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Australian Mark Webber won a sunny British Grand Prix for Red Bull on Sunday to deny Fernando Alonso a second successive victory and slash the Ferrari driver’s Formula One lead to 13 points, writes Alan Baldwin.
Alonso, winner at Silverstone last year, led from pole position but was powerless to prevent Webber powering past six laps from the end and taking the chequered flag with a three second lead.
The victory was the 35-year-old’s second of the season, after Monaco, and left him with 116 points to Alonso’s 129 after nine of 20 rounds. He became only the second double race winner of the year so far.
“Another great day for us and a great day for me to win here again. It is fantastic,” he said on the team radio before being interviewed on the podium by triple world champion Jackie Stewart.
Webber won at Silverstone in 2010, again from second place on the grid, but he said Sunday’s win had taken a bit longer to sink in.
“I don’t think I’ve had a win when I’ve got victory so late in the race. I don’t think Fernando had the right balance at the end of the race, but that can happen to any one of us,” he added.
Webber’s teammate and double world champion Sebastian Vettel was third on a dry track with the sun shining over the circuit after days of rain which had left the campsites waterlogged and approach roads clogged with traffic.
Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth for Ferrari, his best result since 2010, ahead of the Lotus pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
Red Bull stretched their lead in the constructors’ championship with 216 points to Ferrari’s 152 while McLaren slipped from second to fourth on 142 behind Lotus on 144.
Jenson Button’s British Grand Prix jinx continued, before a predicted crowd of 125,000 people, with the McLaren driver failing to stand on the podium at his home race for the 13th year in a row.
The 2009 world champion, who has never finished higher than fourth at Silverstone, started 16th and ended up with only a point in 10th.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 champion whose win that year remains the last by a British driver at home, was eighth after losing out to Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes in the closing laps. He is now 37 points adrift of Alonso.
The McLaren duo was unable to match the pace set by the front-runners. They believe that unless major improvements are made quickly, they can kiss their world title hopes goodbye.
When asked how close he was to matching the pace of race-winner Webber, Hamilton said: “A long way away, but we’ll keep working and hopefully try and catch up.
“We were very, very slow in the low-speed corners and Schumacher came past me and he was really quick – my car doesn’t feel that bad, but theirs must feel awesome.”
The 27-year-old is now fourth in the drivers’ standings, 37 points adrift of the championship leader and admitted that McLaren must improve quickly if they are to stay in the title race.
“Unless we find a lot of time, it’s going to be hard to stay in the fight,” he said.
Button, 32, started 17th and despite clawing his way through the field, spent most of the race battling mid-table teams. He said: “It’s not just the Red Bulls and the Ferraris that are quicker than us, a lot of cars are. “I was racing the Williams and the Sauber, and you see areas where they’re able to make mistakes and get away with it. I don’t understand how they’re able to do that.”
Despite the Englishman now being 79 points behind Alonso in the title race, he remained steadfast and believes his McLaren team have what it takes to find a solution. He said: “There will be a lot of unhappy people here, but we’re one of the best teams in the world and we can fight through this.”
Force India’s Paul Di Resta, the third British driver, had an even more miserable afternoon and retired after damage to the car on the opening lap when he was clipped by Grosjean.
Brazilian Bruno Senna was ninth for Williams.
Williams could have hoped for much more but their Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado collided with Mexican Sergio Perez on lap 12, ending the Sauber driver’s race.
Perez said the stewards had to act.
And they did, Maldonado was reprimanded and fined 10,000 Euros by the FIA.
Perez’s Japanese teammate Kamui Kobayashi provided another moment of drama when he overshot his mark at the pit stop and sent mechanics sprawling like ninepins, without suffering serious injury.
He was fined 25,000 euros ($30,800) after knocking over three of his Sauber colleagues.
Caterham’s Russian Vitaly Petrov did not start after his engine failed as he made his way around to the grid.
