Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso outperforms everyone at 2011 Silverstone Grand Prix – Formula 1
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso proved in the Silverstone Grand Prix of the 2011 Formula 1 season that the Scarlet team can never be kept away from action.
Although considered a little too late, Ferrari winning a race changes the concentration of the Formula 1 fans as now Alonso’s great run to the chequered flag is the hit topic. However, amidst all the Ferrari celebrations, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing
extended his lead to 80 points in the drivers’ championship.
However, for once not thinking about the German’s lead in the 2011 season and living again the great victory of Spaniard, let’s go through the superb run of Alonso at Silverstone.
Going into the race was a pumped up Ferrari team by boss Luca di Montezemolo who stated that in order to win races, they should be positive and not give away hope.
Boosting further the morale of the Ferrari team was the International Automobile Federation (FIA) who banned Red Bull’s dear Blown Diffuser after which the Milton Keynes-based team themselves stated that the Scarlet team will have an advantage.
Alonso and his teammate Felipe Massa showed great speeds in the Friday Free Practice sessions and in the qualifiers on the wet track but their true potential on the dry track was yet to be witnessed by the Formula 1 world.
Alonso started the race from third place and pushed the front running Red Bull cars to the limit. However as the track was wet, Alonso was unable to show his true potential on the softer tyres while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton drew the first blood among the
top runners.
However, after the track started to dry out in the latter half of the race, Alonso was altogether a different driver extracting some good pace out of his car. Alonso started to produce fastest laps of the race in the middle part.
Just when the front-running driver dived into pits for the second time, luck favoured Alonso as Vettel’s pit crew was slower to change the tyres and Alonso took lead on the pit lane.
From there on, the Spaniard was out of reach of any driver on the grid and posted quite a few fastest laps in the last laps of the race. Although the Spaniard did not have to overtake any of the front running drivers on his way to victory, still he was able
to open up a gap of 16.5 seconds from Vettel who finished second.
Alonso’s victory makes a huge impact on the 2011 drivers’ championship table as the Spaniard moves ahead of both McLaren drivers to sit in third place. Although a lot has not changed for Vettel who is still on top with a gap now open to 80 points, still
Alonso’s timely win is a wakeup call for the Red Bull team.
Vettel admits that although the second pit stop went wrong, Alonso was so fast that even without the pit-stop failure, the Spaniard could have gone past him at some point in the race.
For Ferrari, Alonso’s win is a slight glimpse of hope towards the drivers’ championship. The Scarlet team will be more than happy if the wins keep coming their way in the 2011 season so that their battle ends on a high. Let’s see how it turns out for them
in the rest of the campaign.
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