Webber wins in a great day at Silverstone

There’s a huge sense of anticipation as that whine turns into a roar as the first appearance of a Formula 1 car then bursts into view down the hanger straight and shrieks into Stowe splitting your ears and vibrating straight through you. It’s a spectacular experience.

Mark Webber took a brilliant win in the closing stages of the British Grand Prix, snatching it away from Fernando Alonso in the sprint to the flag. However, my day was one of endurance.

 

After all the problems that the great British summer provided over the past few days for the Silverstone car parks, myself and two friends gathered together on the Saturday night to begin our journey and avoid the traffic chaos that we had no doubt would ensue.

Turns out everyone got in fairly easily in the end, but how were we to know? We set off in a trusty 12 year old Ford Escort estate at 11pm. After a rather slow pit stop on the M1 Toddington services we arrived at Silverstone around 1.30am.

I rather foolishly assumed the car parks would be open early to avoid queues and just get everyone in, but they weren’t to open for another 3 ½ hours. We parked just outside with several hundred other intrepid race goers and “slept” in the car, although my eye was always half open as I watched cars 

forget about the side of the road and simply wait on the dual carriage way.

Sleeping in an estate car you’d think would be just about doable. Turns out, it’s not. As soon as the gates opened though we were in the right place at the right time and shot in to the car park, thankfully not a grass one, not sure the car could have coped with mud. We lined up and we were ready to go watch some cars racing.

We're in!

As soon as you’re in the circuit it’s amazing just how quickly time flies. We wondered in around 6ish, got our programmes, searched the merchandise stalls and then headed round the track towards Stowe where our grandstand seats awaited us. We had a nice view, seeing all of Hanger straight, through Stowe down Vale into Club with the pit entrance in view and the back end of the start finish straight. 

We also had a handily placed big screen to keep us updated with what was going on elsewhere.

Some people believe that because you can’t see everything, it’s pointless to attend a race, but these are people who most likely have never been to a race. The atmosphere, the noise, actually seeing these drivers, their hands dancing on the steering wheel pushing to the edge is truly a sight that should be experienced at least once.

Anyway around 830 the GP3 race was underway, and from then on it’s action all the way. As soon as that was finished the GP2 cars came out for what was probably the best race of the day. Up and coming stars Luiz Razia and Davide Valsecchi battled for the race win, Valsecchi particularly impressive as he came from a long way back to challenge before eventually settling for second.

GP2 Cars

They’re great to watch too as battles continued throughout the race, the cars spitting fire out the back through Stowe as they drop a gear, it’s awesome and it was real wheel to wheel racing where no quarter is given as Esteban Gutierrez demonstrated when he ran wide at Stowe and kept his foot hard on the gas. Unfortunately for him he lost it on a wet patch and clattered into Johnny Ceccotto who flew off into the gravel down near Club corner.

But as fun as that was, after the Porsche race, the drivers parade and the always spectacular Red Arrows display it was time for the main event. The much talked about rain held off for practically the entire day with only slight spitting during the GP3 event. At 12:30 you can hear the whine of a Formula 1 engine being started. It’s always an amazing sound, no matter how many times you may have seen these cars live. 

Stowe is towards the end of the lap these days and there’s a huge sense of anticipation as that whine turns into a roar as the first appearance of a Formula 1 car then bursts into view down the hanger straight and shrieks into Stowe splitting your ears and vibrating straight through you. It’s a spectacular experience.

One by one they all came out for their installation laps before lining up on the grid. This was my fourteenth race and still even now I get butterflies as you hear the cars all roar in unison before the five red lights go out. 

A minute after the start 23 cars are hurtling down Hanger Straight towards me, headed by Alonso, with Webber, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa close behind as Sebastian Vettel holds off Kimi Raikkonen.

In truth it wasn’t one of the most outstanding of races, but it didn’t take anything away from seeing these drivers pushing their cars to the limit. 

There was still much to enjoy, Romain Grosjean fighting his way up the field after pitting early because of a clash with Paul di Resta which left the Force India driver no choice but to retire.

