2011 British Grand Prix - Flying Fernando charges to British glory

DROUGHT: Ended today by a brilliant Alonso drive at Silverstone

QUICKER pace around the pitstops enabled Fernando Alonso and Ferrari to end their victory drought today.  The double world champion took his first win since last year’s Korean Grand Prix at Silverstone, benefiting from changes to the blowing off-air gases within the exhaust systems on the cars and upgrades on his Ferrari.  However, Sebastian Vettel still finished second to extend his championship lead to 80 points over his nearest challengers.

     The Formula One paddock arrived at Silverstone to greet the new pits and paddock complex.  ‘The Wing’ certainly was the perfect new modern facility for the home of British motorsport and with the typical British summer weather; everyone was greeted to changeable conditions all weekend.  Friday’s practice sessions were a washout, and both qualifying and the race were affected by brief rain showers. 

LEAD: Red Bull led the early stages, but they didn't win this time

     The damp circuit around the old start-finish straight meant that all the drivers took no risks and started on intermediate tyres.  Pole sitter Mark Webber lost his lead immediately with a poor getaway and this allowed runaway championship leader Vettel to blast into an immediate lead.  In the early stages, Lewis Hamilton wowed the home crowd with some smooth passes which saw him jump up from a disappointing tenth on the grid into fifth place by the end of the second lap.  The track began to rapidly dry out and with Michael Schumacher setting fastest sector times on dry tyres, the intermediates soon wore out and everyone pitted.  Schumacher didn’t help himself by losing his nosecone against Kamur Kobayashi’s Sauber at Brooklands, which resulted in a ten second stop-go penalty.

     At this stage of the grand prix, Vettel has things under control and the McLaren’s seemed to have more pace than the Ferrari’s.  Jenson Button, who had been at sea on intermediate tyres, pulled off an unbelievable overtake on Felipe Massa around the outside of Stowe corner.  A lap later, Hamilton achieved a similar and braver pass on Alonso into Copse to take third place.  However, Alonso’s pace picked up and he stayed out longer whilst others pitted.  He was helped by two poor Red Bull pitstops which allowed the Spaniard to jump into the lead.  Vettel was delayed by a KERS issue and a problem on the rear jack at his second stop, which relegated him to third behind Hamilton.

     For the next phase of the Grand Prix, Alonso showed searing pace and opened up an 11 second cushion over Hamilton, who did everything he could to hold off a much quicker Vettel.  However, Sebastian used the undercut, by pitting a lap earlier to regain second place.  Button would have been right in the mix too, but his left front mechanic dropped the wheel gun at his final stop.  His chief mechanic waved him away, but the wheel was clearly loose as he left the pits.  Wisely, Jenson stopped on the grass; bitterly disappointed to miss out on a podium attempt again at his home Grand Prix at the 12^th attempt of asking.  McLaren’s race began to unravel as Hamilton was told that he had to seriously conserve fuel in the final stage of the race to get to the chequered flag.  He had little alternative but to cede position to Webber, and it sent the race into two thrilling battles in the closing stages.

     Webber zeroed in on Vettel and ignored team instructions on four separate occasions to ‘maintain the gap!’  He attacked Vettel all the way to the finish and afterwards, his body language at being told over the radio to play second fiddle to his team-mate by Christian Horner spoke volumes.  A few seconds later, Massa went around the outside of Hamilton into the final Club corner and contact was made, damaging the McLaren’s front wing.  However, Lewis kept the inside line into Vale and as Felipe got a snap of oversteer out of the final corner, it allowed Hamilton the chance to keep his fourth place finish in a dramatic conclusion.  However, it was Alonso who took the top prize; his second British GP success (he won in 2006 for Renault) and his 27^th win of all-time, putting him level with Sir Jackie Stewart in the list.

     Behind the first five, Nico Rosberg and Sergio Perez had a race long tussle, with Rosberg coming out on top for sixth place.  Perez did extremely well, as he only made two pitstops and only just beat the pitlane exit at the start of the race after spinning off on the way to the grid.  Nick Heidfeld did well to finish eighth on a dire weekend for Renault, where the cars were miles off the pace.  Schumacher recovered to ninth and Jaime Alguesuari continued his revival with a third consecutive points scoring finish.  For Paul di Resta, it was another race of missed opportunities.  Having started sixth, he looked good for seventh before a mix-up over tyres at his pitstop and a clash with Sebastian Buemi damaged his front wing and eliminated the Toro Rosso driver.  The Scot finished 15^th. 

     For the first time this season, Red Bull were beaten on the day by a far superior package, rather than mistakes and strategy and although the championship battle is all over bar the shouting, everyone has seen today that Ferrari and Fernando Alonso now have a race winning package for the rest of the season.  The Scuderia will be hoping to continue their revival at the Nurburgring in a fortnight’s time.