Fernando Alonso dominated the British Grand Prix with a lights to flag victory. The Spaniard was in the ‘zone’ and simply drove away into the lead and recorded his fifth win of the year.
The Renault star shook off an early challenge from his two main rivals, Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher, taking control at the first round of pit stops before disappearing into the distance.
Kimi and Michael was left trailing in the wake behind the winning Renault so it was a battle between second place. Initially, Kimi held the track position but during the second round of pitstop, despite taking less fuel than the McLaren, Michael got ahead in his Ferrari. The German was able to do this by setting faster laps than Kimi and thanks to an early call by Ferrari’s strategist Ross Brawn, he made it into P2.
McLaren was shocked to see Michael ahead of Kimi. But in the end, the car was simply not fast enough to challenge Renault and Ferrari. Kimi had no answer over Michael and gradually lost touch during the final stint of the race, almost falling into the clutches of Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. But the Finn held on for the final podium spot to move ahead of the Italian into a clear third place in the Drivers’ standings.
Felipe Massa finished fifth after a solid drive in the second Ferrari, while Juan Pablo Montoya brought a slightly damaged McLaren home in sixth. The Colombian had been hit by Jacques Villeneuve’s BMW Sauber at the Copse corner, damaging his right-side sidepod, and spent the first stint bottled up behind the other BMW of Nick Heidfeld. Heidfeld finished ahead of his BMW Sauber team-mate in seventh with Villeneuve the last point scorer.
As for Jenson Button, he had a race and weekend to forget. After suffering the embarrassment in qualifying, his Honda developed an oil leak and he was out within ten laps… Oh dear. Button was deeply disappointed to let down his home fan at Silverstone. Even though he started 19th on the grid, Jenson made good progress in the early stages of the race and was behind David Coulthard’s Red Bull ready to overtake. But alas, he is suffering so much bad luck recently and another non-finish will hit hard on Jenson’s confidence.