Alonso wins the 2011 British GP ending the Red Bull stampede

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso has won the British grand prix of Silverstone ending the Red Bull streak. Although, both the Red Bulls did finish on the podium with Sebastien Vettel in second and Mark Webber in third. Ferrari had brought an upgrade this time around and with Massa finishing fifth behind Hamilton it does seem to have worked after all. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth much to the delight of over 130,000 British fans who had gathered at the renovated Silvertone race track.

Both McLarens had a good start when Button grabbed a place ahead of Massa before the first corner. Vettel too was quick off the line and stormed into first place ahead of pole sitter Mark Webber. Fernando followed the Red Bulls on a track that was wet in some places and dry elsewhere. The first retirement of the race was Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus-Renault. When the cars came in for their first tire stop after starting on intermediate tires, Vettel still lead the pack.

After the first round of pits, everyone changed over to the soft compound option tires. Michael Schumacher meanwhile, collided with Kamui Kobayashi for which he had to serve a 10 sec stop/go penalty thus ruining his chances of a points finish. His team mate Nico Rosberg finished in sixth spot while Schumacher fought back to gain ninth. Force India’s Paul di Resta started from sixth place but a horrible pit stop dropped him back. He finished 15th while Sutil finished 11th.

Vettel leads at the start of the British GP

Jenson Button’s retirement came as the biggest disappointment for the fans as one of the mechanics failed to secure the wheel nut on his front-right tire. Button quickly stopped the car at the pit lane exit thus avoiding a potential crash. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was running low on fuel and had to run lower revs. This meant Webber who was behind Hamilton by then could easily take over the place.

A similar pit lane incident caused Sebastien Vettel to lose the lead to Alonso who passed the German in the pits. Thus, all-in-all it was pretty exciting Silvertone GP after a dull race under the sunshine in Valencia. Thankfully, the rain gods didn’t play havoc during the race. Vettle still leads the drivers standings with 204 points followed by Mark Webber. Alonso moves on to third with 112 points. In the constructors championship, Red Bull still lead from McLaren and Ferrari.

Image courtesy: ESPNF1

Share and Enjoy: