WEBBER PROVES HIS WORTH
Well, 60 years after the first ever F1 race as we know it at Silverstone, British drivers were 1-2 in the Championship and a year after the British Grand Prix was meant to get a new home, the home of the BRDC was given a garuntee on the event well into the 2020s. One of the main headlines going into the weekend though was that Hispania had replaced Bruno Senna with Sakon Yamamoto, a Japanese driver last seen driving for the old Spyker team in Brazil '07. He had previously been HIspania's test driver. In the meantime, things weren't apparantly going to plan at McLaren, but it's not like things weren't also bubbling away at Red Bull.
In qualifying, well McLaren's problems meant that things didn't go as smoothly as expected for them in Q1, particularly for Jenson. He survived though, again those driving for the new teams didn't, with Kovalainen best of that bunch this time round. Things went from bad to worse for Jenson in Q2 though as he found himself booted and would have to start in P14, though Lewis was still going strong. Alonso was the first to set a hot time though but that Webber obliterated it only to get outgunned by Vettel who grabbed his 2nd pole in a row, Webber claimed P2 to complete the second all-Red Bull front row running, Alonso grabbed P3 for the fifth team this season and Lewis started P4.
In the race itself, Jenson was in no mood to hang around. Straight up to 8th at the start before going after Schumacher before the German and a few other guys made their way into the pits allowing Jenson to move up to 4th then made it to 3rd before having to come in himself. He came out in 6th in what was turning into a pretty good performance given the circumstances. His perfdormance survived the effects of a safety car and benefitted from an Alonso drive through(which was poetic justice) to return to 4th before closing up on a podium spot that he couldn't quite grab. Still, very impressive work given the circumstances - he'll be back on the podium soon enough.
Lewis in the meantime found himself slotting into 2nd at the start, due to messy starts from Vettel and Alonso. He couldn't quite nudge himself into the lead but didn't allow himself to be left completely adrift either. His pitstop didn't affect his race too much though and he found himself running close to the leader but even after the safety car bunched the field up, couldn't find a way in front. Still, a pretty impressive result for the world championship leader, 2nd being enough to keep himself a the man to beat for the rest of the season and at this rate it'll take quite an effort from Jenson or anyone else to overhaul him, particularly with the rest of the competition ripping itself apart.
Well what can be said about Mark Webber. First Vettel nicked his brand spanking new wing then the two teammates butted heads at the first corner. However it was the Aussie that came off better in that exchange and after that...well no one was in a position to stop him. Here was a guy that's been having a surprisingly interesting time within his team and had an equally interesting radio conversation with Christian Horner after he took the chequered flag. Still, the bottom line for him was that he picked up his third win of the season and what will sound even better to him is that fact that he's now ahead of Vettel in the championship.
In the meantime though, Lewis still leads the championship on 145 points, extending his lead to twelve points. Only slightly further down, Jenson remains in 2nd, on 133.
This is getting to be awesome.
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