Vettel on pole as Red Bull dominate at Silverstone

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Sebastian Vettel is on pole position for the second year in a row at Silverstone, leading yet another Red Bull one-two.

But reigning champion Jenson Button starts in 14th place for his home Grand Prix after failing to reach Q3.

Team mate Lewis Hamilton starts from fourth place alongside Fernando Alonso.

Q1

The usual suspects were eliminated in the first part of qualifying – all three of the new teams, with Heikki Kovalainen the fastest of the six.

Timo Glock managed to split the two Lotuses, but the gap between the new teams and the established runners was over two seconds.

Jaime Alguersuari qualified 18th and was unable to get into Q2. He briefly escaped the drop zone but a late improvement from Vitantonio Liuzzi – who had to use a set of soft tyres to do it – relegated the Toro Rosso driver.

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Q2

McLaren sent both their drivers out on the soft tyres from the beginning of Q2, indicating their concerns about not being able to reach Q3.

Button struggled on his first run and was complaining on the radio about a lack of grip. His best time on his first run was a 1’32.024 which left him 12th.

During the final set of laps, Nico Hulkenberg’s efforts to improve were spoiled by Vitantonio Liuzzi, who had also held Button up in Q1.

Button wasn’t able to make it into Q3, his best effort seven tenths of a second off Hamilton’s, leaving him 14th on the grid. He described his car as “undriveable”, adding “the car felt good this morning”.

Webber ended the second part of qualifying fastest, after Vettel had headed the first part. The battle for pole position would be contested exclusively by the RB6 drivers.

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Q3

From the beginning of Q3 it was clear this was going to be a repeat of qualifying in Barcelona. The Red Bulls were untouchable, over seven-tenths of a second quicker than their rivals and the only cars able to lap Silverstone and less than 90 seconds.

Webber took provisional pole position with his first effort but Vettel quickly nicked pole position off him. When Webber failed to improve with his last effort it confirmed Vettel on pole position for the second year in a row at Silverstone.

Vettel was the only one of the two running the team’s new front wing – the other one having broken on Vettel’s car during final practice this morning.

Fernando Alonso would surely not have qualified better than third even if he hadn’t been stuck behind another car at the start of his final lap. Lewis Hamilton salvaged fourth – ten places ahead of his team mate.

Full qualifying times

Pos.#DriverCarQ1

Q2

Q3
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’30.8411’30.4801’29.615
26Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’30.4361’30.1141’29.758
38Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’31.0191’30.7001’30.426
42Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’31.2971’31.1181’30.556
54Nico RosbergMercedes1’31.4061’31.0851’30.625
611Robert KubicaRenault1’31.6801’31.3441’31.040
77Felipe MassaFerrari1’31.3131’31.0101’31.172
89Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’31.4241’31.2421’31.175
922Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’31.5331’31.3271’31.274
103Michael SchumacherMercedes1’31.7201’31.0221’31.430
1114Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’31.1091’31.399
1223Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’31.8511’31.421
1310Nico H?�??lkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’32.1441’31.635
141Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’31.4351’31.699
1515Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’32.2261’31.708
1612Vitaly PetrovRenault1’31.6381’31.796
1716Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’31.9011’32.012
1817Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’32.430
1919Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’34.405
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’34.775
2118Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’34.864
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’35.212
2320Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’36.576
2421Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’36.968

2010 British Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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88 comments on “Vettel on pole as Red Bull dominate at Silverstone”

  1. Man, Button’s Quali performance was just pathetic, managing to get knocked out of Q2 and 10 spots behind your teammate. Can we expect any more crying on the radio just like last year’s British GP? Probably…

    1. Or alternatively Hamilton’s salvaging of 4th was mighty impressive.

      1. Combination of both.

      2. the papers won’t be too nice about button tomorrow! :O

        1. Button can’t drive in poor cars. This could be where his season goes downhill with useless qualifying laps.

          This year he doesn’t have a ridiculous lead so it could be bye bye for his championship.

          Huge respect to Lewis. Amazing lap. Amazing driver.

