2011 Formula 1 : Alonso wins British GP

2011 F1 British Grand Prix winner : Fernando Alonso (ESP), Scuderia Ferrari, F-150 Italia

SILVERSTONE : July 10, 2011 - Fernando Alonso comes through to win a challenging British Grand Prix and give the Scuderia its first victory of the year.

Vettel had had to fend off team mate Mark Webber over the closing laps before the Australian was given team orders to maintain his position. Lewis Hamilton started the race from tenth, but quickly fought his way through the pack to second place before having to reduce his pace due to excessive fuel consumption and he finished fourth, a tenth of a second ahead of Felipe Massa (Ferrari) with Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) sixth.

Vettel continues to lead the world championship on 204 points, followed by Webber on 124. Alonso moves up into third place on 112 points, followed by Hamilton and Button tied on fourth on 109 points apiece.

Red Bull has extended its lead over McLaren to 100 points with a total of 328. Ferrari is a distant third with exactly half Red Bull's points.

Reigning F1 world champion Vettel out-dragged pole man and team mate Webber to lead the race into the first corner. Alonso also got past his Ferrari team mate Massa, while both Hamilton and Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) each made up three places on the opening lap.

On lap 2, Hamilton got past Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) as Massa got past Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) and was followed through by Hamilton, up to fifth place in just two laps after starting tenth.

Vettel was not troubled by the lifted spray that the other 23 drivers had to put up with, and he set a 1'50.924 followed by a 1'50.838 on lap 3.

The race started under grey skies on a relatively dry but slippery track, and Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari) went off the circuit on his out lap to the dummy grid, taking out an advertising board in the process and even under racing conditions, the intermediate tyre looked like the correct choice even if it wasn't raining.

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) took 12th place off Perez on lap 7 while Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) both got past Vitaly Petrov (Renault). Heikki Kovalainen retired his Lotus-Renault on lap 6.

"I lost fourth gear on the first lap. I had a good start and made up three or four places, but it was game over," said the Finn.

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) ran wide and lost two places to Schumacher and Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes), rejoining in ninth place. There was contact between Kobayashi and Schumacher and the incident came under investigation by the race stewards. Schumacher pitted for a new front wing and soft option dry tyres.

Hamilton was closing right up on Massa who was fishtailing in the tight corners trying to find grip.

Webber set a new fastest lap of 1'49.988 as he tried to close the 8.1 sec gap to leader Vettel.

On lap 12, Schumacher, on fresh tyres, set a new fast lap of 1'49.012 as Hamilton got past Massa into fourth place but he then ran wide and Massa took the place back again.

Button was next to set the fastest lap as he closed up on Massa who had just rejoined after his pit stop. The two diced side by side through three corners before Button gunned his McLaren past the Ferrari into fifth place. Further ahead there was a similar battle between Hamilton and Alonso for third place and it went the same way with the McLaren surging past the Ferrari.

The race stewards decided that Schumacher was once again to blame for the collision with Kobayashi and he was given a stop-and-go penalty.

Back at the front of the race, the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber were coming under pressure from Hamilton who was just six seconds behind but closing rapidly.

Button set a new fastest lap of 1'41.475 on lap 16 and was just three seconds behind fourth-placed Alonso, but the Spaniard responded with a 1'40.985.

On lap 17, Hamilton took one-and-a-half seconds out of Webber's lead which was then just 4.4 seconds. On the next lap 2008 world champion Hamilton set a new target of 1'39.877 as he pulled the gap down to four seconds. Alonso was next to top the timesheets with a 1'38.803 on lap 21.

Hamilton now started to come under pressure from Alonso who used his DRS to blast through on lap 23 into third place again and then set a 1'38.456 as he chased Webber 2.5 sec ahead. Hamilton pitted for fresh tyres and rejoined in sixth place, 5.6 sec behind Massa.

Webber, Button and Massa all pitted together on lap 26 while Buemi suffered a delaminating left rear tyre after contact with the front of di Resta.

Vettel and Alonso pitted together but there was a problem with one of Vettel's wheel nuts and Alonso was released ahead of Vettel, rejoining just a second ahead of Hamilton who was within the one-second window to use his DRS in the straight.

