Webber edges Vettel for Silverstone pole

2011 British Grand Prix qualifying

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Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Silverstone, 2011

Christian Horner may feel Red Bull have been disadvantaged at Silverstone – but the two RB7s locked out the front row of the grid once again.

However it was Mark Webber who took pole position, pipping his team mate by a few hundredths of a second.

Q1

With rain threatening at the start of the session, the teams didn’t waste any time joining the track. All 24 cars were out within a few minutes.

Lotus sent their drivers out with soft tyres for their first runs, and that paid off for Heikki Kovalainen.

He briefly took eighth, but dropped down the order as other cars improved their times.

However the rain arrived soon enough to hand Kovalainen a place in Q2. Neither Toro Rosso driver were able to improve thier time and both were elimiated.

They joined Jarno Trulli and both Virgin and HRT drivers, with rookie Daniel Ricciardo bringing up the rear.

Fernando Alonso was caught out by the rain and skidded off the track at Luffield. He gathered the Ferrari up and returned to the circuit to finish fifth.

Significantly, McLaren believed they needed a run on soft tyres to ensure they would safely reach Q2. However it proved unnecessary, as rain started to fall just after they took to the track.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

18Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’35.245
19Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’35.749
20Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’36.203
21Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’36.456
22Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’37.154
23Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’37.484
24Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’38.059

Q2

The track was damp but drying throughout Q2, which made for an exciting battle for the final ten.

A handful of drivers started the session on intermediate tyres, but soon dropped them for softs. Mark Webber headed the times at first on hard tyres, but like everyone else decided softs were the way to go.

The times tumbled so rapidly throughout the session the drivers ended up quicker than they had been in Q1, led by Felipe Massa.

A late improvement from Jenson Button moved him up to fourth.

Adrian Sutil took tenth with his final lap but Paul di Resta knocked his team mate out with a lap just five-hundredths of a second faster.

Several other teams only had one driver in the final ten: Kamui Kobayashi at Sauber, Nico Rosberg at Mercedes and Pastor Maldonado at Williams.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’32.617
12Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’32.624
13Michael SchumacherMercedes1’32.656
14Vitaly PetrovRenault1’32.734
15Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’33.119
16Nick HeidfeldRenault1’33.805
17Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’34.821

Q3

As in Q1, the drivers hit the track straight away, concerned that more rain was on the way.

As it turned out, they were right. The Red Bulls led the cars out of the pits and their first laps proved decisive.

Vettel had Webber close behind him and they traded fastest sector times around the lap. But it was Webber who prevailed at the line, ahead by just three hundredths of a second.

Fernando Alonso was close behind, lapping just a tenth of a second off Vettel.

Felipe Massa joined him on row two, but a full six tenths of a second slower.

The McLarens struggled: Button fifth, Hamilton only tenth after doing his first run on the set of soft tyres he’d used in Q1.

As the ran icame there was no time for further improvements. Nico Rosberg made a fabulously committed effort, catching a twitch of oversteer at huge speed at Chapel, but having to abort his lap.

Top ten in Q3

1Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’30.399
2Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’30.431
3Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’30.516
4Felipe MassaFerrari1’31.126
5Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’31.898
6Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’31.929
7Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’31.933
8Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’32.128
9Nico RosbergMercedes1’32.209
10Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’32.376

2011 British Grand Prix

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    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    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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    130 comments on “Webber edges Vettel for Silverstone pole”

    1. Good to see the gap is quite close with the top 3. Dam shame McLaren are not up there as well.

      1. lets hope for another banzai ferrari start to make it really interesting

        1. Incredibley disppointed hot blowing is ok and cold blowing is not, its ridiculous.

          1. It’s not ridiculous hot blowing is incredibly un-eco, cold blowing just uses air. The entire point for the ban was that renault were reportedly using 20% more fuel because of this system. In a time when f1 is changing engines because it’s trying to make a message about the enviroment, what did you expect to happen?