          1. Button definitely needs more time to fine tune the car, like last year v. Barrichello. Maybe the more aggressive style of Button’s team mates allows them to explore the potential of the car more quickly and find a better set-up in a short time period? Particularly when the base car is off kilter as here. Even so Hamilton dug deep for Q3, great stuff.

          2. At least tomorrow we’ll get to see Button attempting to make his way through the field.

            It’s going to be hard though. I assume there is nothing they can do now to fix the issues with the car. It could be a long day for Jenson.

          3. Intriguing too that their comments suggest Hamilton wanted to persist with the blown diffuser while Button said even after qualifying that removing it was right. Prefer Hamilton’s attitude. Risking the British GP but collecting valuable data and driving experience with the new set up might have been better with a half season still ahead.

          4. The ideal thing to do here would have been to leave the mods on one car. It would have saved a lot of time in the garage and allowed them to gather data for Hockenheim. They could have flipped a coin or whatever. Ferrari did this in Valencia and no one screamed team favoritism.

            Also, The modified car was by no means slow. My suspicion was that the car was just harder to drive. Lewis was going off, but he was faster than Button when he was on track. Lewis knows how to drive a diabolical car, we know from last year; Button, probably not.

          5. MacademiaNut
            10th July 2010, 17:08

            @DaveW: The reason they did not scream favoritism on Ferrari’s part was because both cars did badly.

        2. Well.. I know this is a British site, and a lot of people will not take my criticism of Button too well.. but I’m going to have a go at it anyways.

          I have to agree with Hill’s comments about Button being a Tortoise. His lack of pace has been masked by his second position in the WDC. He has never looked like having the pace to win a race this year, and if it wasn’t for a couple of lucky strategic calls and others faltering around him, he wouldn’t have won a race or even gotten a podium finish.

          Over a season every driver has his share of bad luck and mechanical problems, but the consistently fast drivers make it to the last race with a fighting chance of wiining the WDC.

          I think Jenson’s luck has run out, and over the next 3-4 races he will not be in a championship contender anymore.

          1. people will not take my criticism of Button too well

            Criticism of any driver of any nationality is fine, as long as it’s fair.

      3. miguelF1O (@)
        10th July 2010, 19:20

        agreed if he wins this gp on normal conditions it would be epic

    2. I read on line that the floors were warping with the heat after a few laps–if so there was no way they could race with them – so best to take them off when they still had time to revert to the original setup. Hamilton showed his class with the Q3 performance but Copse with Alonso will be interesting, especially if Weber in his fury has his usual start!

    3. obviously button’s car has a problem. 10 places behind his team mate can’t be down to talent. surely?

  2. After Vet getting the new front wing before Webber after a failure on his car this morning there is jjust going to be more favouritism talks. I like to keep an open mind but RBR aren’t shrugging those suspicions off even from their own fans.

    Good job RBR, Alo and de la Rosa.

    1. Oh Ham too. He was good, I just forgot about him!

    2. Redbull are defintaley taking the mick, Vettle broke the wing, it was his fault that two wern’t available, him getting the upgrade is just plain unfair.

      Redbull have become my pantomime villans, looking foward to lightning strikes kama.

      OR RAIN, that’ll make tommorow interesting.

      1. I seem to recall that the wing mounting failed, not that Vettel broke it.

      2. I’ve noticed Red Bull are now your villans lol.

        Karma for what? McLaren bragging about the new upgrade whilst Red Bull just played it cool and beat them both.

        In 2008 would Mclaren have given the new upgrade to Heikki when Lewis was in prime position to fight for the title? Nope.

        1. yeah but hamilton was miles faster than heikki anyway and the clear no.1 in the team.

          good performance rubens too

    3. Keep it fair
      10th July 2010, 14:58

      Really disappointed in Christian Horner.

      I could appreciate Vettel getting the new wing because his broke and they just decided to give him the new one as a replacement, but what on earth was Christian Horner talking about when he tried to justify it by going on about Vettel being P3 in the championship and so therefore getting the advantage of the new wing!!!!!!! That just smacks of team orders.

