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The 2 contrasting practice sessions gave a clear idea of where some teams stood. The Mercedes looked strong no matter what nature throws at them. Wet or dry, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton could make it to the top 5. On the contrary, both the Ferraris struggled through both the qualifying sessions. Silverstone is a track that demands high downforce and aerodynamic stability, which the Ferrari clearly lacks. Felipe had handling problems coming out of woodcote and his teammate too.
Practice 3 was fully dry and likewise lap times dropped, by nearly 2 seconds! Nico Rosberg once again topped this session with his teammate behind him. Sebastian Vettel, who was the stronger of the Red Bulls this time, finished in 3rd.
Qualifying
Qualifying was not very unexpected. The lower teams like Caterham and Marussia got out in Q1. The second leg showed some elements of surprise, where Jenson Button, one of the home heroes, got eliminated along with his teammate Sergio Perez. The McLaren seemed outpaced by other teams, despite bringing updates this weekend. Then there was Felipe Massa who got out too. Massa’s season is slowly turning upside down, but with 11 races to go, anything can happen. The final 10 moved onto Q3, out of which only 4 were pole contenders – Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
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Webber set a fast time, only to be beaten by Rosberg. In the dire end of qualifying, Hamilton swooped into pole position while further back, Vettel nicked into P3 beating his teammate once again. Ever since the news of an empty Red Bull seat was confirmed, Ricciardo has been performing very well, and he started in P6 for Toro Rosso. P5 was taken by the Force India of Paul Di Resta. But earlier today, the FIA reported that he will be starting from the pit lane. The reason behind this was that his car was underweight by 1.5 kilos.
Championship contenders Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen started down in P10 (P9) and P9 (P8) respectively. Alonso blamed his team for his qualifying flop, while Kimi just was ‘very disappointed’.
Race
A beautiful sunny day at Silverstone with 22 powerful roaring V8 engines was ready to treat us to action. As the 5 red lights went out, the pole sitter Lewis Hamilton comfortably got off to a gap. Meanwhile, his teammate behind lost a position to a charging Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. Further back, retiring hero Mark Webber had a racing incident with Romain Grosjean, which pushed him all the way back to 14th. Fernando fell back on his 10th place to give room to Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, who charged back at full speed to go past his teammate.
All looked nice and happy until lap 9, where the new Pirelli tires showed their unsafe characteristics. The race leader Hamilton, who posted great lap times, was the first to blow a tyre. This unusual tyre blow wasn’t an exclusive situation for Hamilton, but one after another for Felipe Massa and then Jean Eric Vergne. A series of blows called for the safety car as sharp pieces made the track unsafe.
