Santander British Formula One Grand Prix- Mark Webber unbeatable at Silverstone
Mark Webber presented the fittest reaction to the entire Red Bull qualifying brouhaha by prevailing at the weekends British Grand Prix. Right from the beginning he consolidated his superiority after a safety vehicle span that enabled his partner Sebastian Vettel to make a comeback into the run after a terrible first corner that had witnessed the German veer off circuit subsequent to a slight tussle with Lewis Hamilton of McLaren. The tyre puncture that he obtained saw him plummet to the hind end of the parade.
Hamilton put up a robust battle with Webber on Lap One, but it quickly became evident that it would take a huge melodrama to deprive the Australian of his abundantly due triumph. Webber’s Red Bull was clearly the class of the field, just as the relentless Hamilton who conserved his World Championship supremacy with a second place finish.
As Vettel was compelled to pause at the pits and changed to hard tyres when the lap came to an end, Robert Kubica of Renault rushed to the third place in front of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, whose clash with teammate Felipe Massa on the path through Copse condemned the Brazilian to a disappointing Sunday run.
Subsequent to Kubica’s uncommon retirement from the show, Nico Rosberg was persistently in the game for a definite podium standing, but following a dazzling start, Jenson Button of McLaren was able to stay within reaching distance of the German throughout.
The decisive safety vehicle period transpired on the 28th Lap after Pedro de la Rosa’s BMW Sauber was bumped into the rear by Adrian Sutil of Force India, scattering waste on the circuit. The incident produced Vettel’s life belt for the race. He eventually clambered his way up front, overtaking fellow German Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams and Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes on his run to come head to head with Sutil. The Force India catalyst managed to deny Vettel the lead for many laps as the Red Bull man scrambled on progressively exhausted tyres, but ultimately Vettel pulled it past Sutil after a boisterous move culminated in a casual bump, with both drivers managing to stay in the race.
Yet this was Webber’s Sunday afternoon, and the Australian had a seven second lead on Hamilton before he capped matters up to seal the flag 1.3 seconds to the positive. Hamilton himself ended up a good 20 seconds ahead of Rosberg’s Mercedes and team mate Jenson Button, who made a spectacular comeback from 14th in the qualifying round to fourth in the final race. Trailing them were Rubens Barrichello of Williams and BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, both of whom had a heartening afternoon with a fifth and sixth place finish respectively. Behind the seventh placed Vettel, a furious Sutil took the eighth spot in front of Michael Schumacher, who only narrowly managed to hold back countryman Hulkenberg.
It was a terrible Sunday afternoon for Ferrari, as Alonso blundered his way past Robert Kubica midway through the 17th lap after going off track to the right and reappearing ahead of Kubica’s Renault. Had the Spaniard given up the position the damage would have been minimal and he would have been in the running to fight for the third spot; instead Alonso’s drive through reprieve together with the safety vehicle saga reduced him from fourth to an unspectacular 15th. Alonso could not spot an overtaking opportunity past Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi for a significant number of laps and when he ultimately achieved the end they bumped, making it necessary for him to take an undesired break for a tyre change.
Therefore, as Vitantonio Luizzi, Sebastian Buemi of Toro Rosso and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov clinched the 11th, 12th and 13th spot respectively. Alonso had to console himself with the 14th place in front of Massa, who also had a race to forget. The Brazilian was forced into a late retreat to the pits to get treatment for his tyres after enduring a spin.
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