Sebastian Vettel claimed his first dry race victory after leading from start to finish at Silverstone. It was a faultless performance from the young German and this one-two result for Red Bull Racing ends the recent run of success by Jenson Button.
The championship leader was never a factor in his home Grand Prix, struggling with a lack of balance in the Brawn. Despite the result – qualified in sixth and finishing in the same position – Jenson still leads the drivers’ standings with 23 points ahead of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello and 25 points over race winner Vettel.
This result means Red Bull Racing are now the leading contenders for championship honours against Brawn GP. The new aerodynamic updates including the double diffuser, nose cone and engine cover certainly improve the performance of the RB5. So to achieve a perfect one-two with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, all that hard work in the factory has finally paid off.
Rubens Barrichello finished in a solid third position for Brawn GP ahead of fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa, who drove a fine race in the Ferrari to come through from eleventh on the grid.
Nico Rosberg finished fifth for Williams, ahead of home crowd favourite Jenson Button and the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.
As for the three world champions – Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton respectively – the 2009 British Grand Prix was a difficult race for the trio.
In Raikkonen’s case, eighth was the best possible outcome and the Finn just managed to hold off Timo Glock’s Toyota in the late stages of the Grand Prix.
What about Alonso and Hamilton? Well, to see the Renault and McLaren struggling at the back was heartbreaking. For Fernando, to finish in fourteenth place was a major disappointment for the Spaniard and it didn’t help that he was stuck behind Nick Heidfeld’s extremely slow BMW Sauber, which was dropping up to three seconds a lap to those ahead due to front wing damage.
Last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton could only finish in sixteenth position. His wheel-to-wheel battle with Alonso was a highlight of the British Grand Prix but in the end, a lap down on the leaders and a quick spin at Club corner ended his miserable day.
Sebastien Bourdais and Heikki Kovalainen were the only retirements. The Finn emerged from his sole pit-stop just ahead of his McLaren team-mate Hamilton and he allowed the Brit through at Stowe. Sensing the opportunity to overtake, Bourdais tried a move at Club corner but contact was made as Kovalainen defended, breaking the Scuderia Toro Rosso’s front wing and giving the McLaren a puncture. Both dropped out for good soon afterwards.
So win number three for Sebastian Vettel and the perfect result for the energy drink sponsored-team with this one-two finish at Silverstone. The next race is Vettel’s home event at the Nürburgring, so expect strong support from the German crowd. This year’s championship is becoming more fascinating at every turn but we will have to wait in three weeks’ time for the next battle between Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing. Jenson Button versus Sebastian Vettel. Nevermind the politics, the racing is what counts in Formula One 2009.
Race results from Silverstone, 60 laps:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h22:49.328
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault +15.188
3. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes +41.175
4. Massa Ferrari +45.043
5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota +45.915
6. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes +46.285
7. Trulli Toyota +1:08.307
8. Raikkonen Ferrari +1:09.622
9. Glock Toyota +1:09.823
10. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes +1:11.522
11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota +1:14.023
12. Piquet Renault +1 lap
13. Kubica BMW Sauber +1 lap
14. Alonso Renault +1 lap
15. Heidfeld BMW Sauber +1 lap
16. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
18. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:20.735
Not classified/retirements:
Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 37 laps
Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 36 laps
World Championship standings, round 8:
Drivers:
1. Button 64
2. Barrichello 41
3. Vettel 39
4. Webber 35.5
5. Trulli 21.5
6. Massa 16
7. Rosberg 15.5
8. Glock 13
9. Alonso 11
10. Raikkonen 10
11. Hamilton 9
12. Heidfeld 6
13. Kovalainen 4
14. Buemi 3
15. Kubica 2
16. Bourdais 2
Constructors:
1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 105
2. Red Bull-Renault 74.5
3. Toyota 34.5
4. Ferrari 26
5. Williams-Toyota 15.5
6. McLaren-Mercedes 13
7. Renault 11
8. BMW Sauber 8
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5
Next race: German Grand Prix, Nürburgring. July 10-12.
Lets here the top three drivers, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing), Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) and Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP). Articles taken Autosport.com.
Sebastian Vettel said his British Grand Prix victory was not as easy as it looked, despite the German crushing the opposition on Sunday.
Vettel completed a ‘hat-trick’ at Silverstone, starting from pole position, setting the fastest lap of the race, and taking his second win of the season.
The Red Bull driver finished 15 seconds ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and over 40 in front of third-placed Rubens Barrichello.
