The raging Red Bull

“Well done Mark, you are the winner of the British Grand Prix!! Great job!! Great job!!” was what an ecstatic Red Bull race engineer had to say after Mark Webber nailed the race in spectacular fashion. And luckily, unlike 2010, this time around there wasn’t any retort from Mark on the team radio about how “Well done guys. Not bad for a number two driver.”

Well, that’s a done and dusted story though and what I am quiet sure about is that even Mark wouldn’t want to talk about that ‘incident’ now.

Anyway, getting back to the important thing, the race and the season so far. A weekend that in all certainty, looked set to be dominated by former double world champion Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari was turned around in dramatic style by the charging Red Bull, who although have looked impressive as a unit throughout the season, yet surprisingly, the kind of consistent domination that they showed over the 2010 and ’11 season was somewhere missing.

Just when the engineers handling Webber’s race at Silverstone had started accepting that Fernando and Ferrari were hard to catch up, Webber turned the tables. The wearing tyres came back to haunt the prancing horse as it did in Montreal last month. That’s one area of concern which Ferrari will need to address with urgency, since we are now entering the critical midway phase of the season from where the heat in the championship battle will hit a few higher levels.

As mentioned earlier, Ferrari were looking all set to dominate the weekend with Fernando Alonso timing his qualifying lap to perfection, combined with Felipe Massa, finding some much needed rhythm in his car. Going by that, Webber’s dramatic victory at Silverstone might well turn out to be instrumental in slowing down the surging momentum of Ferrari that they carried into the British Grand Prix. A kind of momentum that would have received a dose of boost had Alonso managed to stand on the top step of the podium this weekend. Because when at the top, Fernando is at his mercurial best, piling up victories after victories. Something quiet reminiscent of the legendary Micheal Schumacher’s days of dominance.

The momentum was there for everyone to see at Silverstone during the race. For Alonso has started on pole position after he had pulled off a stunning victory at Valencia starting from 11^th on the grid. And last weekend was all but looking to mellow down the brewing storm over the first eight races of the season which saw seven different race winners, with Alonso being the only guy until then to have won two races. With Mark Webber taking over Fernando Alonso’s party at Silverstone and turning it into his very own, the remainder of the season has now thrown up new equations and possibilities.

The prancing horse of Fernando Alonso, who after having consolidated his position at the top in the championship battle, seems to have become a bit of a lone warrior considering the lack of competition and support from team-mate Felipe Massa. They are now being challenged by the two raging Red Bulls driven by Webber and his team-mate and defending world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Going into Hockenheim for the next round, the championship battle will reach its half-way point. Going by the season so far, making any predictions for the German Grand Prix will be a waste of time. However, one can almost sense the grunt of the Red Bull under it’s nose, bracing itself for another attack.