            1. New engine rules in a few years. Not some stupid mid-season work-around to mix things up randomly again.

            2. TheBrav3 – Renault cold blows :P

            3. A little misinformation goes a long way in F1.

            4. their point wasnt gas consunption but illegal aero help or somethin related to moving parts.

    2. best part of quali? murray walker commentating on the pole lap

      1. Really? oh damn, I missed it. One HD in their infinite wisdom went to an ad break just as the onboard shot of Webber’s pole lap reached Copse.

        1. Yeah, Onehd are hopeless sometimes.

          1. Just watch one of the links for BBC’s coverage on the net. Even though its a bit delayed.

            1. one whole egg
              9th July 2011, 14:46

              really wanna watch the race tomorrow but have no tv would like to know of some links that stream the race live???? thanks

          2. At least in Brisbane they have worked out that we don’t need to see the AFL on Ten and One, so it means they show the AFL on Ten, and then show the F1 and MotoGP qualifying live on One now, rather than delaying it by an hour. So that’s a big improvement.

      2. Agree with you. I love DC, MB but voice of MW is much more attractive!

      3. It was marvelous to hear him — his voice and enthusiasm have hardly changed in thirty years (and even before that in his commentaries on mo-bike events — but then again, I remember Murray’s father before him.) And still as polite as ever; praising drivers and teams who merit it, and refusing to be drawn into criticism (note he did not answer the question on Schumacher.)

        Although I have to admit that Brundle (who is good in his role) is a big change from James Hunt. I wonder how many F1Fanatics remember the Walker/Hunt team?

        1. one whole egg if you have a pc/laptop then look no further than the bbcsport formula one website if you are outside of the uk then try Firstrowsports or justintv

          1. one whole egg
            10th July 2011, 15:21

            thanks for the tips TheBrav3
            great race thoroughly enjoyed it

      4. 2nd best part of qualy JB and DC having their voices chipmunked by the sound engineers.

      5. I know yeah, Murry Walker really is one of the greatest heroes of Formula one. I actually applauded at the end of the lap.

        I really think Formula one should honor him in the greatest way they can think of. Name a circuit after him or something like that.

    3. Excellent qualifying, particularly the Q2 session where everybody was on the pace as the track rapidly improved.
      Nice to see Webber get a pole.

      I’m wondering about the assertion made that Vettel’s driving style lends itself more to the blown diffuser, and that Webber may have an advantage now.

      1. Yeah, Webber suddenly looks very comfortable by comparison-has the season reached a turning point?…

        1. Being a Webber fan, I hope he can close the gap to Vettel. It will make for a very interesting finish to the season if they both fight it out until the last race. Almost reminiscent of Prost/Senna.

        2. Hopefully this is Webber turning point,coz he looks really strong out there ….

      2. For championship sake I hope so, Vettel needs some pressure and it will be interesting to see if he has indeed matured, look out for Alonso at the start.

        1. Alonso could easily lead on the first lap, the starts he has had this year!

          1. He has had terrible starts, except for spain and 1 other

            1. That was at the beginning, check the latest 3-4 starts. He gained positions almost every single time.

            2. Yeah, he co0uld be dangerous, but then again, so could Massa. I really hope one or both can get the starts they need.

              I suspect they really worked on the starts after the first few races.

            3. That came across badly, what I mean is, I really hope both Ferrari’s can get the jump on the Red Bulls.

        2. I dont think Vettel has mature,just look at him today…he just quiete didnt say much like he used to when was on pole. And the reason last 8 races he looks calm,because no one really gave a real preasured at the time and when people do see what happend in China and where is the race Jenson came from behind?Vettel chock !!

          1. Oh please. Vettel appeared to be positive and looking forward to tomorrow’s race.

            I’m truly sick of all this “pressure” BS when he handled it so well in Spain (where Webber also took pole) and Monaco. In China, Hamilton beat him because he simply drove better and had the right tyres, not because Vettel “chock”ed. Yeah he made an error in Canada, but stop clinging onto the exception, rather than the norm.

