Well, if Pirelli were not making too many friends in the build-up to today's race - they are certainly off the Christmas card list for several drivers at the end of the race. This time round I can agree with most of the things that have been said throughout the events of the race and discussions afterwards, because things have transgressed beyond mere performance issues to clear safety issues - something that has come to the fore more so in reflection of the tragic accident at Le Mans. Right now fingers are being pointed at the curbing, but here's the thing, the curbs have been there for a long time and are not a new thing to account for. So they may have been the cause of the failures, but realistically tyres should be able to resist the conditions that have been around for many many seasons.
However underneath all the issues with tyres the British GP has been an impressive spectacle with a lot close racing and overtaking - not all of which were constricted to the DRS zones as we have seen in other events this year. Several cars were out of position at the start and others placed there through circumstances through the race, therefore producing mismatches of relative pace opened those doors for overtaking. But despite this race being one of the more notable events on the calender, and being a genuinely decent race, something seemed missing - perhaps a lack of complimentary muffins, or not being stalked by potentially villainous sheep, but I assume normal service will resume next weekend when I've re-integrated into the traditional pattern of sleep and activity. There is the small matter of this event to take care of first.
The Race
Small climatic changes had taken place before the start as it had warmed up a fair bit, which for this little island is always a rarity, especially considering I spent a lot of time in the rain in Wales - but the heat could easily be another ingredient in the recipe for tyre destruction.
The actual start was a picture of contrasting fortunes and performances at the bottom end of the scale was Red Bull's Mark Webber who vanished down the middle of the pack and was four wide at the apex of turn one. A situation that was exacerbated by the fact that one of the four cars was Romain Grosjean and as a result contact was made and Webber lost an endplate again - hoping it would make the car faster as it did in Canada... instead he ended up 15th. On the outside of the same quarrel was Massa barrelling down the side of the track making up 6 places from his lowly grid position in one of the better starts of the season. Other notable starts included Raikkonen up to 5th, and Di Resta who was relegated to the back of the grid, and Sutil stealing 4th place.
Opening laps were cautionary as the top three edged away while Sutil had Raikkonen and Massa to deal with behind. Also worth knowing that for a grand total of 7 laps no-one had wanted to hunt down Pirelli and steal their supply of special muffins - so it was time for a monumental display to re-ignite the anger. What could be so damming on British soil... ah here's an idea, how about detonating the tyre on national hero and race leader Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. And so it was done, the left rear disintegrated showering the track in fragments of rubber - Hamilton was able to pit the car eventually but had dropped into last position. Passing the baton of leadership onto that German Bloke again. In an attempt to convey some degree of impartiality between nationalities, it was the turn of Felipe Massa's Ferrari to suffer an exploding rear tyre as the car turned into Aintree corner. So he went to the back of the field instead.
In response to the sudden spate of tyre explosions the pits saw an increased level of activity with people getting rid of the starting tyres in favour of the harder compound - which gave Webber a chance to replace his damaged front wing. Turns out this latest aerodynamic redesign was not as effective as the one Van Der Garde initiated in Montreal, where Mark went and set fastest lap after that damage. Through these stops the Lotus cars found themselves on a similar piece of track behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso - which lead to a brilliant duel as Raikkonen initially lost a place to Grosjean but was able to make the ground back as the two Frenchmen closed in on each other re-igniting a three way battle. As the the Lotus' they ended up racing each other allowing Vergne to eke out a small gap - and as Raikkonen was running side by side with his team-mate on the Hangar straight there was another tyre explosion. This one belonged to Vergne, the left rear erupting into a cloud of debris with fragments bouncing of Raikkonen's helmet. Unsurprisingly the Finn didn't care and focused on completing the pass on Grosjean.
The field of shrapnel from the Torro-Rosso forced the deployment of the safety car to allow the marshals to sweep the track clear and remove the carcass of the detonated tyre. Vernge was able to save the car from spinning out and doing more damage, but was forced retire due to a damaged floor from the explosion. More cars pitted for checks after the third explosion of the race - Webber was informed that Vettel had cuts on his tyres and were close to bursting at his last stop, other calls went out to try and keep drivers off the curbs, in case that was causing the tyres to fail. But using the curbs is faster than not doing so, on that note the chance of people willingly losing time is a little minimal at best.
At the restart it was in the middle of the train where position changes were taking place, as Hamilton was attempting to make a comeback by finding some space on the inside of Gutierrez through the exit of Vale. His next target other than the people at Pirelli was the second Sauber of Hulkenberg a little further down the road who in turn had just had contact with Di Resta's front wing causing the Force India to lose an endplate. Hulkenberg then pitted with more tyre issues before it had a chance to explode therefore Hamilton moved and he too had to deal with the Scotsman in an all Britain duel.
