A favourite among fans and drivers, the British Grand Prix along with the Italian are the oldest continuously staged Formula One races.
The first pole of the season for Scuderia Ferrari, came courtesy of Fernando Alonso, after an extremely long qualifying session. Rain was the main factor causing interruptions of over an hour on the Saturday.
Ultimately it was Red Bull’s Mark Webber who took a stunning victory and finished just in front of Ferrari driver Alonso. Alonso was in the lead for a large portion of the race, but Webber had a better tyre strategy and was able to catch the Spaniard after the final pit stops. Webber said after the race “Alonso is the man to beat if I am to win this year’s title.”
Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull took third to finish off a great weekend for the team. Their boss Christian Horner said the title was still wide open.
McLaren did not enjoy the same success as Lewis Hamilton struggled to eighth and team-mate Jenson Button 10th. Hamilton is now 37 points behind Alonso. He said after the race “It’s far too early to write off anybody in this championship. You have the two most consistent finishers leading the championship, so finishing races is critical and you can't write off any of the major contenders.”
Felipe Massa in the sister Ferrari enjoyed a better race than most as he finished just off the podium to take valuable points for the constructor’s championship. It was his most impressive race for some time, and important as the team are currently reviewing who to partner Alonso for the next year.
The two Lotus drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean finished fifth and sixth, while Michael Schumacher, who started from third and ran well suffered in the pits stop phase of the race and finally he finished just in front of Hamilton in the closing laps to take seventh. Williams’s driver Bruno Senna and Button took the final points places.
