Red Bull’s charge at Silverstone, while McLaren maintains championship lead

Mark Webber had little to fear as his promised upgrade package vanished before his eyes to team mate Sebastian Vettel earlier in Qualifying. A difficult decision made by Team Principle Christian Horner after Vettel had already broken his new wing in practice.

It was Mark Webbers 150th grand prix, and he was exuberant in his flag to flag victory. In fact, the only person who did trouble him all afternoon was his Red Bull Racing team-mate, and even then it was only the first two corners. Sebastian’s Lap 1 battle with Lewis Hamilton, who started third, left Vettel with a puncture and a place at the bottom of the timesheets. But as Mark was demonstrating the RB6’s pace at the front, Sebastian was scything through the pack and finished seventh.

After yesterday’s ‘unique situation’, Webber demonstrated some of his famed Aussie grit to win this historic race:

“The start was ideal,” he said. “When I got to the first corner I was ahead and thought, ‘let’s get on with it’. It was a special day and a lot of hard work has gone in from the team – you don’t get results at this level if you’re not putting the effort in. They deserve this. Yesterday was a unique situation, but I’m confident we can sort everything for the future.”

And Sebastian was also working hard from the back of the pack. Helped by a Safety Car on lap 28 which bunched up the cars in front, he was able to take on first the new teams before going on to take some more established scalps.

“For the first 30 laps, I didn’t have much to do except going around trying to catch up,” said Seb. “But after the Safety Car I had some people to fight and that was good fun, I was racing people like Felipe and Michael – it’s always a good race here with a great atmosphere.”

LEWIS HAMILTON – 2nd

“It’s been a phenomenal weekend – and this result is a near-perfect way to finish it. I’m so happy: considering how far behind we were in practice, we really didn’t expect to be this far up today. I’m very proud of the team and the effort they put in, as always.

“At the start, I was able to jump Fernando [Alonso] and take a step forward. After that I chased Mark [Webber] for the whole race, but the Red Bull was about four or five tenths a lap faster than our car, so it was very difficult to stay close to him. Still, the most important thing is that we scored a lot of world championship points once again, so this is another great race result for us.

“It’s been the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen here. And the support from all the fans has been incredible, I couldn’t ask for more. You can’t hear them cheering their support in the car, but you can feel it; and I carry every single one of them with me in the car. They give me a huge boost of confidence on every lap.

“We’ve got two weeks to work on our upgrades before the next grand prix. I won the last race at Hockenheim, in 2008, and if we can get the new floor there, we should be looking pretty strong. “We’ve just got to keep pushing: this world championship is still all to play for.”

NICO ROSBERG – 2nd

“I had a good start today and was happy to be up to fourth place by the end of the first lap. Robert was holding me up and with Fernando pushing hard behind, it wasn’t easy to maintain the place. Our strategy was really strong today so thanks to the guys on the pit wall for their efforts and keeping me out on the options. I had a great lap and with the quick pit stop, it was enough to get me out ahead of Robert, and that made the podium possible. It’s been a good effort from the team to turn our situation around after Valencia. We have made a step forward and analysed where we went wrong and to come away with a podium today is fantastic. It’s a real turnaround and I am confident that there is more to come from us.”

JENSON BUTTON – 4th

“That was a great race, and I’m so happy to have made up 10 places. But it’s hard to overtake around here, so I knew I had to make up a lot of places off the start-line. In the event I made up six places, but I then had to push really hard on the Option tyre in the first stint. That strategy worked for us and I came out behind Fernando, who had a drive-through, so I picked up fourth. It’s a pity I couldn’t have overtaken Nico [Rosberg], but this is still a fantastic result for me.

“It’s a pity I couldn’t get onto the podium in front of my home crowd, who have been absolutely amazing all weekend. You can never forget the fans around here – I genuinely think they helped Lewis and me to a good result today. And they got to see and cheer Lewis on the podium too, so it’s not been a bad weekend for them overall, I hope.

“After Friday, to pick up second and fourth today is great. I’m still second in the drivers’ championship, and the only pain is that Lewis has pulled away a bit. But we’ll try and get that back at the next race.

“I reckon we’ll turn up at Hockenheim with a stronger car, and that therefore we won’t be fighting from the start of the weekend. I hope we’ll have a good race there and can really take the fight to the Red Bulls.”

Post British Grand Prix Driver standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	127
2	Jenson Button	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	121
3	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	115
4	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	103
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	98
6	Robert Kubica	Renault	83
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	75
8	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	67
9	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	34
10	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	31
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	19
12	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	12
13	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	7
14	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	7
15	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	6
16	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	3
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1
18	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	0
20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	0
21	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	0
22	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	0
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	0
24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	0

Post British Grand Prix Constructors standings

Pos	Team	Points
1	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	248
2	RBR-Renault	218
3	Ferrari	165
4	Mercedes GP	109
5	Renault	89
6	Force India-Mercedes	43
7	Williams-Cosworth	20
8	STR-Ferrari	10
9	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	7
10	Lotus-Cosworth	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0