We are already looking forward to next year's event and another fantastic British Grand Prix," he summed-up.

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