Alonso Cruises to First Win of Season

It's good to be back at the top of the podium

Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag at the British Grand Prix to claim his first win of the 2011 championship and the first win for Scuderia Ferrari as the Spaniard capitalised on a pit lane error from Red Bull on Sebastian Vettel's stop to cruise to the finish line in 1st place whilst McLaren endured an extremely difficult weekend.

Qualifying saw Mark Webber take pole position for Red Bull after what was heading for an exciting final lap of Q3 became nothing of the sort as wet areas on the track forced the drivers to abort their final lap to keep their cars safe. This meant that Paul Di Resta qualified in a very impressing 6th for Force India at this first home grand prix.  However, things were not so inspiring for Lewis Hamilton who could only manage 10th on the starting grid; certainly a disappointment in front of the home fans. It was a very nervous session for the Brits as Jenson Button left it late in Q2 to get through to the pole position shoot-out managing 4th from 14th. Button finished 5th fastest in the final session. Vettel was second behind team mate Mark Webber and that once again was enough for a Red Bull pole. Christian Horner's team have come out on top in every qualifying session this season with Vettel in particular dominating. Alonso finished in 3rd ahead of Felipe Massa in a reasonable 4th for the Brazilian.

The race winner Alonso

After a disappointing end to qualifying, the excitement headed towards the race. With Mark Webber having poor starts in previous races this season, it was always going to be interesting to see what happened when the red lights went out. Webber had won in 2010, and was looking to repeat the same success again. However, that didn't happen; his team mate Vettel took the lead after passing Webber who dropped to second. Jenson Button managed to get upto 4th with his Mclaren team mate Lewis Hamilton making a great start. From 10th on the grid to 6th on the first lap, it was a remarkable start from Hamilton who was driving towards a podium finish with this defiant mentality. As always, Vettel was leaving a large gap behind him at the start and it appeared as if this could be a very one-sided race. There were a lot of battles going on over the track. Hamilton was chasing down Fernando Alonso after passing Jenson Button who looked really slow; also being passed by Massa after originally overtaking the Ferrari driver. There were some brilliant moments on the track, and the crowd were anticipating further action with Alonso and Hamilton. Hamilton overtook Massa and was now heading for his former team-mate at Mclaren Alonso; the move finally came on lap 15. He was now just 6 seconds off the lead. At this moment in time, it was very difficult to tell how this race was going to pan out. Suddenly Alonso was closing in on Hamilton despite previously losing a place to the 2008 World Champion. Alonso looked determined and he kept the pressure on the Mclaren. Lewis defended as much as possible and it wasn't going to be a simple task for Alonso. Alonso used the DRS zone to his advantage and regained third place from Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton on his way to 4th

It was on lap 27 when things started to change. The leader Sebastian Vettel came in for his stop as well as Alonso; Vettel needed to stay ahead of the Ferrari but there was a problem with the right rear tyre as one of the wheel nut guns wasn't working. The stop became much longer than necessary and Alonso managed to punish the Red Bull's for this mistake as he took the lead. All of a sudden, the race had changed and now Alonso, not Vettel, was disappearing into the distance for an inevitable victory. Hamilton had got up to second during this bizarre mishap and Vettel was chasing him down quickly. On lap 37 Hamilton pitted, it was a quick and smooth pit stop but he couldn't stay ahead of the reigning world champion Vettel. Two laps later, disaster struck. Button, in 5th, went in for his final pit stop. It was quick but as he exited the pitlane, he stopped immediately. His front right tyre was coming off. The cameras went to the mechanics where somebody was holding up the wheel nut which obviously hadn't been put in and consequently ended Button's race at his home grand prix. Things got worse for Mclaren when Lewis Hamilton received a message over the radio telling him to slow down slightly to conserve fuel as they hadn't given him enough fuel for the race. Therefore Felipe Massa, Hamilton's championship rival in 2008, was steadily closing in on him.

Surprisingly, Mark Webber was also lapping faster than Vettel who has outraced him on nearly every occasion this season. This added some diversity to the race and something that we haven't seen yet this season. Towards the end, he was really getting close and there was almost a great opportunity on the National Pits Straight but the German just about defended his position. There were two gripping pieces of action on the track; Hamilton against Massa and Vettel defending against Webber. On the final lap, however, Mark Webber received a message over the radio from Christian Horner telling him to maintain the gap. The Australian had been given team orders which was disappointing to see. But there was still some edge of your seat racing to witness. Going into Club corner on the final lap, Massa went up the inside of Hamilton to take 4th place but the Briton fought back coming around the outside making contact with Massa before he went wide on the final corner allowing Hamilton through to just about snatch the position across the line which really gave the crowd something to shout about.

The race was over and Alonso took a sweet victory to claim his first winner's trophy this year. Hamilton's courageous performance salvaged some satisfaction for McLaren but other than that it was a very below average performance from Martin Whitmarsh's team. Vettel's second extended his lead at the top of the World Championship to 80 points ahead of Webber. Paul Di Resta finished 15th after he, like Vettel, suffered from a pit lane error. Despite the controversy with Red Bull, the British Grand Prix was a very successful and  entertaining one and there was a great atmosphere at Silverstone with so many fans. The teams now look on to Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix which is effectively the halfway stage of the season.

The podium celebrations

Top 10

1. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
3. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
4. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
5. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
6. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP)
7. Sergio Perez (Sauber)
8. Nick Heidfeld (Lotus Renault)
9. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP)
10. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso)