2011 Formula One British Grand Prix

[Tony Crabb]

Diego and the other who are Ferrari fans. This rule change that may or may not have benefitted them is not relevant. The reason for the change is because of the championship itself. 9 rounds gone and the Constructors Championship is all but over. That belongs to RB. If Vettel wins I think the next 4 races (might be 5), that will be the end of the Drivers Championship. Now this would have certainly happened if they stuck to the old rules. But with the new rules for this weekend and for the rest of the season, that is a certainty that the new rules will remain. But lets say Vettel does win the next 4 (5) races, then that leaves us with 6(5) rounds left. And nothing to win.
Who are the biggest losers that can come from this? Well you and me as viewers, but also those sponsoring the teams and the events. If the championship does end that early, the screams from them will be deafening in Bernie's ears. So he has explained this to the teams, so don't be surprised this goes all the way to the end. I won't that's for certain.

As for the race today, it was so so.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

It was a nice race to watch, and a well deserved win for Alonso! I felt sorry for Di Resta & Button, they both failed to score points because of their pit-crews while they were doing fine (especially Di Resta considering he was driving a Force India.)

Moment of the day: commentators say after the race, that Webber doesn't feel good at Red Bull and he might team up with Alonso at Ferrari next year, 1 moment later Webber and Domenicali clap their hands

 

[Omer Said]

After a rather dull European Grand Prix, Formula 1 fans were in need of an exciting race enough to cover up the loss. And they got it at Silverstone today, with a more than enough dosage of adrenaline and excitement.

Before the race, rain visited the track. So it started under half wet, half dry conditions. All drivers were using blue colored intermediate tyres. After the lights went off, Sebastian Vettel overtook the lead from the pole-sitter Mark Webber and flew away. Fernando Alonso stayed in 3rd, while Lewis Hamilton jumped from 10th position to 4th position in two laps.

As the track got less and less wet, we waited to see who will be the first one to try slicks. Then this move came from Michael Schumacher, not on purpose tough. He spun and hit Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber and broke his front wing. After a few laps of Schumacher's pit, it was obvious that slicks can go faster now, so the first pitstop phase was opened.

'Bring me my seppuku!'
​

At the end of Lap 15, everyone was on slicks. Red Bulls were on the lead, at the same time there was an intense Ferrari-McLaren battle behind. Jenson Button overtook Massa on 5th, while Alonso was defeated and overtaken by Hamilton on 3rd.

Hamilton's 3rd going lasted until lap 24 as Alonso returned and retook his place. And at the same lap Hamilton pitted, becoming the earliest man to pit a 2nd time in the victory-chasers division.

And then everybody pitted one by one. After the pits, the standings scrambled completely in the front. Because of both Red Bulls have some time-consuming problems in their stops, Alonso took the lead and Hamilton took the 2nd place. Vettel downed to 3rd, and his team-mate Webber followed him.

'I have a bad feeling about this..'
​

After this shocking descend of Red Bulls, Vettel began to press on Hamilton. But the British driver did not be an easy prey and held his position, until Vettel stopped in lap 36. In the meantime, Alonso extended his lead to 8 seconds!

Others followed Vettel and pitted as Hamilton came behind of the German after his stop, Alonso stretched his lead more and Button retired. 2009 World Champion's front right tyre was not plugged in properly in his stop and it was detached at the pitlane exit, forcing the British to retire in front of his home crowd. Button may have a curse in Silverstone really.

Hamilton's podium dreams vanished when he was told to save fuel in order to finish the race. As he slowed down, Webber came close and overtook him easily. But that was not the last thing he suffered as Massa was coming closer in a very quick pace.

While Alonso was calmly leading the race with a huge gap, Webber caught Vettel, only to hear a team-radio command 'Maintain the gap.'. However the Austrulian did not obey and tried to overtake Vettel, then failed and accepted the last step of the podium.

At the last lap Hamilton-Massa battle was intense. They came to the last curves side by side and even they contacted, but in the end Hamilton won the duel by a very little gap.

After the 3 front-runner teams, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came 6th, followed by Sauber's Sergio Perez who was depressed for not being able to overtake Rosberg in the whole race.

