This'll be the fourth time that the race is run on the 'Arena' layout after modifications in 2009. I must admit a tragic nostalgia for the old layout, turning left at Abbey, then through Bridge and Priory into Luffield, rather than the new Arena section and 'Wellington Straight'. The new facilities around the start/finish straight are exceptional, though.
NEWS
It has been three weeks since the race in Canada and a number of things have developed.
Firstly, Mercedes got away Scot-free from their tyre testing debacle with Pirelli, with their heaviest deficit being reprimanded and banned from taking part in the Young Driver Test in Silverstone in July. No penalties, race bans or fines were applied. I was pretty shocked by this really, but because the rules were unclear, their punishments were restricted.
New rules have been drafted in for 2014, too.
A penalty points system like those used in real life driving offences will be introduced, so that misbehaving drivers can be well and truly taught a lesson. It will see 1-3 points applied per incident depending on severity, with 12 points gaining an automatic ban. You can bet that incidents like Romain Grosjean's crash in Belgium last year will warrant a full 3 points.
In-season testing will be re-introduced once again. At the moment all we have is 8 promotional 'filming days' (where the teams are not allowed to collect data) and a three-day young driver test which will take part in Britain this year, from July 17th-19th. The new regulations will see four two-day testing sessions on the Tuesday and Wednesdays after a race weekend at European tracks to keep costs low.
Finally, stepped/Platypus style noses have been banned for next year. In 2012 the FIA changed the rules so that noses had to be lower, but chassis had to be higher. This led to extremely ugly cars as most teams opted to set the parameters of the front of their cars to the extremes, and the only two teams who went for conventional, sloping fronts were McLaren and Marussia.
The biggest news story though, was Mark Webber announcing his retirement, which you can read more about right here.
QUALIFYING REPORT
The weather nearly cracked the odd beam of sunlight but being Britain you could always bank on it staying somewhat overcast. There were not surprises in Q1, with the cars from the young teams falling, as well as Gutierrez and Maldonado. Dutchman Geido van der Garde had contact with Mark Webber in Canada and broke the Aussie's front wing, and he received a grid penalty for Silverstone; He qualified second to last, though.
Car eliminated
after Q1 (With penalties applied)
17) Gutierrez
18) Pic
19) Bianchi
20) Chilton
21) di Resta (the Scot was
22) van der Garde *
In their home race, McLaren continued to struggle. Perez lined up 14th with Button 11th, but their long term nemesis Ferrari wasn't doing great either, Massa was 12th and Alonso only just made it into Q3.
Cars eliminated after Q2
11) Massa
12) Vergne
13) Perez
14) Hulkenberg
15) Maldonado
16) Bottas
The final session was tense as ever. Rosberg looked to have it for much of the session despite great efforts from Webber and Vettel, but then at the very end, Lewis Hamilton absolutely destroyed his teammate's time, by almost half a second, grabbing pole and with it the new lap record for the Arena Circuit. As you can imagine, the grandstand erupted as the sea of red white and blue rejoiced a Brit on pole.
The Final Top Ten
1) Hamilton
2) Rosberg
3) Vettel
4) Webber
5) Ricciardo
6) Sutil
7) Grosjean
8) Raikkonen
9) Alonso
10)Button
After qualifying, Paul di Resta was found to be 1.5 Kilograms too light. Not his car, Paul himself. This put his overall car and driver weight just under the legal parameters, and his time was excluded from Q3, which had been 5th best. The result promoted everyone up the grid, apart from van der Garde.
17) Gutierrez
18) Pic
19) Bianchi
20) Chilton
21) di Resta (the Scot was
22) van der Garde *
In their home race, McLaren continued to struggle. Perez lined up 14th with Button 11th, but their long term nemesis Ferrari wasn't doing great either, Massa was 12th and Alonso only just made it into Q3.
Cars eliminated after Q2
11) Massa
12) Vergne
13) Perez
14) Hulkenberg
15) Maldonado
16) Bottas
The final session was tense as ever. Rosberg looked to have it for much of the session despite great efforts from Webber and Vettel, but then at the very end, Lewis Hamilton absolutely destroyed his teammate's time, by almost half a second, grabbing pole and with it the new lap record for the Arena Circuit. As you can imagine, the grandstand erupted as the sea of red white and blue rejoiced a Brit on pole.
