British Grand Prix – The Day After

We are nearing the halfway mark of the season and the British Grand Prix on Sunday threw up another few surprises.

After a fantastic aggressive start from Fernando Alonso, and I have to say from Mark Webber too, because starts are not is forté, it looked as if Alonso might take this win too and make it two in a row. But those tyres…

Alonso pitted from the lead on lap 15, he had started the race on the hard compound, but surprisingly the harder compound didn´t seem to last much longer than the soft. Mark Webber started on soft tyres, which lasted 14 laps, so the gap of performance are so tight and the difference between the two compounds really small. comparing the two drivers and we see that Webber managed 19 laps on his hard tyres, after the first stop, then pitted for another hard tyre on lap 33, while Alonso managed 21 laps on his second set of hard. So at the end, we knew that Alonso needed soft tyres, but for some reason they couldn´t hold for the remainder of the race, despite the fuel load decreasing. Another thing that surprised, was McLaren´s tyre strategy for Hamilton. He pitted on lap 21 from hard to soft tyres, and was told to give it all. The problem was that the field was stretched out a little too far for Hamilton to capitalize on this and on his faster soft tyres he managed only to overtake Michael Schumacher for one position. He then pitted after just seven laps, came back out as 12th and ended the race in 8th place. Still, no matter how you look at it, Pirelli gave us another exciting race.

With the win at Silverstone, his second here, Webber is now carefully positioning himself as Red Bull´s best bet for a champion. We have heard him say, that he is driving for himself and that he will do everything it takes to win. There is also the added element of him being a, shall we say, grown man. He is 36 in a month and a half and if he doesn´t win this year´s championship, then what? He´s fast, reliable and consistent this year, while Sebastian Vettel seems to be having a little post of trouble from time to time.

But who did the best job on Sunday? Who surprised us and who failed?

Driver of the Day: Felipe Massa

I am so happy to give this one to Felipe Massa, after what has seem to be race after race of frustrations and finishing well away from the points, despite team mate Alonso getting a lot more out of the car. Of course there is the issue of personal driver set-up and for all we know, Massa needs the car to react very differently than Alonso. We know the car is a handful and can be tricky to get the most out of it, but his performance at Silverstone was aggressive, fast and calculated. It was a real joy to watch him. Great job.

The Oh No Not Again Award: Jenson Button

Seriously, what is going on at the moment? From what I´ve been told, Button is annoyed that he can´t tweak the car to his liking. He is a very smooth driver and is a very good tyre management driver, but I fear the ground model McLaren made has proven too hard to set-up. It´s like if you make a base model and then you know that as the season progresses you can bring updates. But I think that McLaren are really scratching their heads at this moment, because Button has always been able to get a lot out of a car that doesn´t perform 100%, but perhaps the base model is just not good enough? So the gap from the base model to the options the drivers have to adjust it to their individual settings, ie. Button´s, are just too large. I don´t know, but I am sorry to say that this championship is over for Button.

Driver Responsible For Putting More Action In The Championship: Mark Webber

You would have expected me to give Webber the Driver of the Day award, but even though he had a great race, I don´t think it can be labelled as the best of the day. I didn´t see much aggressiveness from him, but of course winning a race, is still winning a race. Did he deserve the win? Absolutely. As you can read below, this championship is not about who is starting from pole, or who has the fastest car. Ferrari has won two races with Alonso, and five podiums in total, in a car that´s basically not that fast. The Red Bull is the car to beat, but the tyres play such a big part that the usual driver set-ups can be thrown out the window. That´s why we haven´t seen Vettel go from win to win, but the reason Webber is winning, is due to his determination and his will. Whenever things aren´t going great for Vettel, he isn´t winning. Unless he is in front, he will have a tough time winning the race. So thank you Mark!

Worst Driver of the Day: Pastor Maldonado

Winning one race doesn´t give you permission to crash into others. Granted, the incident in Valencia wasn´t his fault, but I can think of a few that was. And if we look away from F1 and the other series he has participated in, he has a story of dangerous driving. In 2005, when racing in the World Series by Renault. In Monaco he failed to slow down for yellow flags after an accident, and seriously injured a marshal. And in GP2 he picked up a penalty for speeding in the pitlane at Silverstone, then another penalty for passing under yellow flags, then crashed into Adrian Vallés and Kamui Kobayashi on the final lap. And in F1, when at Spa in 2011, he and Lewis Hamilton had another run-in, after squeezing Hamilton during the qualifying session, for which he received a five-place penalty, in Abu Dhabi he ignored blue flags twice. In the opening race of this season, Maldonado crashed while fighting for points, in Monaco he was penalised with a ten-place grid penalty for a collision with Sergio Perez in a practice session, only to top off the weekend by hitting Pedro de la Rosa´s HRT and retired. In Canada, he crashed his car into the Wall of Champions, and finally at Silverstone last weekend, he collided with Sergio Perez, again, retiring the Sauber and finished 16th. Maldonado was given a reprimand and a fine of €10,000 with two penalties given due to the “serious nature” of the incident. So sorry for my lack of enthusiasm about this guy.