      When Vettel / Webber collided, Christian Horner was using the fact that Hamilton was closing on Vettel as justification for the attempted overtake, but now he’s turned the argument on its head to say the exact opposite.

      He’s saying that Vettel was given the new wing because he’s ahead in the championship, in other words he implies that Vettel is better than Webber. But if that was the case, shouldn’t Webber have been the one to get a helping hand to stay ahead of the rest of the pack? In order to keep both cars in front!

      That’s what was suggested in Turkey, Webber was managing to stay out on his own, so they wanted Vettel to pass Webber because Vettel was coming under pressure from Hamilton. In other words to keep both cars in front.

      Christian Horner’s logic, or lack of it, just doesn’t make sense.

      Good team bosses should get the best out of both drivers by encouraging them and giving both drivers a mental boost, IMHO therefore, Christian Horner is a bad team boss.

      1. He gets directives from the Alps :-)

  3. Jose Arellano
    10th July 2010, 14:25

    webber almost matching webber with the old wing…….

    the “total equal treatment” team

    1. Jose Arellano
      10th July 2010, 14:26

      almost matching vettel sorry

      1. Red Bull gives Sebastian Vettel wings… Mark Webber’s wings :P

        It’s obvious they want Vettel to win the championship. He is ahead in the championship so I guess they want to push him for the title. Other teams would do the same.

        Webber was faster too in the first 2 sessions so maybe it was just a case of Webber doing a poor lap, he clearly had the pace to get pole regardless of “the wing”

        1. Keep it fair
          10th July 2010, 15:01

          “It’s obvious they want Vettel to win the championship. He is ahead in the championship so I guess they want to push him for the title. Other teams would do the same.”

          So why don’t they do the same for Webber when Webber is leading the race and / or the championship?

          When Webber is leading, Horner seems to find excuses to get Vettel out in front.

          1. Totally. I don’t know if it is his fault or the team’s, but the golden boy treatment for Vettel makes me like him way less. I feel like he is a spoiled brat or something, because he always comes out later and tries to justify it with that smug smile on…

            … Like, how could you possibly take your team mate’s front wing?? At least show that it occurred to you that it might be rude…

        2. “He is ahead in the championship so I guess they want to push him for the title. Other teams would do the same.”

          Mclaren didn’t do that with Ham in 07 when it was this close, Ferrari didn’t do it with Mas and Rai when they were in the hunt in 07 either.

          I’m not sure they’re favouring Vettel just that vettel needed a new front wing but that’s all they had. That said, if they are, the line that other teams do the same sounds at a poor attempt of a justification. Let them fight and the best wins.

  4. I think Hamilton was pretty impressive. He was battling the car, and we know he’s a lot better at that than Button, who needs more of a predictable car.

    The wind might have hurt them like it did for STR, FI and Renault here.

    1. The question I have is, where did that Sauber of De La Rosa come from to take 9th?

      1. they were pretty close to running well at Barcelona as well. Seems the Sauber can do very good pace, but only on the right tracks.

      2. Like I said in the preview, Sauber had one of their cars in Q3 at Barcelona too, and Silverstone requires a similar kind of set-up.

  5. Massa three quarters of a second behind Alonso…ouch.

    1. And Alonso got blocked. Massa seems to be what Heikki was to Lewis in 2008. He won’t challenge him but he really needs to be quicker to take points off other drivers.

      Massa is very lucky he’s been signed next year already.

      1. Your right, Massa has slipped of the other side of the scale of what makes a decent second driver, him an Petrov are costing there teams too much in lack of pace.

      2. These contracts definitely have get out clauses, especially for the teams. It would be crazy for the Massa contract not to have an escape clause for either side. They tie the drivers up early just to settle speculation and have at least somebody locked in, but don’t expect that Ferrari aren’t out at the moment looking at other possibilities, especially if Massa’s second half of the year is as bad as the first..

        Ferrari highly value the constructors champs, and with the other top teams fielding two top drivers, they need to do something in order to have a shot at the WCC

        1. Agree Scribe. That’s why Jenson is good for Lewis. Even though he thinks he can win the title, realistic Lewis is going to and Jenson taking points off the Red Bull’s is what he needs.

