F1: Webber delights Silverstone crowd in valiant finale at dramatic British Grand Prix

Silverstone, July 8, 2012 – Red Bull driver Mark Webber has taken his second win of the season at the British Grand Prix, following an intense battle with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the closing laps that centred around tyre strategy. Webber now closes up to Alonso in the title rankings, who continues to lead one of the closest championships on record. Webber also joins Alonso in becoming the second two-time winner this season.

Alonso qualified on pole and started on the hard tyre, whereas Webber was second on the grid and started on the soft tyres. Webber completed one stint on the soft compound and then two stints on the hard tyre, using the durability of the harder tyre to catch and pass Alonso with four laps to go. Alonso’s final stint was on the soft tyre after completing two stints on the harder compound.

With so little dry running before the race start, teams had very limited information about the behaviour of the hard and soft tyres at Silverstone, as they had only been used briefly during the final free practice session on Saturday. The race started with track temperatures of 31 degrees centigrade, in contrast to the rain and track temperatures of approximately 15 degrees centigrade that characterised Friday and Saturday. The bad weather though meant that most drivers had their full allocation of slick tyres in pristine condition before the start of the 52-lap race, with only Webber putting on a used set of hard tyres for his final stint.

The top 10 on the grid all started on the soft tyres apart from Alonso and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, with a huge variety of start tyre choices in evidence. Webber and Alonso made their first stop for hard tyres on laps 14 and 15 respectively (Webber’s first set and Alonso’s second set) but such was Alonso’s early advantage that he was able to make his second and final stop for the softs with 15 laps to go, without losing the lead. However, Webber was able to overhaul Alonso after a thrilling battle in the closing stages of the grand prix.

Driver Quotes

Mark Webber –  WINNER-  “It’s taking a while to sink in this one. I think it was the circumstances of the race – for most of it I was marking off second place. Fernando was not quite out of touch and after the last stop, my engineer Ciaron came on the radio saying that Fernando was not doing much on the option tyres. But I know Fernando is a wily old fox, I thought he was looking after the tyres and just waiting to pull the pin and go a little bit. But when I got within two seconds I thought maybe he’s in a little bit of trouble and it was real. It was completely game on when I knew the DRS was available, I made the move stick and our hard work paid off for the win. It was a cracking grand prix today; the spectators got to see a good race and I’m pleased for them.”

Fernando Alonso 2nd – “When you do almost the entire race in the lead and you are overtaken just a few laps from the finish, it does leave something of a bitter taste in the mouth, but after reflecting for a moment and looking at the classification, then the outcome of this Grand Prix seems very positive. We have continued working on the right road: four podiums in the last five races and the fifth just missed a few laps from the end, is a nice run of results which has allowed me to lead the Championship. This is an important moment in the season: it’s not at this time that you win the championship, but one can start to lose it here and we are pleased to have extended our advantage over the majority of our closest rivals. We must continue like this for the next two races, trying to always make it to the podium. Then, we must work a lot on our top speed, especially in view of circuits like Spa and Monza. We began the race on the tyres that were best for us, with the aim of pulling out as big a lead as possible over those behind, to then try and manage the situation in the final stint. We managed it with all but one of our opponents, which was actually rather predictable. In Valencia, we won on a weekend when the Red Bulls seemed uncatchable and here we fought with them right to the end. If you had told me back on Thursday that I’d be going home with 18 points to my name, I would have signed for that right away. However, the championship is still very open: Red Bull is very strong, but we definitely cannot rule out McLaren, because they had a really bad weekend here and on top of that, Lotus are always very fast. There is a lot to do, but as we have said several times, we are on the right road.”

Sebastian Vettel- 3rd- “It was a tough day today. The start was not so good. I lost a little bit and then got stuck behind Michael, but had a good strategy to come back. We decided to pit early and we came out ahead, so that was a good call. I would be a bit happier if we had won today, but it was a great result for the team, I am happy. We’re just down the road, so it’s our local race. It’s good it didn’t rain, I saw some clouds coming and it might have helped my race, but I was very happy for the people in the grandstands. I think they appreciated it staying dry. It’s been a tough weekend for them with rain, a lot of traffic and not so much driving from our side due to too much water – but I think we made up for that today.”

Lewis Hamilton 8th –“It wasn’t a great race for me – I just wish we could have done more for the fans today. We tried as hard as we could, but we simply didn’t have the pace this afternoon. My tyres were still good at the end of my first stint, and I was able to hang on to Fernando [Alonso]. So it’s hard to understand how we could be leading the race at one point and then fall back to eighth place, especially as our car doesn’t feel bad overall. I raced my heart out and was flat-out right to the end. We’re still in the hunt for the world championship – and, if we can find a bit of lap-time, we can stay in the hunt, too. I gave the fans a little donut on the slow-down lap – simply because I wanted to say thank-you to everyone who came out to watch us here today. I’d love to have done better in my home Grand Prix, but, regardless, the fans were fantastic throughout the weekend.”

Jenson Button 10th –“It was good to get a point in my Grand Prix, but of course that’s not what we ought to be doing: we’re a front-running team and we’ve got a bit of work to do to start running at the front again. I don’t think we made any mistakes with our strategy today; we’re just not quite quick enough at the moment, that’s all. Most important of all, though, I’m a bit sorry for the Silverstone fans, because they’ve been truly amazing this weekend. Like them, we wanted a lot more from today’s result. So we’re sorry, guys; we weren’t able to fight at the front today, but hopefully we’ll be back there soon.”

Michael Schumacher 7th –“We achieved what was possible for us today, and we have to be satisfied with that. We were pretty competitive towards the end of the race, but overall we knew that the characteristics of this circuit wouldn’t suit us in normal conditions – we definitely could have done better in the wet. Even so, we managed to score a few points, which can be important for the team. Our attention now turns to Hockenheim, our next home circuit, where things should look better in any case. I can only say to all motorsport fans that we are counting on your support. Like always in Germany, it will be a very special weekend, and we want to celebrate it together with them. So make sure you’re there in Hockenheim!”

Sergio Pérez: DNF, Sauber-“I am very upset as my weekend has been ruined. I braked later than Pastor Maldonado, he didn’t give me any room at all and just came into me. In my view it was not a racing incident. We all fight very hard, but give each other room. It is a shame because my car was really going very well. I had moved up from 15th to seventh before my pit stop and so was confident of scoring points.”

Kamui Kobayashi: 11th, Sauber – “First of all the accident at the pit stop was my fault and I want to apologise to the team. Of course I had to push hard for points, but without doubt I braked too late in the pit lane. The front wheels locked, I couldn’t control the car, and this is how I overshot the pit box. I am terribly sorry this happened, and I hope the three mechanics I hit get well soon. Up to this happening my race was good. I had improved from 17th on the grid to a top ten position, and was hoping for points.”