      3. Well… I hate to say I told you all. But, I just had a feeling that with the OTBD restrictions, Webber was going to give Vettel a harder fight.

        https://www.racefans.net/forum/topic.php?id=1963

      4. It’s not about being comfortable or even vettels driving style sort of. It’s about mark being able to trick the throttle to blow the diffuser mid corner something which vettel famously couldn’t do last year. He only started dominating mark in qualy when redbull introduced an engine map to make that happen automaticly. That is now taken away but the gain in laptime is still available to a certain extent to someone like mark who can do this trick. That is why some engineers have said that the ban will help mark specificly. Expect to see their qualy battles alot closer if the rules don’t change again. (which they will)

        1. We shouldn’t be reading too much into a couple of hundredths on one lap but good to see mark up front again, the thing that I found most interesting was that he was using DRS everywhere except when braking, he seems to have downforce to burn, probably he has the wet setup for the race.

    4. Absolutely incredible session! So much action and great to see the teams getting out and driving at top speed straight away rather than waiting back. Fantastic to see Webber on pole again, and Fernando is looking handy in 3rd. Could he spring a surprise tomorrow? I hope so!

      Honourable mentions to Paul di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado. I think we’re in for a great race tomorrow.

      1. Scrap that; I’m over the moon with Paul’s performance! This kid is a star! (Not British bias; I’m not British! :P)

        1. Phenomenal performance by Paul. A good start, some rain, and… surprise podium anyone? :P

        2. hope its rain tomorrow …love to see paul on podium

        3. Would like to see Paul and Alonso or Vettel or Lewis in the same team, i think DiResta is the next big thing

          1. I dont think Sutil is that bad, instead I always thought he was really quick. But Paul has completely overshadowed him this season. I think Di Resta definitely should be looking at some top drives within the next couple of seasons. Everyone is talking about Ricciardo replacing Webber soon at RB, but I think Di Resta looks like a more luikely candidate.

            1. Sutil was only 0,050 s behind Di Resta in Q2… And the race is tomorrow…

            2. @ Marco – I like Di Resta, but you do have a point, Adrian isn’t performing as badly as everyone says, since despite being outqualified so often, he tends to do better in the races than Paul.

      2. fullthrottle
        9th July 2011, 14:23

        I’d add Perez to your list, but for sure di Resta tops it.

        1. Big up to pastor, di resta we have already seen is exceptional but that was something else from maldonado.

          I’m not trying to detract from di resta he was mega today just a brilliant performance. however pastor getting into q3 8 places ahead of rubens that’s impressive.

      3. I agree, quit refreshing session. Good to see Alonso pushing again, and Massa will be hoping on another fast start, he might even get Vettel off the line?

      4. Douglas 62500
        10th July 2011, 10:22

        That’s good. Looking forward to some incredible banzai moves from Kobayashi, the king of overtaking !!

      5. Could have a Montreal type start?

        With the RB7’s highly effective KERS and Alonso’s recent quality starts, could be very good!

    5. SennaNmbr1 (@)
      9th July 2011, 14:13

      Damn this weather afffecting things again. At least it means the race will definitely be exciting with Hamilton 10th and Di Resta 6th.

    6. I know a lot of people are unhappy with Vettel being the one to trounce everyone – especially with the finger – but this qualifying session really shows what makes him such a strong racer. He might have been second to Webber, but Webber only beat him by three hundreths of a second when Vettel had been much further down the order in every other qualifying period. He simply has the ability to produce a high-quality lap when it is needed the most without bowing to the pressure. It’s a trait that relatively few drivers have.

      1. Well put, PM. You don’t get a 30% pole ratio without being excellent in quali.

      2. I also shows the genuine RB7 is perfect for him, let’s hope and pray we keep this 10% thingy, we may just have a compitition in 2011!

      3. Wow, I would’ve though Vettel’s six poles would prove his racing abilities. Webber probably would have gone even faster if they went again.

        1. (No proof though, just a hunch! Don’t hold me to that assumption!)

          1. Webber probably would have crashed if they went again.

            (No proof though, just a hunch! Don’t hold me to that assumption!)

