Grand Prix 2012 British Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

After a Grand Prix in Valencia which was probably better than all the others put together it shows that F1 2012 is completely mad. For the first time this season there is a driver with 2 wins after Fernando Alonso benefited from a retirement from Vettel and any pressure from behind was gone when Grosjean lost drive not long after Vettel stopped. The big talking point came on the penultimate lap involving Maldonado and Hamilton which resulted in Hamilton being pitched into the wall and Maldonado lost a podium which seemed pretty certain as it was only a matter of time before he passed the McLaren who had fallen off the cliff.

Without the safety car it was likely that Vettel would have won at a canter as he was a long way ahead before the race changing event in the middle of the race, but he pulled up soon after the restart gifting Alonso the lead and he would keep this until the end of the race, and because of Hamilton's issues he inherited the lead of the Championship with Mark Webber's fourth place meaning he jumped up into second place. Perhaps the biggest shock of the weekend was a first podium for Michael Schumacher since his return to the sport in 2010. Both his and Webber's strategy meant they were able to come through the field and claim major points just like Alonso did as all three started outside the top 10.

Fernando Alonso's victory marks a dramatic turnaround in fortunes for Ferrari as he stormed to victory in a car which was barely faster than the midfield cars at the start of the season, but now the car is as consistently fast as the Lotuses and the McLarens, certainly in race trim anyway but not quite up to the level of the Red Bulls as shown in the early race but we've still yet to see a straight fight between Alonso and Vettel which would provide a true reflection of where the teams are at.

Once again Lotus had the pace for a victory and had Grosjean not have retired he could well have possibly claimed a maiden win for him and the team. Kimi Raikkonen spent most of the race stuck behind Hamilton which prevented him from having a shot at Alonso and by the time he got past there were just a few laps remaining and claimed a comfortable second place which he said underwhelmed him, although since when has he ever been anything but that!?

Looking ahead to the British Grand Prix the atmosphere will once again be fever pitch as McLaren could well be in their best position yet to compete for victory with the high speed corners suiting the MP4-27 and knowing the British summer it could well be a cool day which will suit the car even better and both Hamilton and Button will be fighting for the win. Jenson Button has had a horrid record at Silverstone with no podium finishes in the 12 years he has been driving in Formula One. Hamilton has a better record with podiums in 2007 and 2010 and a famous win in the wet in 2008 where he destroyed the competition.

I know that quite a few members from this site are going to the grand prix and I hope that you all have a great weekend, providing McLaren can nail down their pit stops there is a very good chance that a British driver could be at the top step of the podium, or who knows, if Lotus can finally find the sweetspot then perhaps an eighth winner can be on the cards!

For Galahad's brilliant circuit write up - http://cliptheapex.com/pages/silverstone-circuit/
 
Hamberg - bloody hell!
Guess we got off lucky in hindsight then.
I feel sorry for the poor people today if they've forked out for hotels etc & then get turned away.
For the sake of the British GP credibility I hope they can park tomorrow (I'd be surprised as our 'entertainment' waiting in the queue of the traffic was watching great spurts of mud flying up from stuck cars)
Sauber must be happy with all the shots of Kamui plowing through that huge puddle that's appearing on all the UK news bulletins :snigger:
Sitting opposite the pit lane yesterday I noticed Williams have the end pit - does this give them a slight advantage? I was wondering if the end pit means you don't need the speed limiter on the way out?
 
Well we're not going today. People are showing up and being turned away. Was up at 5am ready to go but decided it wasn't worth the miserable risk. Oh...and being advised by the circuit director not to show up kinda sealed it. Gutted. :(

Surely they should have had some kind of plan in place. It's been raining for weeks! >:(
 
Anyways...I've been up since 5am and since I'm no longer off to Silverstone today here's a few more shots snatched when there was actually some running yesterday. Hope you like. "Some old, some new". It was good to see some of the legendary cars from yesteryear and boy did they sound good!

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P&R worked brilliantly, plus they didn't check tickets so some people parked elsewhere and were able to use the buses. I'd be absolutely gutted if I'd paid for the parking. I'm writing to complain about yesterday (the complete lack of info and disappearance of all personnel above anything) I'm also going to suggest those that couldn't get in are also given complimentary tickets next year. It's not about the money.

Anyway I've just waved back to Lewis as sat opposite the pits today so I'm happy again.

Come on Lewis!!!
 
I know that this is horrible of me but, for the sake of the championship, I realy hope Alonso's Ferrari retires tomorrow. All of the contenders have suffered a bit of bad luck and I feel that an even dishing for Alonso would be a nice leveller.

This is purely for the sake of the championship battle. Obviously I do not wish Alonso any ill.
 
As I said elsewhere I'm not one to believe in luck to much but Gary Anderson in his technical analysis seemed to think Alonso was pretty unlucky in the races between Barcelona in Canada, said Ferrari's lack of reactivity in adapting their strategy amounted to points lost rather than gained in those three races.
I'm not actually sure I would agree with all three of them, except Monaco, where the team misjudged tyre wear and with Alonso setting purples in his in-lap before his stop clearly mmeant his tyres were still in very good shape. Had they ordered him to stay on track for a further couple of laps it wasn't just Hamilton he was jumping: it was Webber too, especially considering the time it was taking the harder compounds there to get into temperature.
 
As I said elsewhere I'm not one to believe in luck to much but Gary Anderson in his technical analysis seemed to think Alonso was pretty unlucky in the races between Barcelona in Canada, said Ferrari's lack of reactivity in adapting their strategy amounted to points lost rather than gained in those three races.
 
How is it unlucky to mess up a pit-stop or to make the massive misjudgement of putting enough fuel in a car (or for the matter of that to have an alternator failure?)
 
You are confusing the hell out of me Incubus. You are arguing with me about points I have not made and talking to me about teams that I have not mentioned and incidents that I have made no reference to. I hope this isn't another case of me getting confused as there is an ignored member somewhere in this conversation. Apologies to all if that is the case.
 
All of the contenders have suffered a bit of bad luck and I feel that an even dishing for Alonso would be a nice leveller..[/quote]

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Oh come on,You didn't mention any specific incident but the above means you didn't need to.
And as I said I'm not arguing anything to anyone as I made it clear I was merely quoting what Gary Anderson wrote in his column a couple of weeks ago.
 
Right. Sorry. You were filling in the blanks for me. You got them all wrong. ;-)

Of Gary, my response is that it is odd to talk describe the same outcome of events as being both unlucky and the product of a lack of reactivity. I call this a contradiction.

Sorry for the mix-up, but I think it mostly came from you presuming to know what I'm thinking. I didn't make the comment with the intention of starting a debate on it, so let's move on.

:friends:
 
Ah no problem mate. As it happens I don't agree with Anderson myself, even though he ovbiously knows a hell of a lot more than I do but at the risk of sounding repetitive repetitive (you can say that again) I really don't believe in luck either in a team sport such as this and everything happens for a reason.
 
Luck exists everywhere. Some people are better at capitalising on luck than others which makes them more proficient competitors, but it cannot be denied that there are events which happen to drivers and teams that are completely beyond their control or influence. The circumstances born from these events are the produce of luck, whether good or bad, but the way those circumstances are dealt with are the produce of skill.
 
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