British Grand Prix 2011

Vettel and Webber did finish in second and third, strong points for the manufacturer’s championship, but the carefully released blurbs from their press office suggest that the team will not be happy with anything less than a clean sweep. Maybe they also needed to get some other story out there and distract the hacks with a story other than the diffuser debacle. But if one checks the tables, Vettel has nothing serious to worry about, the gap between him and his second in the points team mate only increased. Yes, Alonso moved up, but 92 points is a huge difference.

Lewis Hamilton was about the only bright spot for the local fans this weekend, the McLaren driver was able to place fourth. Much better than his team mate who left the pit box without all of his nuts and DNF’ed, surely confidence inspiring for anyone that has an MP4-12C on order. Yes, all of the bits are screwed on correctly trust us; we know what we’re doing.

Filipe Massa was banging wheels with Hamilton and managed fifth, but the powers that be in Maranello were looking at the other car the entire race.
Nico Rosberg finished in sixth place, oh never mind, I’ve used that joke too many times already. Herr Schumacher did finish in the points, and I’m sure that there is a performance bonus built into his contract on the number of championship points gained in the season. I wish that we’d get the unedited transcripts, I’m sure a nugget like Ich bin schnell gefahren, das Auto ist Scheiße exists…

Sergio Perez finished in seventh place, several on the pit lane had to dig out their media guides to confirm the spot. Yes, Sauber was ahead of the Renault of Nick Heidfeld. And Schumacher…

Nine races in, it is safe to say that the remainder of the season will be either one of two stories, Red Bull continues their domination with a car that pushed the envelope of aerodynamics or Red Bull gets caught with an unfair advantage and needs to scrap it out with the rest of the herd. As much as I’d love there to be a great story out of either one, we’re likely to get several rather uneventful Sunday afternoons with some bits of interesting moments, but not likely anything that is going to be memorable. One thing that is guaranteed is that Bernie will get his money. Germany in two weeks.

Race Results

1	ALONSO	Ferrari	1h28m41.196s
2	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 16.5s
3	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 16.9s
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 28.9s
5	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 29.0s
6	ROSBERG	Mercedes	+ 60.6s
7	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 65.5s
8	HEIDFELD	Renault	+ 75.5s
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	+ 77.9s
10	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 79.1s
11	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 79.7s
12	PETROV	Renault	+ 80.6s
13	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
14	MALDONADO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
15	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 1 lap
16	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
17	D’AMBROSIO	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
18	LIUZZI	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
19	RICCIARDO	HRT-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
20	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 13 laps, wheel nut
21	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 27 laps, accident damage
22	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 29 laps, oil leak
23	TRULLI	Lotus-Renault	+ 42 laps, oil leak
24	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Renault	+ 50 laps, gearbox
Fastest Lap	ALONSO	Ferrari	1m34.908s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	204 Points
2	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	124 Points
3	ALONSO	Ferrari	112 Points
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	109 Points
5	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	109 Points
6	MASSA	Ferrari	52 Points
7	ROSBERG	Mercedes	40 Points
8	HEIDFELD	Renault	34 Points
9	PETROV	Renault	31 Points
10	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	28 Points
11	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	25 Points
12	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	10 Points
13	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	9 Points
14	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	8 Points
15	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	8 Points
16	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	4 Points
17	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	328 Points
2	McLAREN-MERCEDES	218 Points
3	FERRARI	164 Points
4	MERCEDES	68 Points
5	RENAULT	65 Points
6	SAUBER-FERRARI	33 Points
7	STR-FERRARI	17 Points
8	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	12 Points
9	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	4 Points