Hungarian Grand Prix 2012 - Report

Lewis Hamilton re-ignited his championship hopes with an excellent victory at the Hungaroring. Having started from pole position, the Brit was forced to fend off a late attack from Kimi Raikkonen, who despite having the faster car was unable to find a way past Hamilton before the chequered flag fell. Romain Grosjean converted a front row start to another podium finish with third place to complete another excellent outing for Lotus.

Hamilton was in control on Saturday as he took his McLaren team’s 150^th pole position, setting not one but two times that were good enough to be the fastest in the final qualifying session. His closest challenger was Grosjean, who was four tenths behind, with Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull and the second McLaren of Jenson Button making up row two. Raikkonen started fifth, sharing the third row with championship leader Fernando Alonso.

As the lights went out, Hamilton made a textbook getaway to lead the pack, with Grosjean resisting the advances of Vettel at the first corner to maintain second position. Button was then able to take advantage of Vettel’s failure to pass Grosjean as he positioned his McLaren to the outside of the Red Bull at the second corner to snatch third place. Alonso meanwhile replicated the move on Raikkonen to take fifth, with Mark Webber making an excellent start from eleventh to complete the opening lap behind the Finn in seventh.

Hamilton initially wasted no time in pressing home his advantage at the head of the field, but Grosjean was soon able to peg the gap to the McLaren at around two seconds. As the first stint wore on, it became clear that Button was unable to keep pace with the two leaders, and he soon had to switch his attentions to fending off Vettel. Alonso likewise was choosing to conserve his tyres early on, costing Raikkonen and Webber time to the leaders.

Button was evidently struggling with tyre wear, and therefore the first of the leading group to a make a pit-stop – he came into the pits for a switch from soft to medium compound tyres on lap 15. He resumed ahead of Vettel, who made his first stop two laps later but chose to fit another set of softs rather than the mediums. Raikkonen on the other hand ran three laps later in the opening stint than Alonso, allowing him to move ahead of the Spaniard into fifth place with superior pace once the Lotus had a clear track ahead.

Hamilton switched to medium tyres on lap 18, and was able to re-take the lead of the race when Grosjean pitted for softs a lap later. It was this decision to run the softs that allowed Grosjean to close to within a second of his adversary, albeit not quite close enough to attempt a serious overtaking manoeuvre.

Button was also coming under intense pressure in the battle for third against the soft tyre-shod Vettel. The McLaren’s tyre wear problems lead to a change to a three-stop strategy, the team equipping Button with a fresh set of medium tyres for their driver on lap 34. Unfortunately for the Briton however, he re-joined the track behind Bruno Senna’s Williams, and lost crucial time to Vettel in the four laps before the German stopped. Predictably, the reigning champion resumed comfortably clear of Senna and Button after his stop on lap 38.

Grosjean, still unable to find a way past Hamilton at the head of the race, came in for a second and final stop on lap 39 for medium tyres. Hamilton headed for the pit-lane a lap later for mediums, and was able to hang on to his advantage. However, it would turn out that the biggest threat to a Hamilton victory would not be Grosjean, who proved unable to keep pace with Hamilton as he lost time stuck behind the slower, yet-to-stop Alonso, but the sister Lotus of Raikkonen.

The 2007 World Champion had managed to maintain excellent pace throughout his long second stint on soft tyres, which ended when Raikkonen headed to the pits at the end of lap 45. He emerged from the pits side-by-side with teammate Grosjean, who was forced to give best to his more illustrious teammate as he was eased wide by the Finn on the exit of the first corner.

The gap between Hamilton and Raikkonen was around 4.5 seconds at this stage, but the gap quickly began to shrink. By lap 50, it was less than two seconds, and three laps later Raikkonen was within a second of Hamilton. There were times when Raikkonen was able to close, but in the turbulent wake of the McLaren it was never quite enough to bring Hamilton into striking distance. With a handful of laps to go, Hamilton began to open up the advantage once again, and went on to take a well-deserved nineteenth career victory.