      4. Exactly, PM. I said in the live blog that I’d not be surprised if he skipped all three practice sessions and still took pole.

        1. Was it Turkey where he walled it in free practise and still stuck it on pole?

    7. Mark was faster in Q1, Q2 and Q3.

      Well deserved pole Mark! Lets carry this form through the rest of the year.

    8. The six tenths are back! Just kidding.

      Vettel said he made a bad gearshift near the end of the lap and thinks that would have given him pole. Lets see how it’ll be tomorrow, Webber and Alonso look quite good and Massa might surprise. The McLarens look quite weak again but it will be a long race.

      1. And Webber made a slight mistake on the entry to Becketts which was probably why he lost 2 tenths to Vettel in the second sector(see the onboard for evidence). You can turn it any way you like :)

    9. Well done to Mark Webber (now don’t botch the start ;) ). It’ll be interesting to see how well Alonso and Massa can start, and if Webber wins easily, it’ll be interesting to see whether Webber is voted as the best driver of the weekend.

      1. I guess it depends on what the drivers behind him do. If Hamilton or Button can make it to the podium, I’m pretty sure all the votes will go there.

        But if Webber wins this weekend, I will most definitely vote for him.

    10. Good job by Mark, great jobs by Alonso and di Resta, McLaren were just woeful in every department. The strategy mistakes just keep piling up.

      1. I think it was more than strategy screwups this weekend. Button was 1.4s slower than the Ferrari of Alonso… and Hamilton was nearly 2.0s slower. Since Valencia, Mclaren seemed to have lost some quali and race pace.

      2. Yep my thoughts exactly, Mclaren have looked totally out of sorts all weekend. There have been some seriously odd decisions by the team as well. They are comprehensively the third fastest team now, which is underwhelming to say the least.

    11. If Q1 was Q3 that qualifying would have been utterly amazing. Unfortunately it was just another cop out.

    12. I may be wrong but I remember last year, when Mark beated Vettel at Spain and Monaco on consecutive weekends, they were saying that the way Mark drove made the blown diffuser work better. But they worked on that and fixed the computer or whatever to make Vettel more comfortable.

      So maybe the ban on off-throttle blown diffuser hurt Vettel more than Mark?!

      Just a theory. Great to see Mark on pole, for whatever reason it is :D:D!!!!

      1. I think same thing. of course he’s still amazingly fast but not as much as before. perhaps same thing is happening in opposite direction.

        If Webber consistently beats Vettel for the rest of the season? If Vettel don’t recover from this for next races, many people consider Vettel as Playstation boy with drive assist.

        Whatever it’s good to see Mark is on his form, Ferrari either. Mclaren is disappointing.

    13. di Resta coming good again. Surely this will be a plus for Force India.

      1. and perhaps future in Mercedes…

    14. Isn’t Sutil 11th? Or was BBC wrong.

      1. My mistake – had his lap time down wrong. Changed it.

    15. The race still to come, but can f1fanatic put the usual anti-Webber spin on this qualifying result?

      1. I haven’t got anything against Webber. I don’t know where you’re getting this “usual anti-Webber spin” thing from – care to provide an example?

        1. I agree, there is a particular conformist tone to this website. Although, I don’t blame anybody. In fact, this is a brilliant website to track Formula 1.
          Unfortunately, being different and counter to the system does not have a favorable response from the .
          Just ask senna, in his time he was widely hated and no one really liked him.

          In years gone by, we will look back at this “Vettel” Era and say he was the best.

          But, is he really?

          Was Prost better than Senna?
          Is Button better than Hamilton?
          Is Massa just another COG in the Ferrari wheel?

          What is the point of all of this if we can’t figure out clearly who is the best “

          1. Ah, but we can have a wonderfull debate with all the pro’s and cons and video evidence and books and everything!

            That is fun. Never noticed that conformist tone on the website though, rather the opposite, I think Keith often tries to look for a fresh angle at things, but its opinions, so each can have their own.

