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Poor day at the races for the Brits at Silverstone!

Lewis Hamilton finished best of the Brits at Silverstone in fourth place but only just; having a battle, banging wheels with Felipe Massa through the final complex of corners eventually pushing the Brazilian wide. Jenson Button was in a solid fifth place when McLaren dropped the ball and released Jenson with a missing wheel nut on his right front wheel which ultimately resulted in Jenson retiring from the race. The third Brit, Paul Di Resta finished in 15th after starting from sixth with a colossal cock-up with his first pit stop, Sutil’s tyres were ready instead of Di Resta’s own tyres which cost him a bucket load of time. Despite the disappointing result for the Brits; we had our fourth different winner this year; and it’s yet another former world champion, Fernando Alonso. I’m no Alonso or Ferrari fan but I am happy to see someone other than Sebastian Vettel win and Alonso drove a fantastic race and had a little bit of luck in the form of Vettel having a troubled pit stop allowing the Spaniard to leapfrog the German. But the Ferrari looked like the car to beat today and would have more than likely won without that fortuitous piece of luck!

So the top 10 is as follows, 1. Alonso, 2. Vettel, 3. Webber, 4 Hamilton, 5 Massa, 6. Rosberg, 7. Perez, 8. Heidfeld, 9. Schumacher, 10. Alguersuari. Great drive from Sergio Perez starting from 12th to finish in seventh and had a great midfield battle with Maldonado. Another good drive came from Alguersuari to come from 18th on the grid to claim a point but that said; Kobayashi and Button retiring helped his cause. A good race overall, plenty of action despite disappointment for the British fans, Jenson’s Silverstone curse strikes again, try for the podium again next year JB!

A big talking point of the race was Mark Webber being told to “hold station” when catching team mate Vettel hand over fist. Mark is understandably annoyed being asked to hold station despite being faster given how Red Bull insist that there are no team orders in the Red Bull team. If there was any doubt that Vettel is clear #1 at Red Bull before; there has to be no question now and I’d be surprised if Webber remains at Red Bull next season! Webber actively chose to not adhere to his teams wishes and attacked Vettel anyway before backing off slightly in the final half lap.

I’m really disappointed with Jenson Button in this race; despite his McLaren team causing his retirement he should have been higher than his starting position of fifth. Hamilton overtook him in the first few laps on the track starting five place behind. Being a JB fan I have vehemently defended him against the barrage of criticism coming from Hamilton fans but with performances like this; it’s getting harder to defend JB when he and Hamilton are driving identical equipment!

Lewis Hamilton could have finished the race; possibly on the second step of the podium based on his early pace but it wasn’t to be as he was let down by McLaren who didn’t fuel his car enough and had to start conserving fuel half way through the race. But I have to say that his interview technique after the race was much improved; I have been very critical of his post race interviews and general attitude but this weekend we’ve seen a massive change, I assume that McLaren team principle Martin Whitmarsh must have had a word in his ear, basically telling him to tone it down!

Despite the FIA’s shambolic handling of the off throttle diffuser ban (which has now been abandoned for the season); it didn’t completely ruin the Silverstone race weekend; you have to say that British race fans are the best in the world, no other circuit touches the atmosphere of Silverstone. Also well done to Damon Hill and the BRDC for the great Silverstone redesign and new pit and paddock area (but I do miss Priory and Bridge), although it’s going to take me some time to get used to not having Copse as the first corner followed by Maggots, Becketts and Chapel.

So nothing changes in the championship tables; Vettel extends his world championship lead to 80 points over Mark Webber while Fernando Alonso moves into third spot with a massive 92 point deficit to the German. Hamilton goes level on points with team mate Button in 4th place, 95 points off the world championship lead. With half the season gone; unless Red Bull implode; Vettel will retain his world title, having only dropped 21 points in the first nine races and Red Bull will retain their constructors title currently enjoying a 110 point lead over McLaren and 164 over Ferrari.

Finally it was great to hear Murray Walker in the commentary box in qualifying, particularly commenting over Mark Webber’s hot lap in qualifying, I grew up listening to Murray’s commentary of motorsport, some have likened Murray’s voice to that of a V12 engine. His passion for Formula 1 is what made his commentary so great, it was a great shame when he retired. Martin Brundle and David Coulthard do a great job but even they admit that Murray is the king of F1 commentary.

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