Grosjean held on from Vettel, who made a late third stop on lap 58 in an ultimately fruitless attempt to overhaul the Frenchman, to take a third podium of the season. Behind the pair finished Alonso, who was able to frustrate Button for the remainder of the race despite the McLaren being quicker than the Ferrari on this occasion. In his best drive for some time, Bruno Senna took a fine seventh place finish (which could prove decisive when it comes to contract renewal time), with Webber’s three-stop strategy failing to pay dividends as he spent much of the final stint stuck behind the Brazilian en route to eighth place.

Rounding out the points finishers were Felipe Massa, who had a fairly anonymous run to ninth place, and Nico Rosberg who squeezed one point out of the highly recalcitrant Mercedes to take tenth. Behind finished the two Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta, who at one stage found himself subject to a somewhat ambitious move by Pastor Maldonado at turn 12. Having qualified eighth, it was a disappointing weekend for the Venezuelan who earnt a drive-through penalty for making contact with di Resta’s car on the way to a subdued thirteenth place finish.

It was a disappointing race for Sauber all round, as the high race day temperatures prevented Sergio Perez from making any real progress during the race – he finished a lowly fourteenth. Things didn’t go much better for Kamui Kobayashi either, who sustained damage at the first corner which ultimately resulted in an eighteenth place finish behind the Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne as well as the lead Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen, who celebrated his 100^th race start this weekend.

Vitaly Petrov was next in nineteenth position ahead of the two Marussia cars, Charles Pic again out-qualifying and out-racing his more experienced teammate Timo Glock whose efforts weren’t helped by an early spin. Last of the finishers was the HRT of Pedro de la Rosa, with the sister car of Narain Karthikeyan failing to finish due to  a late front-left suspension failure that pitched the car into the barriers at turn 4.

The only driver who hasn’t been mentioned yet is Michael Schumacher, who suffered what will probably rank amongst the worst weekends of his 21-year F1 career. Having struggled for pace all weekend, the seven-time champion lined up in seventeenth place on the grid, only to park his Mercedes out of position on the grid. The start was subsequently aborted, prompting Schumacher to switch off his engine. As the rest of the field commenced an additional formation lap, Schumacher was forced to start from the pit-lane.

The Mercedes then inexplicably picked up a puncture on lap 1 despite the absence of any obvious debris on the circuit, necessitating a return to the pits at the end of the lap. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse for Schumacher, he was called back to the pits to serve a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding. Now languishing last, Schumacher was able to recover only a few places before the team decided to call it a day to prevent unnecessary damage to the engine.

A win prior to the four-week long summer break was precisely what Hamilton needed, and Raikkonen’s second position means both are now in with a realistic title chance, particularly as the Ferrari seems to have slipped behind the McLaren, Lotus and Red Bull as far as sheer pace is concerned. However, the fact that Alonso was still able to stretch his championship lead to forty points is a testament to the dogged consistency that will make him an extremely difficult man to overcome over the course of these remaining nine races.

German Grand Prix 2012 - Round-up

Again, allow me to begin by apologising for not posting this race report sooner – Yesterday, I was at Brands Hatch, soaking in some British Superbike action, whilst I have spent today doing work experience with Motorsport News.

The German Grand Prix arguably marked the start of one man finally taking a firm grasp of this most unpredictable of championships. That man was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who delivered an utterly textbook performance to lead virtually from start to finish following on from an equally blistering pole position lap after a sudden downpour on Saturday.

The Spaniard made a dream start whilst fellow front row starter Sebastian Vettel had his hands full defending from Michael Schumacher during the opening lap following a mediocre getaway. The Red Bull driver soon set about challenging Alonso for the lead however, but never really looked like finding a way past him during the opening stint.

In fact, he would soon find himself demoted to third by Jenson Button’s McLaren, who after spending a lengthy spell in the doldrums was back on form in Germany. The rain during qualifying restricted him to a grid slot of sixth, but the Brit passed Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg and Schumacher during the opening stint to put himself in contention for a first win since the curtain-raiser in Melbourne.

A blistering 2.4 second pit-stop by the McLaren mechanics was partially responsible for Button now finding himself in second position and in hot pursuit of race leader Alonso during the second stint.  Despite the McLaren being ostensibly the quicker package in the dry, Alonso remained in total control, and was able to resist Button’s advances throughout the second stint.

McLaren brought their man in for a second change of rubber a lap sooner than Alonso and Vettel, but it wouldn’t be sufficient for Button to move into the lead. Instead, Frome’s finest would find himself coming under pressure from Vettel towards the end of the race as the McLaren’s tyres deteriorated faster. The home favourite attempted to pass Button around the outside of the Spitzkehre hairpin, but he ran off the circuit at the exit of the corner as he executed the move.

The German therefore crossed the line second behind Alonso, but was awarded a 20-second time penalty after the race as the stewards deemed his overtake on Button to be illegal. That demoted Vettel to fifth, costing the German eight points, but he was arguably lucky to score any points at all; Red Bull became embroiled in controversy prior to the start of the race when the team was accused of using illegal engine mappings that simulated the effects of a traction control system.

Button was promoted to second, marking his best result since the Chinese Grand Prix in April, whilst the final spot on the podium went to Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus. The Finn made swift progress from a lacklustre grid slot of tenth during the first stint, but the team’s decision to make him run the slower soft tyre in the middle stint cost him any real shot at challenging the leaders.

Kamui Kobayashi may have only started twelfth, but his Sauber’s tyre-saving tendencies facilitated some eye-catching progress throughout the race. The Japanese driver finished fifth on the road, though that would become a career-best fourth after Vettel’s penalty. Sergio Perez meanwhile had even more ground to make up after being dropped five places on the grid for blocking Raikkonen during Q2. The Mexican thus lined up seventeenth, but like his teammate was able to combine some solid race pace with excellent tyre preservation to finish an improbable sixth.

Going backwards on the other hand was Schumacher. Much as he did at Silverstone, the four-time German Grand Prix winner profited from the wet on Saturday to start the race from third position, but was powerless to prevent his decline as the race wore on. He was able to hang on to fifth for much of the distance, but excessive tyre wear necessitated an extra stop which saw him slip behind the Sauber duo into seventh place.

A five-place penalty for a gearbox change saw Mark Webber demoted to eighth on the grid after setting the third quickest qualifying time, but the British Grand Prix winner failed to show the same race pace at the wheel of the Red Bull as teammate Vettel, the Aussie disappointingly unable to finish any higher than he started.

Hulkenberg suffered a similar fate to Schumacher, winding up a disappointing ninth after achieving a heady grid slot of fourth as his Force India’s tyre woes also warranted a three-stop strategy. Paul Di Resta in the meantime tried to get by on two stops, but was powerless to fend off Nico Rosberg in the dying stages of the race as the German clinched tenth place in an impressive comeback from 21^st on the grid – itself a result of a torrid qualifying session and a gearbox change penalty.

In stark contrast to his teammate Alonso at the front, Felipe Massa lost his front wing almost before the race had started when he clouted the rear of Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso on the approach to the first corner, and after a first-lap stop for a fresh nose had to be content with a twelfth place finish. The clash left a smattering of debris on the track, which would account for Lewis Hamilton’s race.

Hamilton had started seventh behind Button, but his race was ruined on the third lap after sustaining a puncture from the debris. Despite losing a lap as he cruised back to the pits, Hamilton did nonetheless make his presence felt among the leaders when he unlapped himself against Vettel, much to the German’s chagrin. McLaren retired the car ten laps from home to avoid damaging the car further when it became apparent there was no chance of Hamilton salvaging any points.

Also caught out by debris was Maldonado, whose grid position counted for little as damage to the car saw him gradually fall to fifteenth. Things didn’t get much better for Williams as Bruno Senna collided with Romain Grosjean on the opening lap, whose race had already been severely compromised by a gearbox change penalty that saw him start from nineteenth on the grid. That was one place ahead of fellow Frenchman Charles Pic, who deserves an honourable mention for out-qualifying and out-racing Marussia teammate Timo Glock despite missing final practice due to engine problems.

The race marks a career milestone of 30 wins for Alonso, who now possesses a rather handy 34-point lead in the championship from Webber at the halfway stage of the season.  With ten races left, there’s still time for the Aussie, along with Vettel and perhaps even Raikkonen or Hamilton, to catch up, but what must come as a worry to them is that Alonso’s resounding success came at the wheel of what clearly is not the best car – it is the driver that is making all the difference.

German Grand Prix 2012 - Preview

It’s fair to say that the modern layout of the Hockenheimring is, at best, a shadow of its former, high-speed self. Since it was redesigned a decade ago, it has failed to provide Formula One fans with the exciting contests the old circuit had become associated with. As was the case with Valencia however, that could all be about to change in 2012.

The present-day, 2.8 mile Hockenheimring is a mix of high, medium and low speed corners, which simultaneously demands strong traction and downforce. With the track absent from last year’s calendar, this will be the first time we see Pirelli tyres and DRS at the circuit – the tyre allocation for the weekend consists of the medium and soft compounds, whilst the DRS zone is located, perhaps predictably, on the long, curved approached to the Spitzkehre hairpin.

The last race at Silverstone perhaps gave us our clearest insight yet as to how this year’s intriguing title battle may unfold. Unquestionably, Red Bull and Ferrari proved the class of the field, with Lotus not far behind at least as far as race pace is concerned. McLaren and Mercedes meanwhile seemed somewhat out of sorts, and found themselves mired in a midfield melee with the Sauber and Williams teams.

Based on last year’s form, few would have given Mark Webber a chance of adding his name to the illustrious list of world champions heading into this season; his emphatic victory at Silverstone is all the evidence required to suggest he does however have a chance of becoming the eldest world champion since Alain Prost in 1993. The Australian has nonetheless not been the most consistent driver since his early run of fourth place finishes, so a strong sequence of podiums could well prove key for Webber if he is to live up to the promise he showed so clearly two weeks ago.

If not for that alternator failure at Valencia, Sebastian Vettel would in fact be leading the championship at this stage. Whilst he may have fallen slightly short of teammate Webber at Silverstone, one can’t help but feel that Vettel remains the more attractive prospect of the Red Bull pairing when it comes to this year’s title. The German suffered a strangely lacklustre performance at home last year, and the event is one of the few remaining on this year’s calendar that he is yet to win. Vettel will no doubt be itching to set straight that particular record, and in doing so re-establish superiority over Webber.

The Hockenheimring is likely to bring back some bad memories for the Ferrari team. It was of course during F1’s last visit to the circuit that Felipe Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley delivered those immortal words to his driver in his trademark Middlesborough accent – ‘Fernando is faster than you.’  Still, Massa has finished on the podium during his last three Hockenheim outings, and his spirited drive to fourth at Silverstone could well set the tone for the Brazilian's first podium appearance in two years.

Judging how close Fernando Alonso was to back-to-back wins at Valencia and Silverstone, two very different circuits, it’s safe to say that the Ferrari is likely to be quick at most circuits from this point onwards. The Spaniard is always a threat when provided competitive machinery, and has indeed featured on the podium at four of the last five races. His near-metronomic consistency could prove the decisive factor come Interlagos, and it would take a brave man to bet against him ascending the podium once more in Germany.

Given how quick the Lotus car has been on occasions this year, it’s tempting to say that ‘Team Enstone’ ought to have won its first race since Alonso’s victory for Renault at Fuji back in 2008. The majority of Kimi Raikkonen’s race at Silverstone was clearly compromised by Michael Schumacher’s slower Mercedes, and the pace he demonstrated towards the end of the race was indictative of the potential still locked away in that car. It has largely been Saturday when Raikkonen and teammate Romain Grosjean have tended to come up short, making a strong qualifying performance imperative if either driver is to get among the Red Bulls and Ferraris come race day.

With the summer break looming, McLaren need to pull something out of the bag both here at Germany and Hungary to maintain its title hopes in both championships – ideally, Lewis Hamilton needs to take a win either here or next weekend at the Hungaroring. The team are introducing what team principal Martin Whitmarsh promises will be an outwardly noticeable upgrade package in order to help him do just that, though it is going to have to make an immediate and dramatic impact after an abysmal home race for both Hamilton and Jenson Button. With next to no hope of taking the title himself, Button’s goal now has to be to take away as many points from Hamilton's rivals as he can to allow his teammate to put himself firmly in the title hunt.

If Silverstone is anything to go by, Mercedes may be about to experience an equally dismal home race as McLaren did. Michael Schumacher’s undiminished wet-weather prowess may have allowed him to qualify a heady third at the Northamptonshire track, but the car was evidently not up to task in the warm and dry race conditions. Nico Rosberg’s victory at Shanghai must feel like some time ago by now, the team having fallen to a distant fifth in the constructors standings. A cool or even wet race will be the team’s only likely hope of pleasing its home fans as Schumacher and Rosberg bid to try and make up some of the ground the team has lost to its rivals in recent races.

Pastor Maldonado’s latest antics as well as Kamui Kobayashi’s pitlane blunder unfortunately served to deny Sauber any chance of scoring points at Silverstone in spite of the strong early pace they showed, but both Kobayashi and Sergio Perez will probably have the opportunity to re-inforce the team’s stranglehold on sixth in the constructors'. Williams meanwhile have scored just four points since Maldonado’s Spanish GP victory, and risk slipping behind Force India if they can’t score a reasonable haul of points this weekend at a track that should theoretically suit the car.

Qualifying Prediction

1. Vettel, 2. Alonso, 3. Webber, 4. Hamilton, 5. Massa, 6. Raikkonen, 7. Maldonado, 8. Rosberg, 9. Button, 10. Grosjean (penalty)

Race Prediction

1. Vettel, 2. Alonso, 3. Webber, 4. Raikkonen, 5. Hamilton, 6. Massa, 7. Grosjean, 8. Rosberg, 9. Perez, 10. Senna

Red Bull are on some fine form at the moment, and a driver of Vettel’s calibre can’t avoid winning his home race forever. Thus, I’ve backed the home hero for success on Saturday and Sunday, with Alonso and Webber closely in his sights on both occasions. Raikkonen will make his way forward ahead of Hamilton and Massa during the race, with Grosjean unable to do no more than seventh, albeit right behind the second Ferrari, thanks to his five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Rosberg will scrape no more than a few points with Schumacher a little further down the order, with Perez and Senna completing the top ten as Button becomes Maldonado’s latest scalp.

Silly Season 2012

We’ve once again reached that part of the Formula One season when speculation as to which drivers are heading where traditionally becomes rife. While some of the championship’s biggest names are contracted to their existing teams next year, a number of big hitters are yet to have their destinies decided.

The most significant of these is Lewis Hamilton, whose contract with McLaren expires at the end of the year. A number of costly blunders on the part of the Woking-based team have cost him numerous points so far this year, prompting speculation that the Brit could opt to leave the team with whom he has driven since the start of his F1 career five years ago. Red Bull had been mooted as a potential destination for Hamilton, but the recent confirmation that Mark Webber would stick with the Anglo-Austrian team for at least one more year has ruled such a move out.

Of the race-winning outfits, that leaves potential vacancies only at Ferrari and Mercedes. The former is generally regarded as a no-go for Hamilton as long as Fernando Alonso is at the team (the Spaniard is under contract until the end of 2016) due to their tempestuous relationship as teammates at McLaren. Mercedes meanwhile are seemingly keen to retain Michael Schumacher alongside the contracted Nico Rosberg should he choose to continue, which seems likely as 2012 has been by far the seven-time champion’s most convincing season of his comeback yet.

The smart money is therefore on Hamilton sticking around at McLaren, although a potential sticking point could prove to be the length of a new contract. The team will no doubt be eager to secure Hamilton’s services for as long as they can, but the Brit would do well to avoid commiting himself beyond 2013 as the new engine regulations that come into force for 2014 could well mix up the competitive order – McLaren could find itself at a distinct disadvantage without a works engine deal in place, though a revival of its once-dominant alliance with Honda remains a possibility.

Felipe Massa is another driver whose fate remains uncertain. In the wake of some dire early season performances, the chances of the Brazilian retaining his Ferrari seat seemed non-existent. However, a recent upturn in his form means that there is now a distinct chance he could yet stay at the Maranello team for an eighth successive season. Ferrari Academy member Sergio Perez had marked himself out as a likely candidate to replace Massa with his second place finish at Malaysia, but Ferrari president Luca di Montezemelo is on the record saying that he thinks the Mexican lacks sufficient experience to be offered a Ferrari seat just yet.

If the rumour mill is to be believed, Sebastian Vettel has an option to jump ship from Red Bull to Ferrari in 2014, meaning that any replacement would be signed in all likelihood for just a one-year deal. As well as Perez, other possible candidates include Heikki Kovalainen, who has impressed many onlookers with his performances at Caterham, and Adrian Sutil, who despite having been left on the sidelines for this season is working hard on a return. Massa’s former employers Sauber would probably represent his only chance to remain on the F1 grid should he be shown the door at Ferrari, but emulating compatriot  Rubens Barrichello and competing in IndyCar could prove a more attractive option.