          Alonso has no chance of the championship if Massa continues with this pace.

          1. It’s more important for constrcutor’s than drivers and I think 08 showed that. Alonso’s probably happy Massa is out of his way.

            Apparently Massa’s contract is a a year-on-year basis that they will take up at the end of each year but announced it as a 2 year deal.

  6. Really dissapointed about RBR behaviour. I’m not saying 100% that Webber would have been faster, but they just really turned the odds against him because of Vettel’s wing failure…

    1. Keep it fair
      10th July 2010, 15:08

      I agree. This favouritism actually makes Vettel look bad too, because it gives the impression that Vettel couldn’t do it on his own.

      IMO, respect for Mark Webber has shot up since Turkey.

  7. So what have we got here, first it’s going to take Redbull to beat Redbull tommorow. However we do know that their race pace isn’t the same as far out as the quali performance, Spain being the obvious example, either Alo or Hamilton might be able to nick a place off them tommorow, but it’s almost certainly a Redbull victory, an probably a 1-2 as well.

    Second, seems like the updates on the ferrari have really sorted it out on this sort of track, from were they were in Turkey especially, an Alonso must be so hungry now, we’ll be relying on him to spice things up tommorow. Him an Hamilton, expect them to be fighting for the last podium place tooth an nail, an hopefully they’ll be able to challenge the Redbulls as well.

    Looking ahead to the rest of the season, on the McLaren side if they want the championships there going to have to hit the nail on the head for Hockenheim, there is where I see the fight for the titles become a bit clearer.

    1. Red Bull have been fastest all season yes. Pole in almost every race yes. But unlike Brawn they’ve haven’t been winning every race and often lose themselves the race. This makes the championship interesting still.

      McLaren are still favourites even with a worse car because look what happened in Montreal, Melbourne, Turkey, Bahrain, China. All should have been clear Red Bull victories and it didn’t happen.

      I wouldn’t bet on a 1-2 tomorrow, being a Red Bull fan you know nothing is for sure with that team lol.

      1. It’s more like “just as last year” where Red Bull had overall the fastest car. Even at the beginning of the season they were really close to Brawn or even faster at some races, yet they managed to throw it all away.

        Red Bull did make less mistakes in the second half of 2009 though. Maybe they can repeat that this season.

        1. They did make some pretty bad mistakes with Webber in the second half of 2009 i think, mainly pitstops, but also components failing.

      2. As a tribute to Vettel showing it works, here’s a nice analyses of what RBR do to be faster in Qualifying: http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/red-bull-map-q-the-secret-to-the-teams-q3-pace/

        I just hope Webber gets Lusious Liz to catch Vettel through during the first lap. Or Alonso to catch at least one of them after the start. Not much chance of either one so i am looking forward to having a nice battle for 3rd and maybe a good one for position 6-10.

        1. There will be a lot of action on the first lap. Alonso starts well and Webber is on the dirty side of the grid. IMO Webber would have learnt from Valencia and will assume Alonso will be 2nd into the first corner and will instead focus on holding Lewis/Nico off for third spot. He will need a hell of a start from that side of the grid to make it to first or to even keep second.

        2. Did anybody ever work out what Red Bull are doing with ride height during qualifying? There was a lot of talk about it not long ago – seems to be a forgotten issue now.

          Was there something I missed?

          1. Probably there was not much to it. Their diffusor helped a lot, and aided by the engine mapping setting as explained in the link above it makes a great weapon to fetch pole.

    2. Is Alonso on the clean side of the grid? If so… I wonder if he can get a good pop at webber on the first corner.
      Saying that, Hamiltons going to race him for his life for as long as he’s behind him.

      1. I think that the pole side is the outside of the track, meaning if 2nd gets a good start, Pole would have to go round the outside at Copse Corner in order to hold first place.

      2. Given his usual behaviour Alonso will probably be just as, if not more, concerned with Hamilton overtaking it, can’t be suffering that loss of face.

