Fernando has at last brought the dominance of the Red Bull to an end with a stupendous victory at the newly laid British Grand Prix. Vettel came in second with teammate Webber a close third. The McLaren’s continued to be plagued with their bad run with Lewis ending a dramatic fourth down from third while Button had to retire due a faulty pit stop.
Alonso gallops his Ferrari to their maiden race win this season
The race was full of action right from the start as the battle between the Red Bulls and the Ferrari looking at par for the first time. Alonso’s qualifying time was close behind that of Vettel which indicated that Ferrari had been slowly catching up the Red Bulls. The race track was n newly laid down with a new start-stop straight. This new track is spread over a huge area and drivers were reported saying some areas were really wet and un-drivable while other areas of the track were dry. This made it a very interesting race with the cars starting with intermediate tyres and switching on to softer compound ones after the first pit stop as the track started to dry up more.
Both the Red-bulls made a great start with Alonso right behind them. Massa seemed to lose out as he fell back a few places at the start. Lewis had a great run starting from the tenth position, coming up to fifth at the end of the second lap itself. He was his aggressive self, climbing up the positions taking advantage of the fact that the track was wet and the cars were going slow to avoid collision or spinning out.
Alonso was able to match the pace set by the Red-bulls and was looking strong in third position but it was a dramatic pit stop that proved to be the turning point. Alonso followed Vettel in to the pits as both pited at the same time, with Red Bull in front. But Alonso was the one who ended out of the pits before Vettel, because of a faulty pit stop by Red Bull which saw a problem with the rear wheel nut of Vettel’s car.
By the time Vettel came out of the pits, Lewis had gone past him into second position. Vettelseemed deflated with his race engineering consoling him that there was a lot of race left and he should expect better results in coming few laps. Vettel was stuck behind the slow McLaren of Lewis while Alonso was gaining a second a lap pulling out of reach. Although in a slower car, Lewis managed to defend his position very well, keeping the impatient looking Vettel behind him.
Jenson Button had a stroke of bad luck when in his second pit stop due to the error of the crew, he had to retire from the race, parking his car coming outside the pit exit. The wheel nut which was supposed to fasten the front right tyre of the McLaren was left back in the pits and the wheel came lose as Jenson drove out of the pits.
Red Bull decided to pit Vettel as he was finding it difficult past Lewis. Alonso had pulled up a huge lead and when he exited after pitting for a second time he came out comfortably before Webber retaining his race lead. Vettel managed to come out in front of Lewis in second position this time. In the end moments, Lewis encountered a problem with the team asking him to drive slowly conserving fuel as the car didn’t seem like having enough to make it to the finish. In the process, Mark Webber behind Lewis made his move trying to snatch away the podium position from Lewis. After repeated tries, Mark Webber went past Lewis to take the third position. It was a shear moment of disappointment for Lewis and the McLaren team.
Looking at this opportunity, Massa too moved in on Lewis and caught up on Hamilton in the last lap and was running right behind him putting pressure on the McLaren to let through. In the last corner of the race, Massa made his final move coming alongside Lewis and forcing each other out of the racing line. There was a bit of body contact with debris flying, as both cars lost momentum cause of the contact. Lewis just managed to get enough power out of the McLaren to get his nose in front of the red Ferrari of Massa to secure the fourth position.
It was one of the rather thrilling races of the season and with the Ferrari at last coming up to the level of Red Bull it opens up the second half of the current racing season. Red Bull have stretched a massive lead over Ferrari but if they keep up this effort, they may soon catch up with the Red Bulls. This season may not see Red Bull dominance any more.
Tags: British Grand Prix, F1, Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Formula One, Motor Sports, Motorsports, Red Bull