Either way, it appears as if Kamui Kobayashi is in danger of dropping off the grid for next season. The Japanese driver has been largely outshone by Perez so far this season at Sauber, and his lack of sponsorship dollars unfortunately does not make him a particularly interesting prospect for any other team. In addition to Massa, former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari is a candidate to replace Kobayashi, who will have the advantage of having been one of Pirelli’s test drivers for this season as well as a considerable sponsorship package. Should Perez be offered a Ferrari drive, Sauber may also find it beneficial to sign their current test driver, Esteban Gutierrez, in order to maintain their myriad of Mexican sponsors.

Another potential avenue for Alguersuari is Force India. With Schumacher likely to stay with Mercedes for another year, there appears to be little chance of either Paul Di Resta or Nico Hulkenberg securing a better drive for next season; Hulkenberg thus runs the risk of being replaced either by Alguersuari or by test driver Jules Bianchi, whose chances of being promoted to a race seat have been recently played up by team boss Vijay Mallya. Bruno Senna is another driver who could find himself in the cold at the end of the year, as he has failed to extract the same pace out of the Williams car as teammate Pastor Maldonado. Test driver Valtteri Bottas has reportedly impressed the Grove-based outfit during Friday practice sessions, and thus stands a good chance of partnering Maldonado if Senna fails to lift his game.

Caterham could offer a reprieve to one of the aforementioned if Kovalainen is indeed selected to partner Alonso at Ferrari next season, though test driver Alexander Rossi is also a contender by virtue of his potentially lucrative American passport, while Vitaly Petrov has probably done enough to stay on board notwithstanding the copious number of rubles he brings to the team. At Marussia, Timo Glock is in theory under lock and key for the next two seasons, whilst positive noises are being made about Charles Pic chances of retention, although the same applied for Jerome D’Ambrosio last year before he was quietly dropped by the team – the Frenchman’s fate will probably boil down to sponsorship. The same goes for HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan, with Pedro de la Rosa under contract in the sister car and test driver Dani Clos in the frame to create an all-Spanish line-up for 2013.

With so many drivers with F1 experience on the sidelines this year – including Sutil, Alguersuari, D’Ambrosio and current Red Bull reserve Sebastien Buemi to name a few – there is a risk that, particularly in the era of no in-season testing, that up-and-coming drivers will be unable to make the illusive final step into the ranks of F1. The rules cater for an extra team and thus an additional two seats, which the FIA should be making more effort to realise in order to help ensure that none of the promising talents from GP2 or World Series by Renault, of which there are many, find their paths blocked.

British Grand Prix 2012 - Round-up

First of all, allow me to apologise for the lateness of this post – my girlfriend and I were among the thousands of mud-soaked campers at this year’s British Grand Prix, where the torrential downpours had delayed our return until this afternoon as our campsite became a veritable cesspool.

On the upside, we were fortunate enough to enjoy the incredible sensory experience that is having 24 Formula One cars circulating one of the greatest motor racing tracks in the world before our very eyes. Armed with a reasonable vantage point in the grassy bank between Stowe and Vale corners and a handy-dandy ‘Fanvision’ device, we were able to keep abreast of all the action in another intriguing and rather eventful contest.

Red Bull and Ferrari emerged from the 90-minute rain-induced delay in the middle of qualifying to emerge as the most competitive teams, with Fernando Alonso on pole position from Mark Webber. Sunday was essentially a two-horse race between the top two contenders in this year’s championship, and it was a superior tyre strategy that gifted the Aussie a popular ‘home’ victory – he does, after all, live just down the road from Silverstone in a village near the town of Aylesbury.

With soft and hard tyres on the menu for what was miraculously a completely dry race, Ferrari opted to start Alonso on hard tyres and Red Bull softs for Webber, with all the Q3 men free to choose their tyre compound for the race with their qualifying times naturally having been set with intermediate tyres. It was the hard tyre that proved the quicker over a stint, Alonso duly making a good start and quickly building a gap with his faster rubber.