The battle in the early stages was Schumacher holding onto third ahead of Massa, Vettel, Kimi, Lewis Hamilton, Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez.

Into Stowe we had a great pass by Massa on Schumacher, the Mercedes driver trying valiantly to hold on around the outside of Stowe, before a rejuvenated Massa closed the door on him to move up to third.

As strategies played out, Alonso looked majestic out in front of the pack, holding a decent lead over Webber who looked to keep up the fight and not let the Ferrari get too far away but didn’t look like he could take the challenge to the Spaniard.

But after the final pit stops, Alonso took to the soft tyres with just 14 laps to go, while Webber who’d pitted earlier was now on the hards. It was the right way to go, as the gap began to fall. It was noticeable from the stands how fast Webber suddenly began to close, and around the circuit the crowd began to anticipate a fight for the win which just hadn’t looked like coming at all. 

Closer and closer he got, the Red Bull poised to tear around the Ferrari. Lap 48, on the screens Webber tucked himself up behind Alonso coming into the DRS zone down the Wellington straight. He darted to the outside and into Brooklands forced his way past and into the lead producing a wave of cheers from the fans around the rest of the lap; it was a popular victory despite it not being Lewis or Jenson.

He broke clear and was never in trouble as he reeled off the final four laps to take a great win in a fantastic finish to the race to take his second victory of the year, only the second man after Alonso to do that.

It had all looked so set throughout the race that Alonso was about to consolidate his position in the title race, but not if this Australian has anything to do with. Webber moves to just 13 points behind Alonso and really is in 2010 form now which was the last time he won the British Grand Prix, no one should underestimate his title credentials.

Behind Webber and Alonso, Vettel used an early pit stop to secure third place ahead of Massa. In fifth was Kimi who got held up by Schumacher but eventually made it through. Grosjean worked his way up to sixth to make it a solid result for Lotus. 

Schumacher had started third and had really wanted the wet weekend to continue if he was to challenge for victory. But in the dry the Mercedes went backwards and he ended up seventh, overtaking a fading Lewis Hamilton who was eighth towards the end.

Both Mercedes and McLaren will be concerned. Nico Rosberg also went backwards, but from 12^th, which was disappointing. Their dry pace wasn’t great, after qualifying a disappointing eighth, Hamilton would have expected to go forwards, not stay where he was. They tried the same strategy as Alonso, but he was never truly in contention, despite a great battle for the lead with Alonso when he hadn’t made his first stop yet. However he still rewarded the Stowe crowd with a doughnut on the slowing down lap, ever the entertainer.

In ninth the Williams of Bruno Senna made up for another clash by his team mate Maldonado to score two points while Jenson Button in the other McLaren eventually got up to tenth in the closing laps but never looked like he could get any higher.

As the race developed something shiny and round and warm broke through the clouds, and by the end it had turned into a pleasant day. It was a fine race, and one which developed the championship story further, just as it looked like Alonso might get away, he got reigned back in. Hamilton though, will be feeling his chances might be slipping away, but there’s still a long way to go.

Once the race had finished, we departed the grandstand and headed to walk along the start finish straight and see the BBC F1 forum on the stage at Luffield. Saw the Sky team in the pit lane too. But as they brought out Murray Walker to shout GO GO GO, we went as the rain returned. 

With energy levels depleted and a long drive ahead we made our way back to the car park to try squeeze out on the free flowing roads ahead of us. They weren’t free flowing, it took a long time. A long time, but still Silverstone provided a great day and certainly did the best they could given the previous conditions.

Another fine Grand Prix experience, and an interesting story developing in the title race despite the fears that Red Bull may have moved a step ahead in performance it all still looked very close, but was noticable how Red Bull and Ferrari filled the top four positions while McLaren were 8th and 10th as they fell to fourth in the constructors championship.

It could all change in Germany but the boys from Woking look like they need to do a lot of work if they want to keep up in this title race.