British GP 2010 - Silverstone

[myurr]

Why wasn't Alonso allowed to serve his drive through during the SC phase? Other people were pitting exactly at the time... I though it was "penalty given, penalty served". Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes unlucky. He would have lost 4 or 5 places, not 10.
Was he not allowed to serve the drive through under SC out of safety concerns?
Charlie whiting must really hate him.

Again it's the rules - no serving of penalties under the safety car.

[vall]

Why wasn't Alonso allowed to serve his drive through during the SC phase? Other people were pitting exactly at the time... I though it was "penalty given, penalty served". Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes unlucky. He would have lost 4 or 5 places, not 10.
Was he not allowed to serve the drive through under SC out of safety concerns?
Charlie whiting must really hate him.

It looked strange to me too! I don't think it is in the regs., so it much have come from Charlie. Perhaps, to screw Alonso again It is not the first time Alonso takes it on the stewards and Charlie is probably not happy with it.....

Anyway, my first reaction was that he should let Bob pass. I am not sure what Ferrari were thinking.....

EDIT: It is indeed in the regs that no penalty can be served durign a SC period. So, I retract soem of my comments

[myurr]

Why wasn't Alonso allowed to serve his drive through during the SC phase? Other people were pitting exactly at the time... I though it was "penalty given, penalty served". Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes unlucky. He would have lost 4 or 5 places, not 10.
Was he not allowed to serve the drive through under SC out of safety concerns?
Charlie whiting must really hate him.

It looked strange to me too! I don't think it is in the regs., so it much have come from Charlie. Perhaps, to screw Alonso again It is not the first time Alonso takes it on the stewards and Charlie is probably not happy with it.....

Anyway, my first reaction was that he should let Bob pass. I am not sure what Ferrari were thinking.....

Stop with the stupid conspiracies! It was mentioned on the BBC feed that it's in the rules.

[ringo]

From a fanboy point of view the race was over at turn one after Vettel's puncture. His comments after the race were quite telling and confirmed what I had seen on the on board footage from the car behind him.

From an F1 fan point of view, man did it drag on. I was ready to switch off after lap 20 as it felt more like lap 40!

Yeah lap 25 felt like lap 50!
I think that safety car and late alonso penalty was an artificial spice up. It seemed funny that they didn't tell him to give back the space, but allowed him to break the rule.

I like the german 4 way battle, and the lame button rosberg battle. It was nice having the cars run so close near the end.

I have to admit i was a bit entertained by Vettel in the redbull. Not because of any skills, but because of redbull's increasing superiority. The RB6 on 50 lap tyres, made a force india look like a lotus in the corners.

[zenithbeach]

cannot compare overtaking in Monaco with Silverstone! But, yes, if you are 4-5sec faster it is much easier

ok in that case, lets compare vettel vs alonso's overtaking skills today lol seein as both drivers were at the back of the field at some point in the race

[vall]

what about Shumi? What a race...

[Just_a_fan]

He did a super recovery from being back almost 90 s.

Only after the safety car brought him back in to play. Before that he was driving around like he was just out enjoying the view.

And it seems the only way to pass a Force India is to drive in to the side of the thing and push it out of the way.

[Just_a_fan]

Vettel's attempted chop off the line was very Schuie. Also probably actually hampered him and certainly helped Hamilton get up behind the two RBs. Interesting that P2 and P3 (both on the dirty side) got much better starts than P1 and P3 on the clean racing line side.

Alonso might be considered unlucky but he knows the rules and knows that he should have given the place back straight away. No point him and Ferrari moaning about it. He was unlucky to have a SC just then too but if he'd pitted as soon as the penalty was given then he might actually have been beeter off. Something for them to look at for future reference.

Some good drives out there such as Rosberg and Button (who had a very good first lap indeed).

Some bad drives out there such as Vettel. Look at Alonso's charge after his penalty compared to Vettel's wander around the circuit until the SC. Vettel needs to grow up.

Good drives by Webber and Hamilton - the class of the field today.

[andrew]

Some bad drives out there such as Vettel. Look at Alonso's charge after his penalty compared to Vettel's wander around the circuit until the SC. Vettel needs to grow up.

How anyone can say that Vettels drive was bad and that he needs to grow up is unfathomable. Remind me how many cars did he pass? He lost as much time after his right rear got sliced by the front wing of a driver who will remain nameless he was no where with very little opportunity do do anything special. For him to finish 7th is an excellent recovery drive and was easily the best performance out there today.

[Mysticf1]

For him to finish 7th is an excellent recovery drive and was easily the best performance out there today.

He wouldn't have even come close without the safety car...his laps behind sutil including bumping sutil out of the way was far from a great performance.

