So wet was it, that officials asked 20,000 people, loyally heading in the direction of Silverstone, to stay away on Saturday. The theory was, this would give them more chance of getting stuck in mud on Sunday instead. It worked.
Q1 was accompanied by light rain, sufficient enough to mean DRS wasn’t allowed. To add to the trickiness, Raikkonen’s KERS wasn’t working either, and as it’s generally best not to fiddle with electrical cables in the wet, he was forced to compete without the extra boost. Luckily for him, worse weather was heading Silverstone’s way, allowing his team ample time to don the rubber gloves and pile in to fix it.
As conditions deteriorated, spins became the order of the day, causing Button, who was once again looking to be in trouble, to have to back off on his final attempt, as Glock narrowly avoided the wall on the pit straight. JB was out in Q1. Again.
Q2 was wetter than a bucket of water having a shower in the deep end of a swimming pool, and after Alonso somehow managed to avoid a wall, and Schumi a gravel trap, the session was red flagged with 6 minutes left. 90 minutes of the sort of conditions that would have made Noah give up in disgust entailed, before it cleared sufficiently for the session to continue. During the stoppage, BBC viewers were treated to the legend that is Murray Walker in the commentary box, and some good natured Mexican waving from fans, teams and drivers as they tried to alleviate the boredom.
As the track rapidly improved, times tumbled, but note before Grosjean had done enough to make it into Q3, but then couldn’t take part, having ploughed a deep furrow into a waiting gravel trap. Remember them? Gravely. Unlikely to give you a second chance. Don’t see them much these days.
Q3 confirmed that McLaren were struggling badly, as Hamilton only managed a lowly 8th. Further up, Massa put in a good performance for a change, winding up 5th, Vettel only 4th, Schumacher a pleased 3rd, and Webber headed by Alonso. Petrov never even made the grid, engine failure forcing him to park his car before making it round, leaving Caterham with only Kovaleinen and a duck, whose super licence wasn’t all it was quacked up to be.
With everything surprisingly dry, on the track at least, the race got underway, with Alonso chopping Webber at the start, One third of the Brits saw only the first corner, as di Resta was clipped by Grosjean, the resulting puncture spinning him out of the race. Things were going slightly better (but not much) for Button, as he moved up to 13th in the opening stages.
JB, Grosjean and Kobayashi had a good scrap on lap 3, before Romain pitted for a new front wing, damaged in the tussle with di Resta.
By lap 10, Alonso led by 3 seconds from Webber, who was 3 seconds ahead of Schumacher, the German taking over from Trulli in the causing-a-queue stakes.
Vettel pitted early on lap 11, and Massa briefly held 3rd place, whilst the following lap saw accident-magnet Maldonad’oh collide with Perez. Sergio wasn’t too complimentary about Pastor’s driving ‘skill’ afterwards, and the stewards agreed, handing the Venezuelan a fine post-race. Not that it help Perez much, as he was out on the spot.
As pit stops shuffled the order, Hamilton led for a while on lap 18, with a good scrap for position with Alonso seeing them swap places before Fernando grabbed the lead back. Lewis’s pit stop 4 laps later saw him back out in 7th place.
Schumacher fell victim to tired tyres, then Raikkonen and Hamilton, and by half distance it was looking like a dull afternoon was on the cards, as Alonso had a comfortable 6 second lead over Webber.
After just 8 laps on his new tyres, Hamilton made a surprising early 2nd stop, dropping to 12th, and with different strategies playing out, a dejected Button put up only a minimal fight before letting his team-mate past.
Alonso’s final stop came on lap 38 of 52, with most of his rivals having already made theirs, but could he make the softer tyre last the distance? A 4 second gap to Webber behind him seemed good enough...
Kobayashi barrelled into his pit crew at his final stop, most of them doing a good job to dive out of the way at the last second. Luckily, only minor injuries occurred, but it could have been far worse. A fine from the stewards may encourage him to be more careful in the future, but probably not. This is Kamui we’re talking about. Rosberg’s poor afternoon degenerated further when a problem with a wheel change saw his pit stop drag on like an Antiques Roadshow marathon.
With 10 laps left, showers were heading Silverstone’s way, but none made it to complicate the outcome. Button was fighting Senna for the final point on offer, when it became clear that Webber was closing in on Alonso. With 6 laps left, he was within DRS range of the Spaniard, and there was little Fernando could do about it, as his tyres faded.
Webber duly passed him on lap 48, and with Senna making a tidy move on Hulkenberg for 9th, Button nipped by too to pick up a solitary point.
A delighted Webber won the race, followed home by Alonso and Vettel, with the unfamiliar championship outcomes seeing Mark closing in on Fernando, with the reigning World Champion a reasonable points-gap behind. What a difference a year makes. We’re nearly half way, and we’ve still got no idea who might win the title in 2012.
Slightly disappointing to see that F1 has headed into the tacky glitter canon shenanigans, taken up with camp glee by other sports, making their way onto the podium. And what was with the live interviews up there? Still, Seb did pour champagne on Jackie Stewart’s tartan cap, so it wasn’t all bad...
(Rock! Led Zeppelin's "Remastered" is doing the business tonight. Ramble On!)
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