Alonso began his final stint, for which he had to equip soft tyres with fourteen laps to go, with a buffer of around five seconds over Webber. The Red Bull driver however began to eat into the Spaniard’s advantage at an alarming rate with the help of the hard tyres, and found himself sitting on the championship leader’s gearbox with around seven laps to go. It became clear that it would merely be a question of when, rather than if, Webber would find a way past and claim the win.

Sure enough, the move came with the help of DRS at Brooklands on lap 48, and the best efforts of Alonso were insufficient to keep his ailing Ferrari in the lead of the race as the pair went toe-to-toe around Luffield. Webber held on for the remaining laps to take his second Silverstone win in three years, with Alonso seemingly content with second place and a marginally reduced championship lead of thirteen points.

Third position fell to Sebastian Vettel, who made use of an early first stop to jump ahead of the queue that formed in the wake of Michael Schumacher in the opening stint. The reigning champion however was never a factor for the win having damaged his front wing by clipping Felipe Massa on the opening lap, and was forced to settle for the final step on the podium.  With fourth place, Massa took his best result since finishing third in the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, and was even catching Vettel towards the end of the race in an assured drive.

The Brazilian was chased home by his former teammate Kimi Raikkonen, whose scorching pace only became evident in the final stint when he set fastest lap with the benefit of clear air having previously been held up by Schumacher.  Romain Grosjean meanwhile recovered to a sixth place finish following an off in qualifying that left the Frenchman tenth on the grid and an early collision with Paul di Resta that put the Scot out of contention on lap one.

Schumacher’s wet-weather brilliance allowed him to qualify his Mercedes higher than it had any real right to be in third place, but reality bit beneath the sunshine on Sunday as the German slipped to a more representative seventh-place finish. Nico Rosberg on the other hand was ineffective all weekend, making a poor start from a mediocre grid slot of eleventh and failing to make any real progress thereafter en route to a dismal fifteenth place finish behind both Toro Rosso drivers.

Another team that was left scratching their heads over their lack of form was McLaren. Neither Lewis Hamilton nor Jenson Button qualified especially well, the former starting from eighth and the latter sixteenth following a disastrous Q1 exit. A long opening stint gave Hamilton a brief lead in front of his adoring home fans, but a strategic error by McLaren – making Hamilton run the slower soft tyre for just seven laps in the middle stint – compounded a simple lack of race pace on the part of the Woking-built cars. Hamilton finished where he started whilst Button made a good start and kept his nose clean to steal the final point of the day as a number of his other rivals hit trouble.

Chief among these was Pastor Maldonado, who got himself embroiled in yet another on-track collision. Sergio Perez was was attempting to pass the Venezuelan around the outside at Brooklands having pulled clear along the preceding straight before Maldonado outbraked himself and piled into the side of the Sauber, putting the irate Mexican out of the race. Maldonado was able to continue, but the damage he sustained limited him to a sixteenth place finish while his teammate Bruno Senna drove a decidely more steady race to ninth place between the two McLarens.

To complete a wretched weekend for the Sauber team, Kamui Kobayashi was running well inside the points until he mowed down several members of his pit-crew during his final stop in his over-exuberance. The Japanese thus could do no better than eleventh, ahead of the sole remaining Force India of Nico Hulkenberg who lost places with a late off-track excursion at Stowe as he battled Senna in the closing stages of the race.


Although the standard of the television coverage in the modern era of the sport is second to none, nothing can beat the actual experience of being there to see, hear and smell the incredible machines that are Formula One cars amid an atmosphere to rival any world-class sporting event. For all the rain, mud, lack of showering and horrifically overpriced food and merchandise, a visit to the charming and rustic Silverstone circuit is one I could recommend to any F1 fan.  

Motorsport Euro 2012

Another major football tournament, another lacklustre performance from England – t’was ever thus. However, just as our even more dismal showing at the World Cup two years ago got me thinking about a similar tournament for racing and rally drivers representing a particular country, I have once again taken it upon myself to predict the outcome of a motorsport-based European Championship using a similar format.

Again, the assumption is that all the races will take place on a Race Of Champions-style crossover circuit, although I decided to limit proceedings to just two drivers per country as opposed to the three I used previously. In addition, I’ve spurned the rally drivers in favour of pairings comprised solely of racing drivers from a variety of disciplines, including Formula One, IndyCar, Touring Cars, Endurance Racing and the junior single-seater formulae.