Despite his dominance, Vettel said the race had been difficult, especially during the first part.
“It is never easy,” said Vettel. “It is a long, long race and particularly at this fantastic circuit everyone is enjoying it a lot. It is a dream, really, you have to stay focused and keep your eyes open.
“The start was important, the first stint I pushed hard straight away to try and build a gap, I knew it was crucial as I would benefit all race from it. I had a fantastic car. I was able to push more an more and more.
“The second stint wasn’t easy at all, they said ‘be careful’. I had a lot of traffic and a lot of battling cars, it is tricky when you get close. It was anything else but easy.
“It was great and in the last pitstop I was in clean air. I was counting down the laps and controlling the race from that point onwards. The last 10 laps were quite easy but before that I was pushing hard and in second stint was like a slalom, having to pass a lot of lapped cars.”
The German, who had previously won in China this year, was thankful to the British crowd and admitted it was hard to believe he had won the race.
“It is fantastic. It shows we are on the right way. I want to thank Silverstone: it’s only my second time here, I enjoyed it so much here, the cheering was fantastic, the emotions especially when I crossed the chequered flag, it was fantastic.
“The atmosphere was great. This is what I was dreaming of when I saw the first grand prix here in era of Mansell and so on. It is unreal now to think I am here, I have made it and I have won this grand prix.”
Vettel also played down his team’s dominance, as he reckons all the circumstances were right for him this weekend.
“I wouldn’t mind if we could continue like that, but I think it is a bit of everything,” he said. “This circuit is fantastic and suits our car. The first sector was great every single lap and I have seen our car is behaving fantastically well in all sorts of corners.
“On other hand we have made a nice step forward. I think we have improved the car a bit everywhere and it all came together. We did a good job the whole team working fine and if you want to say it in that way we were quite dominant today.”
Mark Webber believes that he lost his chance of a maiden Formula 1 win at the British Grand Prix during qualifying.
Webber finished second behind his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel, but reckons that he could have posed more of a threat to the German if he had qualified higher up the grid than third.
“Probably yesterday was when we lost the chance,” said Webber. “We needed to get on the front row at least, because we knew that Sebastian would be very quick.
The Australian spent his first stint stuck behind Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn, dropping almost an entire pitstop behind Vettel.
He was able to stay 20 seconds behind Vettel for the remaining 40 laps, but knew the race was beyond him by that point.
“Rubens was doing his best and my car was not that easy, so being 20 seconds behind Seb at the end of the first stint, the race was lost,” he added.
“In the second stint then, I had a lot of traffic and in the last stint the guys reported that I had some damage at the back of the car, so from the second stop onwards we switched to a different gear pattern.”
Webber’s result maintained his fourth place in the world championship, a reduced 33.5 points behind leader Jenson Button, who finished sixth.
Rubens Barrichello said he was proud to have been ‘best of the rest’ at Silverstone on a day when he felt Red Bull was uncatchable.
The Brawn driver beat his team-mate Jenson Button for the first time this year, but had to settle for third. He ran second behind the rapidly-disappearing Sebastian Vettel at first, then lost out to the German’s team-mate Mark Webber at the first pitstops.
“I have a lot of pride because at the end of the day, it was very difficult,” said Barrichello. “Yesterday we were thinking that third was the best we could have and knew that if the track didn’t change a little bit we knew it would be difficult to beat them. They were the class of field this weekend.
“I am proud of the achievement I had. The second stint was difficult on harder tyres, it was difficult to hold on to people and with the winds crossing the track. I did what I had to do.”
The result moves Barrichello to within 23 points of Button in the championship, and the Brazilian said he believed the contest was still alive.
“My target to the end of the year is really to close the gap on Jenson and we all did today,” said Barrichello.
He also revealed that he had been struggling with back problems throughout the event.
“I want to thank all the doctors that helped me this weekend because I was in terrible back pain,” he said.
What about the championship leader Jenson Button? The Brit rues his ‘terrible’ start that cost him a chance for a decent amount of points. Read on for the full story, courtesy of Autosport.com.
Championship leader Jenson Button blamed a bad start for limiting him to sixth place in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The Brawn driver dropped to ninth place on the first lap after starting from the third row, and could only recover back to his starting spot by the end of the 60-lap race.
“I got a terrible start,” said Button. “Jarno Trulli, in front of me, got a really slow getaway, as they [the Toyotas] normally do, and I had nowhere to go.