Vettel closed right up on Hamilton and began to try and find a way past. He was using his DRS to make up ground in the straights but he lost it again in the corners. With Hamilton going defensive against the attack from behind, Alonso was able to stretch his lead to 8.3 sec by lap 33.

On lap 35, Vettel came up the inside of Hamilton as they came down the main straight, but he had to lift off into turn one, allowing Hamilton to slip off the hook again. Vettel pitted on the next lap for fresh tyres. McLaren responded, pulling in Hamilton on the next lap and although their work was slick, Vettel flashed past as Hamilton rejoined the track from the pit lane.

Alonso now had a 13.1 sec lead over Webber who was 3.9 sec ahead of Button who was in turn followed by Massa (+23.4), Vettel (+24.4) and Hamilton (+27.4).

Alonso pitted on lap 39 and emerged with his lead intact, as Button pitted next, but as he came down the pit lane he slowed to a stop as his front right wheel had no wheel nut on it. Button has never finished a British Grand Prix on the podium, and he would not be doing that this year either. The lollipop man had lifted the pole to release the driver before the crew member on the right front wheel station had finished tightening the wheel.

Back in front, Alonso set a new fastest lap of 1'34.908 as he increased his lead over Vettel to 12.6 sec with Hamilton a further 3.0 sec behind.

Hamilton was told over the radio to run his engine leaner to save fuel, and that would drop his power output, allowing fourth-placed Webber to creep closer from one-and-a-half second behind.

As Webber arrived within one second of Hamilton and within the DRS activation zone, Hamilton was advised over the radio: "Just do what you are doing and don't make it easy for him."

But it was inevitable that the DRS would allow Webber past into third place, which he accomplished on lap 45.

Massa was now chasing down Hamilton as he maintained cruise mode in order to make it to the end of the race.

Third-placed Webber was also closing the gap to team mate Vettel, just one second behind on the penultimate lap. That one second evaporated as Webber got alongside and challenged the championship leader down the main straight.

As the final lap started, Webber was challenging Vettel for second while Massa was challenging Hamilton for fourth.

Webber got right up with Vettel before he received his racing orders over the radio: "Mark, maintain the gap!" and he was forced to let Vettel go.

12 seconds behind, Massa challenged and got past Hamilton into Vale, but Hamilton ducked behind and came up the inside again and as they dragged out of the last corner towards the line, Massa ran wide, allowing Hamilton back into fourth again.

Race result : 2001 Formula 1 - British Grand Prix

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	52	Winner	3	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	52	+16.5 secs	2	18
3	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	52	+16.9 secs	1	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+28.9 secs	10	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	52	+29.0 secs	4	10
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	52	+60.6 secs	9	8
7	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+65.5 secs	12	6
8	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	52	+75.5 secs	16	4
9	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	52	+77.9 secs	13	2
10	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	52	+79.1 secs	18	1
11	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	52	+79.7 secs	11
12	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	52	+80.6 secs	14
13	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	51	+1 Lap	15
14	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	51	+1 Lap	7
15	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	51	+1 Lap	6
16	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	50	+2 Laps	20
17	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	50	+2 Laps	22
18	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	50	+2 Laps	23
19	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	49	+3 Laps	24
Ret	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	39	+13 Laps	5
Ret	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	25	+27 Laps	19
Ret	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	23	+29 Laps	8
Ret	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	10	Oil leak	21
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	2	Gearbox	17

2011 Formula 1 : Drivers championship standings

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	204
2	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	124
3	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	112
4	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	109
5	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	109
6	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	52
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	40
8	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	34
9	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	31
10	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	28
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	25
12	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	10
13	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	9
14	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	8
15	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	8
16	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	4
17	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	2
18	Pedro de la Rosa	Spanish	Sauber-Ferrari	0
19	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0
21	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
23	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	0
24	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
25	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0
26	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	HRT-Cosworth	0

2011 Formula 1 : Team - Manufacturers' Championship Standings

Pos	Team	Points
1	RBR-Renault	328
2	McLaren-Mercedes	218
3	Ferrari	164
4	Mercedes	68
5	Renault	65
6	Sauber-Ferrari	33
7	STR-Ferrari	17
8	Force India-Mercedes	12
9	Williams-Cosworth	4
10	Lotus-Renault	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

[Source : F1, Supersport ZA, CRASH.NET]