I used the Castrol Driver Rankings to determine the seeds and thus the draw, and after working out the protracted result of the qualifying bouts I set about determining who would advance from the group stages. Spookily enough, as per reality England would be joined by France and Sweden in their group, albeit with Austria standing in for Ukraine, the latter seemingly lacking any suitable players for this tournament. I mean drivers.

First up would be England versus Sweden, with Lewis Hamilton and DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom the first to take to the track. This would be something of a grudge match after the Swede beat Hamilton during the 2010 World Cup, but once again the silky-smooth driving style of the Swede would ensure it would be he who would come out on top. Fortunately, Jenson Button would be able to make short work of France’s Charles Pic, before doing likewise to former Jaguar, Red Bull and HRT driver Christian Klien of Austria to book our place in the quarter-finals.

There we would meet Finland, who boasted current Formula One drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen on their driving strength. The Finns’ challenge was nonetheless lessened by the absence of their rally stars, and Hamilton would be able to dispatch former McLaren teammate Kovalainen with relative ease. Button however wouldn’t quite have the pace to topple Raikkonen, but Hamilton would succeed in narrowly overcoming his predecessor as F1 champion in the deciding heat to take us to the semis.

An interesting challenge would await us in the form of Scotland, multiple IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and rising F1 star Paul di Resta having taken out Sweden in the quarter-finals 2-1. First up would be Button against Franchitti, which would turn out to be a rather straightforward victory for the former with Franchitti hardly in his element in the tight confines of the stadium-based crossover track. Di Resta would do his utmost against Hamilton to take it to a decider, but would just fall short of the former champion's scintillating pace.

That would mean England would indeed reach the final, something English football fans have a habit of forgetting that we haven’t done since our home victory the better part of fifty years ago.  Standing between us and the trophy would be none other than Germany, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg having conquered Italy (Trulli/Liuzzi) and Spain (Alonso/Alguersauri) en route. A tantalising, titanic best-of-five tussle between four modern greats of the sport would thus await millions of nervous motor racing fans all over the continent.

First up would be Button and Rosberg, the Mercedes driver pipping the McLaren man across the line to give Germany a crucial one-nil lead. Just when all would seem lost, an extremely costly mistake from Vettel in his heat against Hamilton would allow England to score the equaliser, if you will. It would now be Rosberg’s turn to face Hamilton in the third race, but an extremely close contest would just about go the way of the latter to place England within touching distance of glory.

It would be down to Button to seal the deal, but he would have to overcome Vettel in order to do so. Determined to atone for his earlier error, the German would set a blistering pace that Button simply could not match, taking this most epic of sporting rivalries down to a winner-takes-all deciding race between Hamilton and Vettel, perhaps the two fastest men in F1 today. In what would be virtually a photo finish in a battle in which both men gave their absolute all, the winner, by a whisker, would be Hamilton. At last, England would have done it.

Group Stages

Group A: Spain (Alonso/Alguersauri), Italy (Trulli/Liuzzi), Russia (Petrov/Aleshin), Portugal (Monteiro/Albuquerque)

Group B: Germany (Vettel/Rosberg), Denmark (Kristensen/Magnussen), Switzerland (Buemi/Grosjean*), Czech Republic (Enge/Charouz)

Group C: Sweden (Ekstrom/Rydell), England (Hamilton/Button), France (Pic/Vergne), Austria (Klien/Wurz)

Group D: Finland (Raikkonen/Kovalainen), Scotland (Franchitti/Di Resta), Northern Ireland (Carroll/Turkington), Netherlands (Coronel/van der Garde)

Quarter-Finals

Spain bt. Denmark (2-0)

Germany bt. Italy (2-0)

Scotland bt. Sweden (2-1)

England bt. Finland (2-1)

Semi-Finals

Germany bt. Spain (2-1)

England bt. Scotland (2-0)

Final

England bt. Germany (3-2)

Failed to Qualify

Belgium, Estonia, Monaco, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Wales, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Turkey

* Romain Grosjean is in actual fact Swiss-born, despite competing in F1 under a French licence.

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