Back at the front Rosberg was starting to catch up to Vettel in this new phase of the race while Sutil was busy holding off Alonso for the final podium place with Raikkonen a little further back. The second Lotus was wrestling with another Red Bull sponsored machine - this time from the main team piloted by a recovering Webber, temporarily losing the place to the Australian before immediately taking it back. Battles that were interrupted by the presence of a lot more debris at the end of Hangar straight, and the replay showed that it belonged to Gutierrez - as the car slipped out of shot a cloud of debris erupted from the front of the car and it can only be assumed to be another tyre explosion. Perhaps when some fan video comes to light we can see whether the wing failed first or another problem for Pirelli. This time the debris was cleared without the need of a safety car and the race continued.
While some cars were pitting for their third set of tyres there was another major development as that German bloke's car keeled over and died on the front straight - as the gearbox ground itself into oblivion. At least it wasn't the tyres for once. Because the car had seized up in an inaccessible place the safety car had to come out again - the British GP isn't known for it's safety cars in the dry but here was our second. Also it set up an interesting final phase of the race, where those who stayed out beforehand had track position but much older tyres and thus less grip - placing the power with Webber and Alonso on the freshest rubber.
On restart number two there was a lot of spacing between the top cars with more bunching further behind - Alonso was the first to make progress past the McLarens, first darting out from behind Button on the run down to Copse and latching onto the back of Perez. That pass was made a little more interesting as Sergio's tyre also exploded as the Ferrari closed up once more sending bits of car and rubber bouncing down the road and off Alonso's car. Fernando was also able to follow Webber through as the Australian made it past fellow countryman and potential replacement - Daniel Ricciardo. As the laps ran out the cars on older tyres continued to struggle falling victim to Webber, Alonso and Hamilton in turn the best of these battles was Webber taking second from Raikkonen as both cars went two wide through Copse without touching or forcing each other off the track. Brilliant overtaking.
Webber pushed hard in the remaining laps, cancelling out the lead Rosberg had and was unable to catch the German in time finishing seven tenths down at the line. Alonso scored important points in third especially considering Vettel didn't make it to the end to close up the championship a little more. Hamilton despite being last by lap nine was able to make a recovery drive to 4th position, ahead of Raikkonen in 5th on the older tyres. Massa also recovering from a tyre explosion that threw him off the track brought the car home in 6th. Sutil fell from a podium spot on the restart down to 7th, a similar fate to Ricciardo who dropped to 8th by the end of the race. From the final row of the grid Di Resta scored a couple of points in 9th and the final point goes to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
In a race where all the attention was directed at the tyres and their tendency to explode, which wasn't part of the original product description, it was about recovery drives and making up for lost ground, and of course the bonus points.
- 25pts - Mark Webber - A slow start, contact and damage on the first lap yet still only 0.7s away from claiming what would have been a popular win
- 18pts - Lewis Hamilton - Dropped to last place with an exploding tyre and still managed 4th
- 15pts Felipe Massa - A brilliant start and a recovery drive from another exploding tyre
- 12pts - Paul Di-Resta - From the back of the field and into the points, decent job
- 10pts - Adrian Sutil - Ran the car in a podium place for so long before losing out at the end
- 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - For hanging onto the car at the fastest point when the tyre exploded
- 6pts - Fernando Alonso - For missing all of the debris from Perez's exploding tyre
- 4pts - Top Gun Rosberg - Well done for not retiring and surviving Webber in the final laps
- 2pts - Raikkonen/Grosjean - For still duelling through the cloud of peices from Vergne's car
- 1pt - Nico Hulkenberg - Gets a point for Sauber, well done there
The Penalty Points Championship
There is really one one penalty that can be dished out from that race and that obviously goes to Pirelli - yes the curbs may have caused the failures, but those have been there for years and are not a new and sudden problem. Therefore it is not illogical and unreasonable that a tyre company should be able to develop a product that can cope with one of the intrinsic parts of motor-racing and the circuits the drivers compete on. But who am I to judge - instead I'll just throw penalty points around and today one goes to Pirelli
Looking Forward To Germany
In the height of the traditional European season we travel onto the continent for the next race at the Nurburgring, it may be a fraction of the grandeur of the mind-blowingly epic Nordschelife but the modern version is more fitting for the current breed of car. I would not want to consider the consequences of the sort of tyre failures we've seen today out on the ring through the Eiffel Mountains for the outcome would be more severe. This part of Germany often brings with it it's own micro-climate full of intermittent rain, clouds and wind, all of which can turn an uneventful procession into a maelstrom of mayhem and hilarity - without explosions hopefully. There has been a lot of immediate complaints about what needs to be done in time for the next race, and I can't foresee any of the events of today repeating themselves. The curbs are completely different, the temperature will be much cooler and potentially as wet as a damp Thursday in Wales, in reality this business with explosions needs sorting before Spa where the greatest cornering speeds are faced in the upcoming races. So until next race Au Revoir internet.
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