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

Alonso grabs pole at Silverstone

After an hour and a half of stoppage due to massive rain falls, Fernando Alonso were able to take pole position, ahead of Mark Webber for Red Bull and Michael Schumacher for Mercedes.

0.050 separated Alonso from Webber on their final hot lap, but it was enough for Alonso to take his first pole position of the 2012 season. Quite an achievement after the slow start the Ferrari team had to their campaign. After two victories from the Spaniard, Alonso is the first to take two wins this season, things definitely looks better than in March.

Mark Webber will start from 2nd, Michael Schumacher starts 3rd and Sebastian Vettel starts 4th. Then we have Felipe Massa in 5th, who enjoyed a brief P1, then Kimi Raikkonen, Pastor Maldonado, Lewis Hamilton, who struggled a lot with the grip. Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean finished off the top ten.

In 11th we have Paul di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi is next, then Nico Rosberg,Daniel Ricciardo, Bruno Senna, Jean-Eric Vergne, Sergui Perez, Jenson Button Vitaly Petrov, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa, Narain Karthikeyan and Charles Pic.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	01:51.746	25
2.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	01:51.796	23
3.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	01:52.020	22
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	01:52.199	23
5.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	01:53.065	24
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	01:53.290	24
7.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	01:53.539	25
8.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	01:53.543	25
9.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India	01:54.382	22
10.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	no time	20
11.	Paul di Resta	Force India	01:57.009	19
12.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	01:57.071	18
13.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	01:57.071	17
14.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	01:57.108	18
15.	Bruno Senna	Williams	01:57.132	19
16.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	01:57.426	18
17.	Sergio Perez	Sauber	01:57.895	19
18.	Jenson Button	McLaren	01:48.044	12
19.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	01:49.027	10
20.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	01:49.477	10
21.	Timo Glock	Marussia	01:51.618	10
22.	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	01:51.742	11
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	01:53.040	10
24.	Charles Pic	Marussia	01:54.143	10

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.