  8. Well there we go,now only Webber getting by or an incident can make me watch past the first lap tomorrow.

    1. I am usually skeptical about new corners being built up as an ‘overtaking opportunity’ (especially after all the hype about Abu Dhabi), but the new slow section at Silverstone does seem like it could provide for one of the better overtaking spots on the entire calendar. We should have a good idea oh how good it is (the slow left-right) within a few laps – so watch until at least lap 5.

      1. The bike, “loop” just ruins the section of track as an overtaking op. pity, Aintree could still be turned into an F1 hairpin.

  9. Did anyone else notice webber’s body language towards vettel? I think its pretty clear webber is unhappy with his teammate.

    1. Yeah, he seemed not pleased with second grid slot, and his body language as soon as he was out of the car straight away reminded me of his body language in Valencia where he had a disastrous start and wasn’t exactly brilliant with his judgment. It seems like he want’s to appear cool and relaxed, but in reality he seems a bit emotional and desperate.
      So look out for Webber dropping back in first laps and/or making desperate moves. Should be exciting. :p

      1. He wouldn’t be happy with his teammate getting Marks piece of the front wing after Vettels team did something wrong in putting it on in FP3, would he?

  10. What the heck happened to Button? my gosh! beat by even Hulkenburg. You need to be an all round driver, it seems he is always lacking in qualifying unless his car has a massive advantage.

    1. McLaren made a hash of their upgrade, had to revert back to the old can and in the end they basically only had FP3 for car setup.

      Guess Button didn’t get his car sorted in such short time. Hamilton tends to get the most out of his car a lot faster. Just look how he’s often fastest on friday straight away.

  11. hum…

    Vettel’s new upgraded wing fails… Vettel gets a new upgraded one… Mark keeps the old one..

    Equal treatment my ****…

  12. I’ll be surprised if either Hamilton or Alonso allows the other through Copse without contact…

  13. it’ll be the 14th consecutive race with a Red Bull car at the front row…

  14. hello all from silverstone! first up massively impressed how quick this article was posted-well done Keith! w was obvious the maccas weren’t going to do anything in quali or fp3. supporting WEB after that but Vettel went massively quick to claim pole. see you all in the pit straight stands tomorrow.

    1. edit
      > w was obvious the maccas weren’t going to do anything in quali or fp3 after reverting to their old spec…

  15. Red Bull slogan

    Gives you wings…

    but not to webber perhaps

    LOL

    :D

  16. LucaBadoerFan
    10th July 2010, 15:47

    brilliant stuff by pedro, i really hope he does well tomorrow.

  17. vettel was on softs or hards?

  18. Oh God!! Enough with the Red Bull favoritism already. It seems every little thing is now being pointed against Vettel and Red Bull and Mark Webber being made a hero subsequently.

    People need to take off their Turkey-tinted glasses and see Q1 and Q2 times. Webber beat Vettel by close to 3 tenths while driving the older rear wing. How on earth is this favoritism for Vettel?

    All we can say is that both the front wings give near identical performance. And Red Bull have a tendency to churn out front wings like a magician produces rabbits from his hat. Even last year, they had the most number of new front wings, not each of them bringing a quantum leap in performance.

    1. I think few would say Webber is in p2 because of his older front wing because of the times before as your rightly point out. I think the grievence people have is that it wasn’t equal opportunity, Mark didn’t get a choice of which wing to use and it was automatically given to Seb.

      If it wasn’t for the failure this morning, it wouldn’t be an issue but people always pick apart team mate rivalries.

  19. The Red Bull’s dominated the Qualification, let’s see if the manage to finish the race…

  20. True, he wants to exchange places with Alonso as he thinks 3rd position will be better than 2nd……. Webbo logic then ;-)

  21. what a lap from hamilton and rosberg in Q3
    shame massa could not get a fast lap in Q3 he looked fast all weekend hope for a good start tomorrow
    red bull will have some proplems in the race
    http://www.motorsarena.co.nr

  22. The coming drama at McLaren may result from the EBD. Today, Hamilton set himself apart in that team, and spelled out for people what the qualifying numbers supposedly left to interpretation. He earned himself a lot of favor among the guys who did not sleep last night to make a radical change that the other guy apparently favored.