The Final Top Ten
1) Hamilton
2) Rosberg
3) Vettel
4) Webber
5) Ricciardo
6) Sutil
7) Grosjean
8) Raikkonen
9) Alonso
10)Button
After qualifying, Paul di Resta was found to be 1.5 Kilograms too light. Not his car, Paul himself. This put his overall car and driver weight just under the legal parameters, and his time was excluded from Q3, which had been 5th best. The result promoted everyone up the grid, apart from van der Garde.
RACE DAY
Hamilton proudly led the field round the formation lap. As the five red lights went out, Hamilton and Vettel got off the line perfectly; their teammates did not. Rosberg got too much wheelspin and dropped behind Sebastian, but Webber made his customary dreadful start and dropped to tenth by turn one. It was there that he re-ignited his crash love affair with Romain Grosjean. The 'First lap nutcase' veered into the side of Mark and damaged his front wing; the Aussie dropped to 15th.
By contrast, Massa had a blinding start and came from 11th to 5th within the first few corners. After a below-par qualifying both Ferraris surged forwards. Massa had made huge gains and now his team mate Alonso powered past Romain Grosjean to take 9th on lap 2. The leaders - The rapid quartet of both Mercedes and Red Bulls - were beginning to canter away from the rest of the field, but on Lap 8 home hero and race leader Lewis Hamilton was halted in his pursuit of victory by a catastrophic failure of his left-rear tyre. This occurred at Aintree corner, only a few corners after the pit lane' Lewis had to drag the crippled Merc around for nearly a full lap. Understandably, the crowd and also he, were distraught.
Early armchair pundits on Twitter and commentators speculated a shoddy set of tyres on Pirelli's part; however, Hamilton's plight was only the beginning of what was a very woeful race indeed. Just two laps later, Felipe Massa had a failure on the same, left-rear tyre. Both incidents happened in the same place on the circuit. Was there a problem with the kerb at turn 4? Replays revealed that Massa's tyre had delaminated before the corner, so maybe not. Later checks would discover a two-inch jagged and razor sharp piece of kerbing jutting out from the edge of the track, slicing into the rubber.
With Massa and Hamilton limping back to the pits and grabbing fresh rubber, it was time for a less-experienced hand to be cruelly curtailed. Jean-Eric Vergne was fighting with both Lotus cars when his tyre exploded on lap 15, this time on the Hangar straight. Just as he was waved past his "slower" team mate (cough cough, team orders) Raikkonen was pelted with flying shards of rubber and kevlar. Both he and Grosjean were lucky to avoid the airborne Pirelli shrapnel, and Vergne too was fortunate (at first) that his failure was just before pit entry. However, the force of the explosion was so great that it damaged part of his rear wing and he later retired.
There was so much debris on the track that the safety car had to be scrambled. For six long laps the field were processioned around as the Marshals diligently retrieved all of the scraps of rubber from the track surface. At the restart Vettel bolted quickly, catching Rosberg unawares. All the team radio snippets that could be heard said the same thing:
"STAY OFF THE BLEEDIN' KERBS" - A paraphrased amalgamation of all the race engineers.
Hamilton proudly led the field round the formation lap. As the five red lights went out, Hamilton and Vettel got off the line perfectly; their teammates did not. Rosberg got too much wheelspin and dropped behind Sebastian, but Webber made his customary dreadful start and dropped to tenth by turn one. It was there that he re-ignited his crash love affair with Romain Grosjean. The 'First lap nutcase' veered into the side of Mark and damaged his front wing; the Aussie dropped to 15th.
 |
| Alonso's view of Grosjean's rash move |
 |
| You have to admire Mercedes for trying new things, but this... beh, I'm doubtful |
Early armchair pundits on Twitter and commentators speculated a shoddy set of tyres on Pirelli's part; however, Hamilton's plight was only the beginning of what was a very woeful race indeed. Just two laps later, Felipe Massa had a failure on the same, left-rear tyre. Both incidents happened in the same place on the circuit. Was there a problem with the kerb at turn 4? Replays revealed that Massa's tyre had delaminated before the corner, so maybe not. Later checks would discover a two-inch jagged and razor sharp piece of kerbing jutting out from the edge of the track, slicing into the rubber.