        2. Keith you said yesterday something along the lines of sebastian has been the better driver and you didn’t give mark a shot at pole. When you know because you reported it, that the reason he has had the edge in qualy was because of programming introduced to the engine map towards the end of last year. *Specificly* to blow the diffuser mid corner automaticly, makeing up the difference between what mark was able to do manualy and sebastian could not. They both have areas they are stronger in so to say that mark didn’t have a chance after this vettel pick me up was taken away does sound to be rather anti webber.

          1. Me saying I didn’t think Webber would take pole position does not mean I’m “anti” him, it just means I didn’t fancy his chances.

            Which, on the strength of his form this year, is not unreasonable: until today he’d only out-qualified Vettel once, and that was when Vettel had a faulty KERS.

            At any rate, Steve P is the one doing the accusing here and I’d like to see if he has anything to back it up with.

          2. I can’t really blame Keith for not giving Webber a chance before today. He after all, hasn’t finished ahead in 14 races, so let’s see if can end that tomorrow (which he screwed up doing in Spain).

            1. Yeah, I think anyone but a starch Webber supporter would have given him only little chance.

              Good to see he upped his hand/showed he is better at Silverstone/had better luck? Would be great if he keeps this going!

      2. Fairly obvious you are missing the football season mate.. but don’t worry, there’s only a few weeks to go

        1. I’m missing the footie too, but unlike him, I’m loving the F1 honest! :P

    16. You beauty Webber! Now hopefully Vettel and Alonso crash into eachother on the first lap, so they aren’t in Webber’s way.

    17. Seb quietly slipping in that the track is tough on tyres in the post quali interview; he knows up to this point he’s almost had an entire pit stop on Webber when it comes to tyre management. Still, The gap between the two is looking far more like 2010, fingers croseed for Mark!

    18. Good job Webber! Well done Ferraris! also don’t forget 3 young buys! They were faster than Hamilton and Nico! Not exciting as Sepang but much interesting result.

      1. Sorry, not buys but guys :P

    19. The new FIA rule about the blown diffuser is intend to slow the Red Bull. Well, it’s not really what’s happend, only Alonso come close to Vettel and Webber. Button, Hamilton, Petrov and Heifleid seems suffers a lot from this stupid change. I hope rain tomorrow, it’s the only damn god thing that could make the race more interresting.

    20. Do we have any info on how much of a disadvantage Sebastian has, in starting P2 and on the wrong side of the track? Hoping to see Fernando jump him early!

    21. Stevienodrinks
      9th July 2011, 15:09

      Does Hamilton have to start on the twice used softs if the race starts dry?

      1. Yes, i believe so, teams can’t change anything between qualifying and race.

      2. Sound_Of_Madness
        9th July 2011, 16:29

        I could see the Mc strategists pitting him on Lap 1 for Hards and then do some banzai stuff with the softer compound.

        1. he might get lucky and have inters for the start

    22. Its too early to say,but I do believe Vettel diffuser was more “hot blown” than Webber’s.Last year they were too close to each other and they wanted to avoid another turkey2010.Its the only way to explain why webber’s pace has been so down in comparison with 2010,and now suddently beats his team mate.I know red bull,and when it comes to strategy and tweaks,they are old foxes.Let’s say vettel’s off throttle map was at 60% and webber’s was 45% that would have made the difference.Before today’s qualifying were no restrictions on off throttle map and now is 10% for everyone as far as I know.I dont like conspiracies,but it does make sense!

      1. Off throttle by RBR is at 50% according to other thread, it seems rules put in place for 10% have already been circumvented. Which I think is total BS!
        Hopefully by the end of the day the FIA can correct this, or expect to see some protest following Sunday’s race.

        1. Off throttle by RBR is at 50% according to other thread

          I’d like to see the proof for that, this is a very complicated issue to follow.

          1. Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how today’s meetings go, but if the FIA isn’t going to enforce the rules the whole weekend is a joke.