With the championship so unpredictable, when a surprise winner emerges I would say that his talent plays second fiddle. I am not saying that the drivers aren´t talented enough, absolutely not. I am saying that there is a very good reason we had seven different winners in the first seven races. When Maldonado won in Spain, it had more to do with the set-up, the tyres, the conditions, luck, than it had to do with his talent.

 

Two drivers fined for incidents

Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), have both been fined for incidents during the British Grand Prix.

There were plenty of close wheel-to-wheel action at Sunday´s race at Silverstone, but it got a little too heated between Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez. The two were battling for positions, when they touched and Perez retired, while Maldonado has received a €10,000, £8,000, fine as well, as a reprimand for his driving.

And Kamui Kobayashi has received a €25,000, £19,800, for unsafe release pit stop, in which he accidentally hit several of his pit crew members.

“The accident at the pit stop was my fault and I want to apologise to the team,” said Kobayashi.

“Of course I had to push hard for points, but without doubt I braked too late in the pit lane. The front wheels locked, I couldn’t control the car, and this is how I overshot the pit box. I am terribly sorry this happened, and I hope the three mechanics I hit get well soon.”

Mark Webber on winning the British Grand Prix

Mark Webber became the 2nd driver to win two races in the 2012 season, as he stormed to the front in a late dash to secure the win from Fernando Alonso.

Mark Webber scuppered the hopes of Fernando Alonso taking his 3rd win of the season, when the Aussie performed a series of brilliant laps towards the end of the 52 lap race. While Fernando Alonso seemed to be gambling a bit on the tyre strategy, pitting 14 laps before the chequered flag and with the softer compounds previously only lasting just that for the Spaniard, Webber was able to conserve his hard compound tyres and by the time he caught up to Alonso, it was a matter of time before Webber overtook Alonso.

After the race Webber was very proud of the team, saying the win was incredible for all of the team.

“It’s a very special victory for the team, just down the road and for all the guys it’s been incredible for them. Also for Renault, again another victory here in the UK so I’m very proud today,” Webber said after the race.

“Fernando looked very good in the first two stints. I was a bit surprised how his last options didn’t work, Ferrari are generally pretty good on those type of compounds – he was very quick here last year as well so it looked like things were going to work out OK. But it just goes to show you never ever give up, you keep pushing. I thought that he was playing with me a little bit in that last stint because he knew that he had the range, he could just wait a little bit after his stop and go quite slow on the tyre then if I arrived on him pick the pace up. But he couldn’t react and that was good for me, I smelt a little bit of blood and then I could put the pressure on him and get the move done.”

Webber has had no less than five 4th place finishes this season, collecting important points in the overall standings. After Bahrain he moved up to 3rd place, then dropped to 5th after a brilliant surprise win from Pastor Maldonado in Spain, a race where Webber finished outside the points. But his win in Monaco and his 4th place from the European GP, combined with his win today, secures his place as second in the championship for now, 13 points behind Alonso.

 

Webber steals the show at Silverstone

Aussie driver Mark Webber stole the show, and the win, from a superb driving Fernando Alonso at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Fernando Alonso had no problem staying out in front and dominated the race from the beginning, only dropping back one position during his first pit stop. But on his second and last pit stop, Alonso switched back to the softer option tyre he started on, while Webber´s different tyre strategy, he finished on the hard tyres, combined with exceptionally smooth driving, was just what was needed for Webber to overtake Alonso on lap 48 and secured the victory, Webber´s second of the season.

The weather stayed dry, much to the dismay of Michael Schumacher, who on Saturday said he hoped for massive rain, but the old wiry fox had to settle with 7th.

The top ten finishers looks like this:

Mark Webber won the race ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Sebastian Vettel in 3rd, Felipe Massa in 4th, Kimi Raikkonen 5th, Romain Grosjean 6th, Michael Schumacher 7th, Lewis Hamilton 8th, Bruno Senna scores 9th for Williams and Jenson Button just manages to finish tenth.

From 11th we have Kamui Kobayashi, ico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Rosberg, Pastor Maldonado, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, Charles Pic, Pedro de la Rosa and finally Narain Karthikeyan. Those who didn´t finish were Sergio Perez after a bump with Maldonado, Paul di Resta on lap 2 and Vitaly Petrov.

The championship standigs look like this:

Fernando Alonso 129

Mark Webber 116

Sebastian Vettel 100

Lewis Hamilton 92

Kimi Raikkonen 83

Nico Rosberg 75

Romain Grosjean 61

Jenson Button 50

Sergio Perez 39

Pastor Maldonado 29

Paul di Resta 27

Michael Schumacher 23

Felipe Massa 23

Kamui Kobayashi 21

Bruno Senna 18

Nico Hulkenberg 17

Jean-Eric Vergne 4

Daniel Ricciardo 2

Please come, but do bring a brollie!