Again a faultless drive brang Nick Heidfeld of Renault some valuable points. After him a 10 seconds stop/go victim Schumacher came 9th. Last point went to Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari who started on 18th and managed to rise greatly in the race.

'Huh!... Beat that Logitech!'
​

So Red Bull is defeated for the 3rd time in 2011. But the gap in the championship is still massive as Vettel has a 80 points advantage over Alonso in the chase. Also, the off-throttle ban is going to be flushed in Germany as the team bosses agreed after the race. Let's see if Ferrari really improved or Red Bull was slow here because of the ban on the diffuser. Too bad we have to wait for two weeks to see it. Wait! Not too bad actually as we have RaceDepartment to keep us entertained in the meantime. You know what i mean.

Position	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1h.28m.41sec
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	+16.5
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+16.9
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mclaren	+28.9
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+29.0
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+60.5
7	Sergio Perez	Sauber	+75.5
8	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	+77.9
9	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	+79.1
10	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	+79.7
11	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+80.6
12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	+1 Lap
13	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	+1 Lap
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1 Lap
15	Paul di Resta	Force India	+1 Lap
16	Timo Glock	Virgin	+2 Laps
17	Jerome D'Ambrosio	Virgin	+2 Laps
18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Hispania Racing	+3 Laps
19	Daniel Ricciardo	Hispania Racing	+3 Laps
--	Jenson Button	McLaren	Tyre Failure
--	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	Tyre Failure
--	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	Engine Failure
--	Jarno Trulli	Team Lotus	Engine Failure
--	Heikki Kovalainen	Team Lotus	ECU Failure

 

[Chris Butcher]

lol Ferrari cheat their way to a win by getting the diffuser rules changed, utter rubbish, got to laugh at the idiots stupid enough to pay the ludicrous prices to go watch F1 at silverstone this weekend

I wouldn't say so. Moveable aerodynamic pieces (except of course DRS) has always been illegal. And apparently, in this race they were back to Valencia spec.

 

[Gary Barlow]

I need to stop picking favourites for Silverstone. Every year I find myself favouring certain drivers and every year they blow up.

This year was Kamui, Di Resta and Button.

Sorry gents. Next year I'll root for Vettel.

 

[Gary Barlow]

ewww, I lol'ed @ the logitec joke. Good race, nice write up.

 

[Ivo Simons]

Lol @ Logitech.

 

[R Soul]

One thing about the new grid location that I didn't think about was that drivers might be more encouraged to have a last lap lunge, like Massa and Hamilton. Both drivers knew that damage wouldn't matter with the finish line so close. Losing the battle will only lose the leading car one place, whereas in previous years he'd have to limp all the way to the end of Woodcote and risk losing more.

 

[TheHemps]

OK, heres my view on the race.

Alonso fully deserved the win. He was the best out there today and I think even without RB pit crew mistake, he still would have won. We all know Vettel is only comfortable with a big lead and Alonso would have been right behind him, not good for SV.

The pit crews this weekend were a bit all over the place. i'mguessing theres a few people going to be losing their jobs over the next few days.

The one thing I noticed, which really got to me, was the way ALL of McLarens team radio transmssions were played on air. Only 3 transmissions from Red Bull and absolutely squat from Ferrari. So first it gave away Jensons strategy when he was racing Webber. Then they played the message about Hamilton needing to save fuel. They might as well have announced it over a tannoy.
So everything McLaren tried, the other teams knew exactly what they were doing. And is anyone going to try and tell me that when Vettel was behind Massa, Ferrari didn't tell Massa to hold SV up? Of course they did. Did we hear it? Of course we didnt. It's balls. I'm sorry, I dont usually get so wound up, but the whole debacle was a farce. They may as well have linked McLarens radio into Ferrari and Red Bulls cars.

Anyway, well done Alonso. Turns out that being a racist pig and generally failing as a human being doesnt matter if you can beat Vettel.

 

[Armando Dominguez]

Goooo fernando!