      2. Risk hundreds of millions of marketing dollars just to get Vettel up in 2011? Imagine the what those millions spent would be worth if it ever came to light that they hobbled one of their drivers. Do you think it would be worth the risk in the long run if Red Bull was known as the big match fixer? Imagine the furore, not just in F1 but all the other categories and sports Red Bull sponsors.
        I don’t think it very likely. I may be wrong…

        1. I don’t believe it either.Just there are many things we don’t know or will nknow too late(watch senna movie).Last year they gave to sebastian new front wing but not to Webber.I am not saying they want webber to be 8th or 12th,what I am saying is a couple of tenths difference(amplified by webber struggling with the tyres sometimes)makes the perfect match.Vettel is in front clear,while webber fights for second or third raw.The result red bull still wins both championships and everybody is happy.Its just a poin of view anyway,I can’t prove anything,and I am not looking to.

          1. I think Webber is behind this year for these reasons:
            He’s a tad slower in qualy (tiny tad)
            He has not adapted to Pirelli as well as Seb
            His often rubbish starts! (big factor!)
            A bit of bad luck here and there
            Seb is just “on it” this year…

            I wish it was some sort of RB conspiracy because then us Webber fans could indulge in some rightous indignation.

            1. He’s a tad slower in qualy (tiny tad)
              He has not adapted to Pirelli as well as Seb
              His often rubbish starts! (big factor!)
              A bit of bad luck here and there
              Seb is just “on it” this year…

              +1.

            2. I am not a webber fan,but he might make me become one tomorrow :).All you listed is right,until this morning.But it might be because of today’s changeable conditions.I still think Vettel has the championship in his pocket,and there is no conspiracy to stop him:)

            3. Plus Webber was clearly demoralized from the collapse of his challenge at the end of last season. For me Webber’s problem is the fact Vettel is so good at qualifying, he hasn’t been able to put him under pressure. If you placed both drivers down the grid every race, I’d bet on Webber winning by the end of the season. But up front Vettel has proven almost invincible.

              This is Webber’s big and last chance to get his season going. He could also do with Alonso getting past Vettel, maybe even Massa too given his usually good starts.

          2. It’s great to see Webber on pole. But I don’t really understand why some need to come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories. I’ve always liked what Jesse Owens did at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Owens was being fouled purposefully by officials and was almost out of the competition when the German athlete Luz Long told Owens to mark where he would jump several inches before the takeoff board on his 3rd and final attempt. Owens went on to take the gold medal later in the day, but he did it even with a disadvantage. This IMO is what champions do, they win regardless…

      3. I very much doubt that. Surely Webber would see that on the telemetry overlays. And he’s not the kind of guy to just stay silent about that if the team were really handicapping him like that. Already last year it was said that when RBR perfected their EBD and really started exploiting it, that it took an advantage away from Webber when it comes to driving style compared to Vettel’s. Too long to go into detail here but look it up, scarbs had an article on it.

        1. I am not convinced either but clearly there is the opportunity to program a slight advantage into one of the cars using this technology.

      4. I do believe something fishy as been happening in the team

      5. I have seen some pretty reliable reports (nice analyses by Peter Windsor being one of them) explaining how Webber better coped with working around the unbalanced rear end with brake/throttle changes than Vettel.
        So he ended up losing a bit of an advantage he had to Vettel when the off throttle boost got used more and that skill was no longer needed.

    23. Congrats to Webber. The entire session was really exciting. Hope Webber doesnt mess up his start tommorow.
      Tommorow’s gonna be awesome. Cheers

    24. good show ferrari keep the momentum up for the race

    25. Webber must be feeling such a relief, though that monkey is still gripping his collar pretty good. He has to win tomorrow.

      Im really hoping Keith, when he get’s around to it, explains the OTBD “compromise” and change. I think Speed made a hash of it. Still not clear to me who is running what overrun percentage and who is getting to spark on overrun or if only to blip the throttle or whatever. Also, all the discussion about exhaust valve cooling and crankcase evacuation does not address Ferrari. How is this affecting them?