 |
| What a Massa-ive spin! I'll see myself out... |
 |
| News on Vergne's tyre: The band is splitting up. |
There was so much debris on the track that the safety car had to be scrambled. For six long laps the field were processioned around as the Marshals diligently retrieved all of the scraps of rubber from the track surface. At the restart Vettel bolted quickly, catching Rosberg unawares. All the team radio snippets that could be heard said the same thing:
"STAY OFF THE BLEEDIN' KERBS" - A paraphrased amalgamation of all the race engineers.
 |
| OMG the Safety Car is winning! It doesn't even have a front wing! |
As the race restarted on Lap 21, several drivers began recovering their races; Webber nabbed Grosjean,Hamilton seized Gutierrez' 13th place and Massa passed Bottas. Despite their setbacks the trio marched valiantly onwards as points were still high upon the agenda.
By lap 32 Hamilton had clawed his way back inside the top 10. Unhappy with being third of the four British drivers (Button yet to stop) he relentlessly harried Paul di Resta's Force India for 8th place. The VJM06 was in study hands though, and Lewis had to stay put.
 |
| A battle of Britons! |
He may not have been able to fight for the British win that the crowd so eagerly wanted, but the two Britons partook in a titanic dogfight with Lewis finally getting past on Lap 38, at the now-infamous tyre shredder that is Turn 4.
Lap 41 was perhaps the most shocking of the race, and with all the events that had taken place thus far, that was saying something. Sebastian Vettel's gearbox disintegrated into a box full of neutral, broken cogs, and he ground to an agonising halt on the start/finish line. His situation then exuded a sense of bathos as he tripped over his front wing on the way back to the garage, extending the list of casualties from the incident to four:
 |
| Vettel out. Note the gearbox 'N' which stands for "Nope. No win for you." |
- Adrian Newey's heart
- Renault's eardrums after Helmut Marko lectures them
- and now, Vettel's shin.
 |
| Seb mate, the Harlem Shake is well old... |
At the restart Webber pipped his fellow Aussie, while Alonso hustled the McLarens. He nabbed Button's 7th into Copse, and slip-streamed Perez down Hangar Straight. However, Sergio had the scariest and last tyre blowout of the weekend as Fernando was looking to get past; the Spaniard's quick reactions prevented any calamities, but Perez' race could not be saved, as the explosion destroyed his left sidepod.
 |
| Punctured Pirellis prove problematic for poor Perez |
Meanwhile, Webber had been making headway of his own. Disposing of Hamilton, Alonso, Sutil and now Raikkonen, he was sitting pretty in second and put in some stunning laps to hunt down the victory. He was 15th by the end of the first lap, and aided by fortune (for once), misfortune (of others) and sheer determination he pounded his Red Bull, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. As the last handful of laps tumbled he was within touching distance of DRS eligability. He could practically touch the rear wing of Nico's car, he finally got into the DRS zone on the last lap!
But it was not to be. One more lap, and he would had wrapped it up I'm sure, but the adopted son of Silverstone (he lives just down the road) could not quite manage the win, which would have meant so much. Second is no mean feat though and the outgoing Australian should be incredibly chuffed with his excellent recovery from 15th. Alonso clung on to 3rd despite Hamilton upping the pace towards the end, and Raikkonen fell to 5th after his tyres degraded. No points for McLaren at their home event marked a very sorry time for the Woking team. Perhaps they've abbandoned 2013 and are looking to next season now. Whatever the case, it is a shame to see the once-great team in such dismay. That much is true for Williams, who have still not scored all season. Bottas was just seconds away, though.