[jason.parker.86]

One can not help but feel sorry for Vettel as he is stuck in between a rock and hard place. I doubt the team are trying to annoy Webber on purpose but seems like Alonso and Hammy all over again. I wonder when Webber will threaten to goto the FIA with evidence that the Red Bull has secret Mclaren drawings hehe

[andrew]

"Bumping Sutil out the way?"

That's how proper passing is done. It was firm but fair.

[Shaddock]

For him to finish 7th is an excellent recovery drive and was easily the best performance out there today.

He wouldn't have even come close without the safety car...his laps behind sutil including bumping sutil out of the way was far from a great performance.

+1

Redbull are introducing this upgrade for Vettel's car for the next race, it's not a direct performance step, but the team think it will help him with his overtaking of the back markers.

[WhiteBlue]

I was actually quite happy with Seb's driving if you forget the dismal start.

He had no part at all in the accident with Hamilton. Hamilton was still a good foot away from the inside of copse corner when the accident happened. He could have avoided the contact if he had used all the room Seb gave him. Unfortunately they can not see their wings and this time it was just a few centimeters that wrecked Seb's race. He did a good job to bring the car back in time not to be lapped and avoided too much damage to the diffusor although some damage was actually done as he said.

Seb then managed to keep on the same lap as the leaders although his pace was reduced by the diffusor damage and the fact that he had to use the tyres for 50 laps. When the safety car came he had passed several back markers and got something like 45 s back that he had lost in the accident in lap. Unfortunately all other cars had pitted already so that he did not get any windfalls like Alonso in Monaco.

Nevertheless he went from 24th to 7th by passing every one of those 17 car on track. The Force Indias are difficult to pass with a speed advantage of 10 km down the straights but he managed to get Sutil in the end. I quite enjoyed their multi lap scap there. They must have been at it for seven or eight laps. Eventually Seb managed to get alongside Sutil at T13and claim the inside for T14. This denied Sutil the racing line around T14 and they had a brief contact. Sutil was complaining later but the over head showed them proper on track. Good damage limitation and enough patience to claim those final points.

Alonso was in a similar position but he was less lucky in his contact with Liuzzi. It was the end of a pretty dismal weekend and it looks the Ferrari challenge could be falling too much behind to recover this year.

Michael made a mistake on his in lap and pushed too much similar to Q3. He lost another 2 positions for it instead of winning one. This rate of mistakes is pretty hefty and I think he needs to reduce his risk taking to bring points home for the team. It isn't the mode he knows. Usually it has been all or nothing for him, but now it is all maximizing points to help the budget. Rosberg did everything right and got his third podium, congrats to him.

Hamilton did a solid job expect for the accident and punched above his weight as did Button. McLaren can be happy with the damage limitation as well. I bet their race could have gone much worse if they had kept the other package on. I have covered Webber and there isn't much more to say about his race but two starts well done and no mistakes made. Probably more should be said about his talk. He said: "I would never have signed a contract for next year if I believed that was the way going forward." Perhaps both parties should reconsider their commitments. Perhaps he would be happier at Ferrari where a big explosion must be in the works after Massa and Alonso collided.

Negative impression I got from Alguersuari. His defending skill is smaller than his ambitions and he had too much contact. Very good day for Williams and Sauber with Rubens and Kamui high in the points and the Hulk on the final point scoring position.

I was wondering what was happening at the stewards room. Was Nigel trying to convince the other stewards not to penalize Alonso? It took endlessly to come to a verdict and I never heard them ask him to give up his position. Smart move would have been falling back immediately with hindsight. But he did not have that. It turned out disastrous.

I'm not happy with the safety car although it helped Seb today. The racing is artificially spiced up. Closing the pit lane would have been better I think.

Silverstone should have a proper overtaking point. T10-T14 wasn't really working unless the cars were massively mismatched.

[ringo]

I don't particularly like Vettel or Alonso, but i respect both of them, and since i have an unbiased view of the two of them i'd say Vettel's "fight" through the field was more entertaining that Alonso's becuase of the type of cars and drivers he was passing.
It was all in the car clearly, becuase vettel wasn't neccessarily graceful with his point and shoot tactics, but i enjoyed it more. And i think he learned a thing or 2.

Alonso's passes in monaco are pretty routine for a guy of his calibre and were on back markers, SC also helped him even more.

His battle with kubica this weekend was good though.

Button was very lucky again this weekend. Through no skills or impressive driving of his own. The right cars got penalties and retirements to set him up for 4rth place. Almost as if Mansel penalized Alonso to get his boy Button up more.

But it goes to show that button only needs a car with good pace and good balance to trundle around in, coupled with a strong team strategy.
Mclaren's race pace and reliability and the adaptable strategists, are moving him through the field with little effort.