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Felipe Massa put in a fantastic drive at
Silverstone to finish the British Grand Prix in
fourth place, quite an achievement from eleventh
on the starting grid. His Scuderia Ferrari team-mate,
Kimi Raikkonen, picked up
the final point for eighth
place, having started ninth.
Possibly because of the
slightly warmer conditions
today, the F60 performed
better than yesterday and
better than expected. On the
podium, it was the Red Bull
Renaults that dominated the
event, securing a one-two
courtesy of Sebastian Vettel
and Mark Webber. On the last
step of the rostrum was
Rubens Barrichello for Brawn
McLaren.
It was a
chilly 16 degrees as 19 cars
lined up on the grid, with
Sutil starting from the pit
lane, having to race with a
spare chassis after his
qualifying crash. As the
lights went out, the top
three were in grid order,
while Trulli dropped four
places, Alonso was also slow
away and Kimi had a minor
moment, going off the track.
On the
second lap, Felipe was
passed by Button for eighth
place. At the front, Vettel
pulled out a lead over
Barrichello at the rate of
about a second a lap in the
early stages, with Webber
not really challenging the
Brawn. Behind them on lap
10, the order was Nakajima
in fourth, then Kimi,
Rosberg, Trulli, Button,
Felipe in ninth place, with
Glock completing the top
ten. The best battle at this
point was for 12th place as
Heidfeld, with a damaged
front wing on the BMW fought
off Alonso in the Renault.
The first
man to refuel was Nakajima
in the Williams on lap 15,
followed one lap later by
Kimi. On lap 18, Rosberg,
Trulli and Button all
pitted, with the Italian
Toyota driver coming out
just ahead of Kimi, which
slowed the Ferrari man. When
Barrichello came in, it
promoted to Webber to
second, 19.4 behind his
team-mate. The key moment
for the leading trio came on
lap 20, when Webber
refuelled and managed to
come out just ahead of
Barrichello. When Vettel
pitted on lap 21, this
temporarily promoted Felipe
to the lead. The Brazilian
was the last of the lead
group to refuel, which
proved to be a good
strategic call, as he
rejoined in a promising
sixth place. Showing what an
unusual championship this is
proving to be, most of the
excitement came from two
world champions, Alonso and
Hamilton scrapping in the
minor positions.
By lap 30,
Felipe had moved up to fifth
behind Rosberg, with Kimi
seventh ahead of Button. On
lap 34, Bourdais’ Toro Rosso
hit the back of Kovalainen’s
McLaren and both men would
eventually retire a few laps
later. Eight laps later,
while the two Red Bulls were
unchallenged in front, a
three way battle developed
for third place between
Barrichello, Rosberg and
Felipe, the three men
separated by under two
seconds. Kimi was the first
to make his second
refuelling stop on lap 42,
fitting the harder
Bridgestone tyres. Three
laps later, it was Felipe’s
turn to come in for the
harder tyres for his final
stint to the flag and Massa
now gained a place, moving
up to fourth ahead of
Rosberg. On lap 49,
championship leader Button
came in and unlike most of
his rivals, he was now on
the softer tyres and began
lapping quicker than
everyone, closing rapidly on
Rosberg, but he never
managed to get past the
Williams.
So after 60
laps, Vettel took his second
win of the year, ahead of
team-mate Webber and
Barrichello in third. Felipe
finished fourth, 3.8 seconds
behind his fellow
countryman. Fifth was
Rosberg, followed by Button
and Trulli, with Kimi
picking up the final point
for eighth place. The result
means that while still
fourth in the Constructors’
championship, Ferrari has
closed the gap to Toyota to
8.5 points, Felipe has moved
up from eighth to sixth in
the Drivers’ while Kimi
stays tenth.
Stefano Domenicali:
“After the less than brilliant
qualifying yesterday, our aim was to get
both cars home in the points and we did
it. Felipe drove a fantastic race:
starting eleventh and finishing fourth
with no one in front of him on the grid
retiring is a great performance. Kimi
got a great start, making the most of
the KERS, but after that he was unable
to make the most of having moved up the
order, because of traffic. Today, we saw
one team clearly ahead of the rest, but
we showed we could match the pace of all
the others, including those who only two
weeks ago, were clearly better. We will
have to study in depth everything that
happened this weekend to understand how
the performance level can change so
suddenly, one way or the other, without
there having been any changes made to
the cars.”
Felipe Massa: “I
almost feel as though I won the race! To
start eleventh and finish fourth is a
really great result. We weren’t
expecting it and so we are doubly happy.
We had a good strategy and I pushed to
the maximum at the key moments. Today,
the KERS was a great help, especially at
the start, but the whole car was also
working well. The team did a great job
and the results speak for themselves. We
have to continue down this route. It
will be interesting to understand how
the car’s performance improved from one
day to the next. Maybe it just needed
those few extra degrees of track
temperature to get the tyres working
better.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“I got a good start, but then I was
unable to push as much as I could have
done because I was always in traffic.
Obviously, my grid position, given my
fuel load, penalised me in terms of
strategy. After the first run of pit
stops, I found myself right behind
Trulli and from then on, my race was
pretty much over. I tried to pass him
getting very close sometimes, but it
wasn’t really on as overtaking is still
very difficult. I ended up fighting with
Glock but I could defend my position
comfortably, both thanks to the KERS and
to the fact that I actually had quite a
good pace. It’s a shame, because given
where I was at the end of the first lap,
I could have got a better result. A
single point is definitely nothing to
get excited about, but it’s better than
nothing. The car wasn’t bad today, much
better than it had been in qualifying
yesterday.”
Chris Dyer: “We
got the most out of a weekend that was
definitely not brilliant in terms of
performance. Both our drivers had great
starts, getting the most of out the
KERS. Then Felipe picked up a good pace
that, along with the strategy, allowed
him to move up quite a few places. As
for Kimi, he was slowed by traffic and
the key moment in his race was when
Trulli came out on track ahead of him
when he made his first pit stop. He was
unable to pass him on the track and
then, during the run of pit stops, other
drivers were able to get ahead of him.
Yesterday, we were rather disappointed
both with our result and with our
performance, but today things were
definitely better: however, we have to
admit there is still a great deal of
work to do to be competitive at the
highest level, which is where we want to
be.”
Race Details:
F. Massa: 4th 1:23.34.371, + 45.043,
Laps 60,Chassis 277
K. Raikkonen: 8th 1:23.58.950 +
1.09.823, Laps 60, Chassis 279
Weather: air temperature 17 °C, track temperature 25/23 °C,
cloudy
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