    Alonso, Hamilton, and Rosberg are showing that talent still matters and its not all about the car all the time in F1.

    1. I agree with Alonso and Hamilton – absolutely brilliant drives today. With Nico I am still not sure if Nico is quick or if MSC is slow..

      Without a doubt Alonso and Hamilton are qualifying in positions better than what the car is actually ranked on merit.

      For the others, I am just not sure if MSC, Hülkenberg, Liuzzi and Massa are just slow and making their team mates look good (or even better in Alonso’s case).

      Renault really need a better second driver, they could challenge for third in the WCC if they had a better/more consistent second driver. I am just not certain who that driver would or could be atm..

      1. Younger Hamilton
        10th July 2010, 20:47

        That is where Kimi Raikkonen comes into the story have you read the latest articles involving Renault i think that is mentioned.

  23. I’d like a lip reader to tell me what Alonso was saying to Vettel and Webber when the drivers came out to acknowledge the crowd directly after the qualifying weighing in (i.e. just before the press conference). Looking at body language etc, Alonso looked to be saying something rather unsavoury either towards the media or the fans…

  24. The directive from the Alps naturally would be to favor Seb. They might be making a huge investment for long term in future on him. After all it Vettel who won them their first race in both Torro Rosso and Reb Bull outfits. He was running contender for last year’s championship. 6 of the top teams was eyeing for him last year. He is genuinely fast and motivates a team. Bernie has special interest in him. Last but not the least he is the perfect poster boy for the Reb Bulls corporate image of targetting the young crowd and the media loves him and his shouting from the cockpits !!! Of course the Alps would like to see him succeed.

    I understand Webber feels sore. If he does not like the team why did he fight hard to extend his contract with RBR. He should have just done Alonso act of 2007 saying I dont care how good the car you have. If you dont treat me with respect I will leave”. My 2 cents you dont like the team and mgmt just move on don’t sit and crib like Rubens and waste everybody’s time. Given RBR and Newey’s current form they can attract a lot of talent very very easily into them.

  25. Great job by Lewis!

    Disappointed with Jenson – The puzzling thing for me is that he failed to improve on his Q1 time despite switching to Options in Q2.

    He did a 1′31.435 in Q1 – only 2 tenths slower than Lewis. They switched to Options yet he was 0.25 seconds SLOWER than his Q1 time !

    This is odd because he normally gets QUICKER thru the sessions.

  26. I predicted McLaren had taken a step backwards withe the upgrade. Macca have a history (this season) of blowing hot air, only not to deliver when it counnts. True to form, they were at it earlier in the week until Neal stepped in with a more measured response to what McLaren were expecting from the exhaust blown diffuser.

    I also predicted they would lose 2nd row to Ferrari unless they ditched the upgrade. They did, but too late; leaving them on the back foot. Fortunately, Macca,s saviour (not for the first time), stepped in to save Martin Whitmarsh’s blushes with a good drive to the 2nd row.

    Whitmarsh’s history at the helm of McLaren is not so good – despite the speed at which McLaren progresses the car. In 2009, he delivered a dog of a car; It was a case of 1 step forwards, 2 steps backwards. In 2010, the MP-25 started as the 3rd best car, and they have now taken a step backwards. RBR, Ferrari, Renault all tested the blown diffuser before it finally went on the car. It did not lose them any pace in the meantime. If Mercedes had taken the right direction, Macca would now be the 4th best car fighting with Renault.
    Qualifying 14th, at this stage of the season, due to car setup, or wrong direction is very very bad.

    As an aside, will McLaren now focus their efforts on Lewis? As he is the only one who can be trusted to deliver when the car is not working as it should be. Contentious as this notion may be, i say it because I believe McLaren have now lost the momemtum to Red Bull and Ferrari and will never get it back till the season ends.

    Tomorrow, i predict some coming together between Webber, Alonso and Lewis. Webber will try to swerve accross Alonso, but will focus mainly on keeping 3rd, Alonso will rather die and keep 3rd than let Lewis pass, and Lewis will be trying to pass both of them. Lewis has 2 guys in front of him that will be hell bent on not letting him through. I hopes he keeps his head. Expect fireworks!