 

[David O'Reilly]

Thanks for a great review.Was that a real or sim race, the lines are getting blurred.PS Mass lost the moral high ground in the passing debate for a brutal move into Hamilton at Brooklands in my view.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

One thing about the new grid location that I didn't think about was that drivers might be more encouraged to have a last lap lunge, like Massa and Hamilton. Both drivers knew that damage wouldn't matter with the finish line so close. Losing the battle will only lose the leading car one place, whereas in previous years he'd have to limp all the way to the end of Woodcote and risk losing more.

Of course damage would matter.
A broken front wing could be the difference between the car being within the minimum weight restriction or not. Especially with re-fuelling being banned.

 

[Matthew Farrell]

massa had the corner lewis had to use massa to stay on track what was you watching lmfao O REILLY

 

[David O'Reilly]

Mathew I did feel that Hamilton had made a racing move at Brooklands and had 50/50 right to the corner. Massa had a tiny nose ahead but Hamilton had the inside and the apex. Massa turned to the apex as though there was no one there. Racing incident I suppose. But no fault to Lewis. At Luffiled corner Massa lost his rear end and slid giving Lewis the position which lewis consolidated by running wide.Great Racing at any rate, shame Red Bull don't like racing.

 

[Ross Balfour]

Great race I thought, as a Webber fan I was disappointed that he was told to stay behind Vettel but I can understand why, it's a comletely different situation to that of Turkey last year.

So happy to see Alonso in top spot again, he certainly deserves it - was a great race and the new circuit/pit complex is brilliant by the looks of it!

 

[Tom Barratt]

I was at silverstone all weekend and it was immense, the atmosphere was incredible.

 

[Tom Barratt]

They may as well have linked McLarens radio into Ferrari and Red Bulls cars.

Im pretty sure all teams can hear all other teams radios anyway.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

Im pretty sure all teams can hear all other teams radios anyway.

I doubt it, seeing as they only reacted to the ones broadcast on BBC.

Its quite evident that Red Bull are looking to wrap this season up pretty damn quickly so they can get to work on the 2012 nice and early.
The longer the title fights go on this year, the more time they have to spend developing the 2011 car.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

Of course damage would matter.
A broken front wing could be the difference between the car being within the minimum weight restriction or not. Especially with re-fuelling being banned.

there allowed to replace the broken parts before they weigh the cars

 

[Diego Lopez]

Diego and the other who are Ferrari fans. This rule change that may or may not have benefitted them is not relevant. The reason for the change is because of the championship itself. 9 rounds gone and the Constructors Championship is all but over. That belongs to RB. If Vettel wins I think the next 4 races (might be 5), that will be the end of the Drivers Championship. Now this would have certainly happened if they stuck to the old rules. But with the new rules for this weekend and for the rest of the season, that is a certainty that the new rules will remain. But lets say Vettel does win the next 4 (5) races, then that leaves us with 6(5) rounds left. And nothing to win.
Who are the biggest losers that can come from this? Well you and me as viewers, but also those sponsoring the teams and the events. If the championship does end that early, the screams from them will be deafening in Bernie's ears. So he has explained this to the teams, so don't be surprised this goes all the way to the end. I won't that's for certain.

As for the race today, it was so so.

Alonso follower but not a Ferrari fan all the way so dont go single people out. It was a very deserved win. we all know RB has the Constructors in a bag I didnt say anythign about that. yes we can already tell Vettel won the drivers already no1 cares. I never say they have or have not benefited, they actually remained quiet about the subject and let its own car and driver do the job unlike RB rule breaking blown diffuser. SO your case is closed and pick a hole and stick with it please.

as for the rest of the season we all saw taht RB has a good car for thru fast corners tracks. but we all saw that they can still be caught up if they keep their blown engine @ 10%. Its a shame that Renault had to use the "reliability" excuse to U-turn the rules of silverstone for the next races. Is pathetic and rule breaking, the same rule that Charlie was fuzzed about but somehow they are still allowed. I wonder if the Owner of RB payed Charlie big $$$$$ to change his mind. Really. whatever happened to consistency in this sport. wait. it never exists. As for next year I really hope engine manufacturers can actually make reliable engines with no excuses. I think Webber is wanna go out by the end of the season. Is only better for him. C. Horner has really disapointed me.