Webber's Number One After Silverstone Triumph
- Published on Jul 11th, 2010 by Jack LamureToday's British Grand Prix showed Mark Webber doesn't need Red Bull to give him wings- he can fly all by himself. The Aussie overcame a far from than ideal weekend to seal his third victory of 2010- and one that suggests his team should think about providing equal treatment to both their drivers.
© Sutton/Autosport
Webber got a better start than poleman Sebastian Vettel, and squeezed his teammate wide in to turn one. A few corners later Sebastian was off again, his right-rear tyre punctured- more likely by a tap from Hamilton than his trip over the astroturf. Meanwhile third-place starter Alonso had made a bad start, allowing several cars to swamp him in to turn one, before coming together with teammate Massa. The Spaniard was unaffected, but by the end of lap one both Felipe and Vettel were in the pits.
This left Webber out front, followed by Hamilton, Rosberg, Kubica and Alonso. Meanwhile Jenson Button had enjoyed a great first lap, moving from 14th on the grid to 8th as the cars began lap two.
As the race settled down Webber began to edge away from Hamilton, never dropping him fully but not looking under any real pressure either. In fact Hamilton was doing well to hang on to the Red Bull, but it was clear that Mark had pace in his pocket, and even on lap one we got the feeling this one was going to be Webber's.
© LAT/Autosport
The best battle on track at this point was between Kubica, Rosberg and Alonso, with the Ferrari looking quicker but unable to make a pass. Fernando pitted first, quickly followed by Kubica, but Rosberg remained on-track, where he reeled off some quick laps. When he made his stop he'd leapfrogged Kubica, with Alonso behind the Pole.
Then came the move that wrecked the Spaniard's day, as he took to the grass to pass Kubica. The Ferrari didn't allow the Renault back past, and would be given a drive through penalty for his actions.Kubica himself had retired with a differential problem. By that time the safety car was out to allow marshals to clear remnants of Pedro de la Rosa's rear-wing, which were scattered across Hanger straight. When Alonso did make his drive through the field was bunched up, and he dropped right down the order and out of contention.
When the safety car pulled in Webber and Hamilton took off at the front, with Rosberg, Button and Barichello separated from them by a gaggle of backmarkers. That allowed the front two to scamper off, though in reality they were in a class of their own today anyway. Webber was able to drop Hamilton to a comfortable distance and maintain the gap, and whilst Lewis made inroads now and again Webber clearly had everything he needed to hold on to the lead.
The recovering Vettel meanwhile was making strides through the field, passing countrymen Hulkenberg and Schumacher. Next up was another German, Force India's Adrian Sutil. Adrian was in no mood to make this an easy one, and frustrated Vettel until the final, when the Red Bull snuck up the inside and grabbed 7th place. Sutil had defended valiantly, but the ultimately the Red Bull's pace showed.
© Sutton/Autosport
Out front things had been stable for a while, as Webber maintained a 5 second lead over Hamilton, and Rosberg held off Button for third. Webber came home to win comfortably, with Hamilton and Rosberg completing the top three. Button's fourth was a great result considering his qualifying woes, whilst 5th and 6th went to Barichello and Kamui Kobayashi. Kobayashi had a quiet but absolutely fantastic run to 6th, ensuring more valuable points for the Sauber team. The promise he showed towards the end of last year has turned in to positive results over the past few races. The German quintet of Vettel, Sutil, Schumacher and Hulkenberg completed the point scoring finishers.
So a great day for Red Bull's self-confessed number two driver, and not a bad one at all for McLaren- they'll be delighted to have taken a good haul of points at a track that was always going to favour Red Bull. Vettel's recovery could be key as the season reaches its conclusion, whilst Williams and Sauber both enjoyed their best day of 2010 and Nico Rosberg once again humbled teammate Michael Schumacher. But for Ferrari it was a disaster- no points for either driver and both now slipping well back from championship leader Hamilton.
So Hamilton now leads the standings by 12 points from teammate Button. Then it's a 5 point gap to Webber, with Vettel 7 behind him. Fernando Alonso is now a distant 5th, 47 points off the lead.
Webber now stands alone on 3 race victories, and will head to the German Grand Prix two weeks from now brimming with confidence. It's Vettel's home race, so he too will be itching to impress, whilst the McLaren boys will be going flat out to hold on to their championship leads. This season is looking very tasty indeed.
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Comments and Discussion
Alonso licks his pencil and adds Nigel Mansell and Tonio Liuzzi to his Big Book of Grievances...
I'm going to post in two parts here... i typed rather a lot. *blush*
Another fantastic race! Ten rounds done, nine brilliant Grand Prix', what a fabulous season this is turning out to be!
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I'm a bit confused as to why Ferrari continue to allow arrogance to get the better of them. They need to get out of the mindset "We are Ferrari, we ARE Formula 1", Formula 1 will be fine without you so sit down and shut up, you get the same rules as everyone else to abide by.
It's not like they're not used to playing fairly, i remember an incident with Massa somewhere a year or so ago when he overtook off the track then immediately gave the place back without a call from the pits.
I thought Alonso was going to lift going through Club corner immediately after the pass, he was offline anyway and would've lost minimal time by doing so in order to have a crack later. He just chose not to and got the penalty he deserved.
I did enjoy his "No more radio" comment though and his subsequent pace which comprehensively destroyed his hard tyres!
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Losing Kubica was a pity since that would've been a great continuing fight for 3rd to 6th places, not to mention that his departure sealed the coffin on Alonso's potentially good race.
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Vettel's last stint charge overshadowed his earlier poor pace. After his pitstop he was slow, seemingly disinterested, failed to maximise his car's pace and was making barely any forward progress. Then the safety closed it all up and suddenly he woke up. The fact remains if he'd been trying 100% on every lap after his early pitstop then he'd have finished 3rd no problem, so yes his 'recovery' was key, in the sense that there wasn't going to be one without the safety car.
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Webber drove brilliantly and i think shoving Sebastian off the track at Copse evened the score for when Vettel turned-in to the Australian in Turkey. Wipe the slate clean and start again now lads, you've both screwed each other out of possible victories.
What i'd like to know is before the race Christian Horner commented that "Both drivers know what they have to do into the first corner". The last time he said this, they held station in their qualifying order. Did Mark effectively disobey a team order by forcing out his team mate on the first corner? From Sebastian's viewpoint it does look like through Copse he was expecting Mark to give him room and let him go.
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By the way, my opinion on the front wing qualifying issue is that Webber should've kept it, not because it was any quicker or would give him an advantage but just because Vettel's one broke and that's just tough luck.
If you give two kids two new Transformer's and one of the kids drops his, breaking it; do you take the Transformer off the other kid to cheer up the unfortunate one?
I've said it before, i'll say it again: Schumacher's past it and should get out ASAP because he's now wrecking his reputation. Sure he was brilliant when he was at the front and challenging for wins every week, but give him a midfield car and he's hopeless.
The comparitive ease by which Vettel was able to overtake him was telling. Sebastian initially had one little attempt which was never going to work, then Michael just wandered into the middle of the track and said "Here's a gap on my inside if you like" which his compatriot took. Sutil did a much better job in a car that's further from the pace of the Red Bull than Schumacher's Mercedes. Michael should take notes.
Adrian's always been a particularly tough man to pass when he's keeping it on the track. Remember in Malaysia where Hamilton went steaming through the field then got jammed up behind Sutil and couldn't overtake?
When Sebastian did eventually make it past, it wasn't through his cars pace advantage, it was through going for a small gap and barging his way through, it was the only way he was going to make the move stick.
Even though i've had a good go at Vettel previously, it was a good overtake!
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Another mention for Kobayashi: He managed to jump the Schumacher/Brawn combination in his pitstop then defended valiantly when he was under massive pressure from Michael behind just after he exited the pits. He then steadily pulled away from an over-the-hill driver in a faster car, let's hope the performance of the Sauber continues to improve, there's plenty of drivers yet to make it onto Kamui's list of 'People i've dominated'.
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Pass of the day goes to Rosberg for that fantastic move around the outside of Hulkenberg. Alonso's late angry-charge also produced some great manouevers.
Driver of the day was Webber, he had the measure of Hamilton and could've pulled further away than he did. But he thought of the fans and kept the gap small enough throughout to make it look like there was always chance for the Brit!