Today’s F1 race is the best I have seen so far this season; with some real overtaking manoeuvres which wasn’t due to weather conditions. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were comfortably on for a Red Bull 1 – 2 finish before Vettel tried to force Webber wide and Webber wasn’t having any of it, 18 laps from the end of the race. This inevitably ended in the two Red Bull drivers colliding taking Vettel out of the race and Webber dropped to third after a pit stop for new tyres and nose section. Of course; this gifted McLaren a 1 – 2 finish but there was drama between the McLaren drivers with Jenson Button making a move on Lewis Hamilton who backed off a little too much when instructed to conserve fuel. The two Britons going wheel to wheel for a series of corners with Hamilton eventually winning the “Battle of Britain” before both drivers were instructed to hold station and conserve fuel. Micheal Schumacher finished in his best position since rejoining the F1 circus in fourth place while fellow German and team mate Nico Rosberg kept Schumacher honest in fifth. Renault’s Robert Kubica had another strong finish in sixth followed by the two Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso respectively. Adrian Sutil brought his Force India home in ninth place overtaking Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi in the closing laps. Despite being overtaken near the end, Kobayashi claimed the first point for the struggling Sauber team who managed to bring both cars home for the first time this season. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable race although my enjoyment of the race was spoiled a little by the constant buffering as Cox Comms continue to have network issues, but that’s neither here nor there in the race context!
I have now watched the replays a few times and I believe that Red Bull do favour Vettel over Webber in the championship. Webber was told to conserve fuel when Vettel was not; the fact that Red Bull team principle Christian Horner squarely blamed Webber; claiming he did not give Vettel enough room. The replays clearly show that Webber gave Vettel enough room going into the left hander with the Aussie on the outside of turn 12; Vettel turned right trying to squeeze Webber wide while the Aussie held his line maintaining the space given to Vettel! Red Bull seems to be alone in their blaming Webber; McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton who got a front row seat to the accident, Martin Whitmarsh, David Coulthard and Martin Brundle all see it as Vettel’s fault. I’m waiting to see Webber’s reaction in the next race in Canada; if I were him I would just ignore any team orders and do whatever he wants as it seems his team don’t want to play fair!!!