      However this comes out, its going to be a mess. Whitmarsh cracked that if his brakes were wearing out he shouldn’t get to run 100kg lighter. A very fair point. But if Renault motors go boom because the oil is full of fuel and the lack of a related “concession,” Ghosn is going to have FIA headquarters sacked and burned.

    26. Great lap Mark(despite a small mistake in Becketts)!!! Hope the start will be good too.

      Excellent performances by Alonso(yes he’s just 1 place ahead of Massa, but 6 tenths faster is a huge gap), Di Resta, Maldonado and Kobayashi. Kovalainen just got lucky but still a good performance by him too.

      Really looking forward to the race tomorrow. It’s about time Mark gets one over Seb!

    27. From today’s result, looks like the biggest loosers from this rule change are Lotus Renault and Mclaren. Whose engine manufacturers accuse each other of having an advantage. While, the real winners Ferrari are playing it safe. Surely Lotus Renault have lost an awful lot; or were they just out at the wrong time?

    28. Hopefully Ferrari have better pace on the prime tyre than they’ve shown in previous races.

    29. The end was an anti-climax. The drivers looked set for another lap when some improvement could have changed the order, but then it rained. There are still some surprises though, like Hamilton 10th, and di Resta’s, Maldonado’s and Kobayashi’s best qualifying results of their careers.

    30. Just to say if anyone needed more proof that sky would be a terrible formula one broadcaster. They are currently reporting the storys every news outlet in the world reported yesterday. At their rate we’d find out the qualy positions after the race had happened. :P

    31. Vettel has the finger but webber has the thumb and we all know the thumb is mightyer than the finger!

      http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92964

    32. McLaren crumbled under pressure, totally wasted a set of softs in Q1 then tried to re-use them in Q3??

      1. Yet another genius move by Martin Whitmarsh.

      2. A bit desperate really.

    33. Vettel’s happy because he went about the Top Gear track faster than Webber. That is all that matters.

    34. Once again, a pathetic strategy from McLaren for Lewis: they knew the rain was coming and, therefore, that they only had a lap or so to put in a time. So, what did they do? They put Lewis on a set of old softs!

      Their ‘brilliant’ strategy was, presumably, designed to give Lewis a fresh set of tyres in the race. Well, that may be an advantage – provided that the race is dry. And the small downside is that he starts 10th….

      PS Both he and Jenson seemed to be locking-up and sliding a lot: it could be that the ban has really hurt them…

      1. Little to do with strategy, the pace was not in the car end of story. Your PS is more to the point.

    35. Regardless of the mclarens true pace this weekend, they really have to stop dropping the bomb when it comes to calls on tyres and strategy in both qualifying and race. It is getting ridiculous how many bad calls they have made this season.

      1. How terrible would it be if they really did drop the bomb? new £27 million pits all gone. :P

    36. Must be a horrible sense of deja-vu for McLaren – it was at Silverstone last year that they qualified 4th and 14th and their season entered a downward spiral from which they never recovered, following their failed attempt to introduce their exhaust-blown diffuser which never worked even when it was fitted, resulting from them slipping to being as fast as Red Bull, 1-2 in the WCC and leading the WCC to having the 3rd best car and unable to maintain a challenge for either title. They took 4 wins in the 9 races before Silverstone and only 1 in the 9 after it. How ironic that it is the same part of the car that, if the rules don’t change again, could lead to their 2011 season going the same way, only for the opposite reason…

      1. It’s not really ironic because the turn is not surprising. Not anymore. They brought updates here, but, as Hamilton said, they are not running any of them. Failed updates are just now par for the course. Whitmarsh has been busy jawboning the FIA about diffusers, but come race weekend they come out losers on the rule change. Then the dumb tire choice for Hamilton. The running fiasco of the “updates” last year never abated. Their pitstops are no longer stellar. The overall car performance is wildly erratic. You can see Dennis moping in the pits and he must be wondering what kind of amateur operation he stumbled into. The team is not well-managed and organized. After the MP4-12C gets going properly I see Dennis finding some new management talent for the F1 side of the house again.

    37. come on webber go for first :)

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