“I tried to go to the inside, but that wasn’t there, and I tried to go to the outside and that was full, and then everyone shot by me on the outside.”
Button, who, like his Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello, adopted the unusual strategy of using hard tyres for his middle stint, was unable to make the most of his car’s outright pace in the cool temperatures.
He said his car was transformed when he took soft rubber for the final stint. By that point though, the podium was out of reach.
“Behind Trulli in the first stint, I slowed up behind him to give myself some clear air and see what times I could do, and I was eight tenths to a second quicker,” Button said. “There’s just nowhere to pass on this circuit [because the corners are of such high speed].
“Then on the hard tyres the car just didn’t work and I couldn’t get any tyre temperature. That’s the way our car is in cooler temperatures.
“On the soft rubber near the end I was able to close in on Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa like they were standing still, but you still can’t pass around here.”
Button’s result means that his championship lead has been cut from 26 points to 23 with half the season remaining.
As for that incident at Club corner between the Scuderia Toro Rosso and McLaren. Sebastien Bourdais was p***ed off with Heikki Kovalainen. Read more (Autosport.com article):
Sebastien Bourdais was angry with Heikki Kovalainen over a ‘stupid’ collision between the pair during the middle stages of the British Grand Prix.
Toro Rosso driver Bourdais broke the front wing of his car after hitting Kovalainen’s McLaren in the braking zone at Club chicane, the Frenchman retiring soon after and Kovalainen suffering a punctured tyre as a result.
“He changed his line three times,” Bourdais told BBC TV. “He was inside, outside and inside again. The third time we touched.
“I don’ know whose responsibility it is, but it looks a little stupid when you’re fighting for 17th position.”
Kovalainen, who had only exited the pits a few corners earlier, had let his team-mate Lewis Hamilton past on the run into Stowe corner, and said that the defence of his position from Bourdais was far from over the top.
“I moved over to defend, but Bourdais just went into the back of me in the left rear corner,” the Finn added.
“I was not distracted [by Hamilton]. He had his tyres warmed up and had less fuel, so he was having a run at me into turn seven. He passed me and I was trying to re-join back in behind him.
“I saw there was someone behind me coming into turn eight. Then I just felt someone touch me and it punctured my left rear tyre. Game over.”
Grid position is vital if you want a decent result in the race and even Christian Horner backs this viewpoint. Read on for the details – taken from Autosport.com.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the foundations of Sebastian Vettel’s emphatic victory in the British Grand Prix were laid in qualifying, when the German qualified on pole position despite having a heavier fuel load than his rivals.
The 21-year-old dominated the Silverstone event, having capitalised on his qualifying performance and finishing 15s ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber.
“I think Sebastian had effectively delivered a stunning performance yesterday on the heavier fuel and effectively being longer always gives you the priority, or the preferable strategy,” said Horner.
“So basically Sebastian went a long way to winning this race yesterday during qualifying.”
Despite the margin of victory Horner says the team must keep pushing the development of what is being dubbed the RB5-B – introduced this weekend – if they are to catch Brawn in the world championship title race.
“The team is doing a great job,” he said. “We are putting performance on the car every weekend, and I don’t see any reason why we can’t keep the momentum up going into the future races.”
Asked whether he thought Red Bull was now ahead of Brawn in terms of development, he replied: “Well we haven’t overtaken them in the points yet so when we’ve overtaken them in the points then yes.”
Horner also revealed that he had derived a great deal of personal pride from watching his team score a one-two victory at his home track.
“For the team, as the local race, for us it’s a fantastic feeling,” he said. “Let’s not forget that this team had never scored a point at Silverstone before this weekend so to come home with a one-two is fantastic.
“From a personal point of view, I won the support race here three years in succession in F3000. I raced here, and the first grand prix I ever came to was here so it was a very satisfying moment.”
Well it wasn’t the greatest race, and ( quite rightly ) hardly saw any footage of Vettel storming into an unassailable lead. But some good action down the line.
But what a crowd! 310,000 over the three days with 120,000 on Sunday. Just incredible support for F1, Jenson and Lewis, but more importantly for Silverstone. they must be well chuffed and you never know, they may be here next year as well if Dono doesn’t get off it’s bottom.
Either way, I think next year I must go to wherever the British GP is. In to minds as to which I prefer, as Dono is just ten minutes away, well ten minutes without the traffic!!!! But Silverstone is, well, Silverstone so I dunno.
Heck there might even be meetings at both if FOTA get’s its way!