    1. Younger Hamilton
      10th July 2010, 20:42

      Mate Don’t you understand F1,do you know McLaren as well as i do.I started F1 from 2009 no in fact from the race Lewis won the World title i became mad with F1 but it took me time to get used to the sport and everything that was going on.Anyway when i was watching F1 in my ‘early days’ i could not understand why McLaren and Lewis were coming dead last all the time until the German Grand Prix last year i was watching Lewis on the track in qualifying Q3 until Brundle or was it legard that said ‘new whole aerodynamic upgrades’ and from this day it still lingers in my mind from there on,i started to realise that they must have had a poor car.Then i started to learn more about F1 until i realised McLaren struggled in the first half of that season because of a lack of downforce in the car and they took very long to adapt to the new technical regulations and the way they made the car about the 2nd or 3rd fastest car on the grid in 2009 showed the way McLaren can develop a car is absolutely immense.This year is completely different from the start of the season they did have the 3rd best car but as the season went on the car ‘improved’ and Ferrari slipped up and McLaren took advantage because of the rate they can develop a car currently we have the 2nd fastest car and will be the fastest after hockenheim.All this ‘blown diffuser’ gag or situation is gonna be sorted out like i said again i have all trust in McLaren, we havent taken a step back its just Ferrari,Renault and Mercedes were able to get it correct this weekend and take a step forward.Going back to 09 oh yeah its not Whitmarsh’s fault he just trying to do his best for the team,besides he didnt actually build this and last year’s car did he?

    2. As an aside, will McLaren now focus their efforts on Lewis? As he is the only one who can be trusted to deliver when the car is not working as it should be.

      Although it’s true that Lewis is getting the best from the car in qualifying, it’s way too early for Macca to throw all their eggs into one basket. They are evenly matched on race pace and Lewis could have a DNF if, as you suggest, he has a coming together with Webbo and Fred.

      Younger Hamilton makes some good points re. Macca’s development. With the testing ban it just takes a bit longer to get it right. Let’s give it a few more races and see how things pan out. For all your criticism of Whitmarsh, who are leading both championships?

      1. Sorry, blockquote fail on my part. The second one is my own comment!

  27. Younger Hamilton
    10th July 2010, 20:13

    @DaveW The Modified diffuser did actually worked and its purpose increase downforce,it did do that but the reason McLaren took it off both cars because both Lewis and Jenson found the car harder to drive (you know the MP4-25 is a pretty stiff car to drive (like Coulthard said in Canadaand Lewis running off the track lots of times in practice)plus they couldnt find the correct set-up for the upgrades although they kept the new front wing on the cars.

  28. Younger Hamilton
    10th July 2010, 20:21

    Well done Lewis P4 Jenson so dissapointed in P14 not your fault,Its all Red bull’s fault cursing us with that stupid ‘exhaust or blown diffuser’
    whatever,although its 1-1, we did curse Ferrari and Red bull with the F-duct for ferrari throughout the season while Red bull in Turkey.We’ll get it all correct tommorow and hockenheim i trust and believe McLaren by the grace of God they will get that blown diffuser and hopefully new upgrades correct in Hockenheim.But i’ve learned that you can never ever underestimate Ferrari.Redbull obviously got the quickest car out there no doubt about that but from hockenheim and onwards we’ll be right in there in terms with Redbull or slightly ahead.

    GOD BLESS MCLAREN!!!!

  29. I loathe Sebastian Vettel. I won’t cotton wool it. I actually die a little inside everytime I see him do the number one sign with his hand.

  30. To be honest the two of them were changing positions throughout the hour that much, I bet with the wind being such a factor on each lap it could have been either of them getting P1. What strikes me is how far they were in front of everyone else this time round. Like 0.7 seconds ahead, whilst everyone else faffed about with their own problems – hence what keith says in the article title.

    I’ll be backing Pedro tomorrow, it’ll be nice to see Kubica and Rubens battle their way up the field also.

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