Silverstone organisers have lifted the restrictions they were forced to put in place earlier on Saturday, so everyine with tickets for the race on Sunday, are more than welcome.

There were massive side effects from the huge downpour Friday, as thousands of fans with normal parking tickets were asked to stay away, since the usually parking areas were not available due to the rain. But fear not. A statement has been issued, explaining that after assessing the conditions around the track, everyone is welcome to join in on the fun.

The statement reads:

“While it was an extremely difficult decision, and one that will have disappointed people that had to stay away, the decision gave the circuit a fighting chance to repair and get previously unsafe car parks into a state that can be used on race day,” the race organisers explained in a statement.

“The circuit has implemented further contingency plans throughout Friday night and Saturday. As a result, it is now in a stronger position to accommodate all ticket holders coming to Silverstone on Sunday.”

It is a very, very good idea to arrive to the circuit as early as possible, and remember to bring a pair of dry socks, water proof rain gear and of course an umbrella

Silverstone weather announcement imminent

The organisers of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, will deliver a statement regarding the weather shortly.

With up to 30,000 fans having travelled, and eventually turned away at the gates of Silverstone Friday, Saturday doesn´t look much better. There were enormous traffic jams for many miles leading up to the Silverstone circuit Friday, because of the massive rainfall that hit the area Friday morning and continued throughout the afternoon. The camp sites closed down, leaving the campers with no where to go, and cars were forced to park on the grass area, instead of the hard parking areas. As a result of this, the organisers will issue an announcement soon, in regards to travel and parking plans for tomorrow´s race.

“It was a double whammy really. With the rain the campsites then closed down and campers had nowhere to go,” said managing director Richard Phillips.

“This forced us onto the grass car parks which wasn’t our intention, we wanted to put everyone on the hard car parks. This caused the issue we have to day, it’s unfortunate to turn people away.

“Park and ride is difficult to do on Friday. Today we’ve got it and tomorrow we’ve got an even bigger one. To cover 800 acres in tarmac or plastic is impractical.

“We’re very optimistic that we’ve had a bit of a break and that we’ll be in business this afternoon. We’ll make an announcement this afternoon.”

Dry run at Silverstone as Alonso sets fastest time

With blue skies over the Silverstone, the drivers enjoyed an hour of running to set-up their cars in the final practice session, after Friday´s massive downpour, which drowned the two practice sessions.

It was a matter of getting as may miles done as possible on Saturday, as most of the running on Friday was ruined by heavy rain. In fact it was so bad, that the man who completed the most laps in the second free practice session was Fernando Alonso with just 14 laps done. The weather situation was so severe, that the organisers had no choice but to ask up to 30,000 people to stay away, since the camping area and other parking areas had been flooded. the situation for them is no better on Saturday, as there are still thousands of people not being able to access the circuit, but hopes are that things will be much better during the evening. Still, red alerts are in place in the area and the weather forecast is, unfortunately, full of rain, rain, rain.

There were plenty of small incidents, as drivers tried to go as fast as possible, while at the same time avoiding the grooves in the kerbs which still had plenty of water. So there were spins, stoppages a red flag and more.

The results of the final practice is:

Fernando Alonso fastest, then Jenson Button in a late charge to take second from Romain Grosjean, and on hard tyres even, then Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez, Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg. From 11th it´s Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Mark Webber, Michael Schumacher, Jean-Eric Vergne, Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock, Charles Pic, Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa.

Hamilton moves to the top in second practice

McLaren´s Lewis Hamilton was able to set a fast lap time of 1:56.345, almost similar to that of Romain Grosjean´s time from the first session earlier in the morning.

As rain continued to hammer down on the may thousands race fans, well those who managed to actually get into the facility, since there were plenty of traffic jams for miles leading up to Silverstone, most of the drivers were quite happy staying inside the garage areas, only to peep outside for a short while to see if the rain had stopped.

It didn´t and as the drivers carefully manoeuvred their cars around the soaking wet circuit, the times started to form on the time sheets.

With Hamilton in first place, Kamui Kobayashi finished 2nd a tenth down, followed by Michael Schumacher a further tenth off the pace. Team mate Nico Rosberg completed his run in 4th, ahead of Sergio Perez, Jenson Button and Heikki Kovalainen, who made a nice welcome in the top ten finishers circle. Another Finn, this one Kimi Raikkonen ended in 8th, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Valencia race winner Fernando Alonso, who suffered a trip to the off area during his run, damaging the front wing of the car.

11th was Paul di Resta from Pastor Maldonado in 12th, and then followed Sebastian Vettel, Jean-Eric Vergne, Felipe Massa, Timo Glock and Bruno Senna, who had a bad accident when he aquaplaned off at Chapel. Both the front and rear of the car were damaged. Vitaly Petrov and Charles Pic are next, then Narain Karthikeyan, Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber and Pedro de la Rosa.