Fernando Alonso produced a great display to win the British GP, and take Ferrari's first victory of the season. He defeated the Red Bulls (at last) who finished 2nd and 3rd.
The race started with half the track dry, and half the track wet. This left the drivers with th option of slicks or intermediate tyres. The had to go for the inters, but risk destroying their tyres on the dryer part of the track.
When the five lights went out, Sebastian Vettel got the perfect start, easing past Webber. Alonso filed into third, and Button took Massa, haing started on the gipier side of the track. Further down, Lewis Hamilton had jumped to seventh after the first three corners, and Michael Schumacher had climbed into the points in the first lap. Hamilton continued his climbing, soon taking Massa, and Button. Lewis soon set about Alonso, and on lap 15 he took third of the Spaniard on the inside of the famous Copse corner.
However, with the pace increasing, the track started to dry out. It was upto the team principles to decide when to pit for new slick tyres, and upto the drivers to ensure they did not take all the life out of their Inters. In the midfield, fighting between Kamui Kobayashi & Michael Schumacher lost Michael a front nose, giving no choice but to pit. During the stop, Mercedes decided to put on the slicks, as he would be outside the points, and therefore had nothing to loose. With 12 teams keeping an eye on the German's times, Schumacher started setting fastest lap times, resulting in a plethora of drivers entering the pits. Alonso, passing a struggling Hamilton, was the driver to watch now. When he came in for his penultimate stop, he came in alongside Vettel. The Red Bull garge though, had problems with his right rear wheel. The issue allowed Alonso past Vettel, and lost Sebastian about ten seconds. Vettel then rejoined behing Hamilton into third place, just behind Webber, who had another poor stop, and made a mistake out on track.
As Alonso started putting in fastest lap times, Vettel was focused on passing Lewis Hamilton. However, Lewis wasn't going to give second away easily. For several laps, Vettel tried to duck and dive his way past Hamilton, but the Brit didn't give way. The only option for the Red Bull driver was to pit first , and jump Lewis with fast outlaps. The plan worked, pushing Vettel into second, behind Alonso, and ahead of Hamilton, Webber, Button & Massa. However, the order soon changed. Other drivers came in for a pit stop. Button came into the McLaren pitbox, put had a problem with his front left wheel. Before the mechanic could get it on properly, Button was away, but he had to retire immediatly, with the wheel and tyre coming very close to coming off.
On the track, Alonso was pulling away from Vettel. Behind the leaders, Lewis was struggling. He was getting low on fuel, and when Webber came cruising upto the back of Hamilton, the Australian had no problem on taking the Brit. Webber set about catching his team mate, and Felipe Massa started catching Lewis. The closing five laps were all about he battles for second and fourth. Mark Webber was catching Sebastian Vettel at an incredible rate. With two laps left, he was within the DRS zone, but he could not get a move on the current Number One ranked driver. On the last lap, Webber got a team message from Christian Horner saying to "keep the gap" to Vettel, and basically to settle for third. Webber did not settle, but he just could not find enough track to get past Vettel.
For fourth, it was even closer. Massa was closing in on Hamilton at nearly two seconds a lap. Again, it wasn't long until Massa was within the valuable one second gap. He and Lewis were incredibly close through the whole of the last lap. Going into the last corners, Massa tried to make a move on Hamilton. Both slide it round the corner, desperate to take the lead. With bits of McLaren showering behind the two of them, it looked as if Massa had got fourth. But Hamilton had other ideas. He took the inside going onto the new pit straight. It looked as if it could have been either of them, but Hamilton, just, took fourth by the time margain of 0.024 seconds.
Fernando Alonso takes victory at the British GP, which might show a change in the waters. Could Ferrari stage a combake similar to 2010, or is this just small blip for Red Bull, and what about McLaren?
Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
2 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
3 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
4 - Lewis Hamulton - McLaren - 3
5 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 5
6 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
7 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 31
8 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 11
9 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 12
10 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 19
11 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
12 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 15
13 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
14 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 33
15 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 26
16 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 20
17 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 32
18 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 22
19 - Daniel Ricciardo - HRT - N
R - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
R - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 14
R - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 16
R - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 17
R - Heikki Kovlainen - Lotus - 13
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