 |
| If your Dad's not a World Champion put your arms by your sides! |
Lap Leaders
L Hamilton 1-8
S Vettel 9-41
N Rosberg 42-52
Finishing Positions
1. N Rosberg, Mercedes AMG
2. M Webber, Red Bull
3. F Alonso, Ferrari
4. L Hamilton, Mercedes AMG
5. K Raikkonen, Lotus
6. F Massa, Ferrari
7. A Sutil, Force India
8. JE Vergne, Toro Rosso
9. P di Resta, Force India
10. N Hulkenberg, Sauber
11. V Bottas, Williams
12. P Maldonado, Williams
13. J Button, McLaren
14. E Gutierrez, Sauber
15. C Pic, Caterham
16. J Bianchi, Marussia
17. M Chilton, Marussia
18. G van der Garde, Caterham
Out/Unclassified
Finishing Positions
1. N Rosberg, Mercedes AMG
2. M Webber, Red Bull
3. F Alonso, Ferrari
4. L Hamilton, Mercedes AMG
5. K Raikkonen, Lotus
6. F Massa, Ferrari
7. A Sutil, Force India
8. JE Vergne, Toro Rosso
9. P di Resta, Force India
10. N Hulkenberg, Sauber
11. V Bottas, Williams
12. P Maldonado, Williams
13. J Button, McLaren
14. E Gutierrez, Sauber
15. C Pic, Caterham
16. J Bianchi, Marussia
17. M Chilton, Marussia
18. G van der Garde, Caterham
Out/Unclassified
R Grosjean, Lotus
S Perez, McLaren (Tyre)
S Vettel, Red Bull (Gearbox)
JE Vergne, Toro Rosso (Floor damage)
PENULTIMATE
PONDERING(S)
This is a new section I've decided to add in. Basically I'm going to sum up how I felt about the race, results, and my driver of the day.
This race was simply crazy. Four tyres exploded throughout the course of it, and two race leaders were lost. Chuck in a couple of safety cars and a mad 6-lap dash to the finish and you have a scintillating spectacle.
However, there is much ambiguity in the tyre explosions. Were they ENTIRELY down to the kerb? Or does the lack of support from teams to change the tyres have a part to play? Ferrari, Force India and Lotus were the teams that slammed any changes to tyre constructions as they have had no management problems this year, but have now admitted that on the grounds of safety, they should be more open minded. It reminded me very much of the 2005 USGP where Michelin had a lot of failures on the high-speed, high-load banking section.
The two situations are remarkably similar in that a piece of track not quite in line with the conditions an F1 car is used to coupled with questionably sub-standard tyres caused a farce and tarnished the image of Formula One. Okay, this race was brilliant whereas the 2005 race was a shambles, but this must be resolved before Germany in a week. No doubt, the kerb should have been filed down or covered but the situation was only noticed in the race, not after P3 or Qualifying.
Consider also that the lacerations in the tyres were not caused in Qualifying, where the cars find the limits of the track are pushed even more than on a race day and cornering speeds are even more immense. The teams would have studied their cars' tyres meticulously before the race, and Charlie Whiting would have allowed special dispensation if there were any problems then. So, was the kerb modified after Qualifying, for one of the support races, or maybe damaged? Whatever the case, it is very tricky to pinpoint. I don't want to disgrace Pirelli, neither to I wish to cast aspersions on the BRDC (British Racing Drivers' Club, who own Silverstone) and track organisers, so I will lay the blame somewhere in between.
Driver of the day: Mark Webber.
 |
| Gary Anderson's ever-insightful post-race investigations. Look at that edge! |
However, there is much ambiguity in the tyre explosions. Were they ENTIRELY down to the kerb? Or does the lack of support from teams to change the tyres have a part to play? Ferrari, Force India and Lotus were the teams that slammed any changes to tyre constructions as they have had no management problems this year, but have now admitted that on the grounds of safety, they should be more open minded. It reminded me very much of the 2005 USGP where Michelin had a lot of failures on the high-speed, high-load banking section.
The two situations are remarkably similar in that a piece of track not quite in line with the conditions an F1 car is used to coupled with questionably sub-standard tyres caused a farce and tarnished the image of Formula One. Okay, this race was brilliant whereas the 2005 race was a shambles, but this must be resolved before Germany in a week. No doubt, the kerb should have been filed down or covered but the situation was only noticed in the race, not after P3 or Qualifying.
Consider also that the lacerations in the tyres were not caused in Qualifying, where the cars find the limits of the track are pushed even more than on a race day and cornering speeds are even more immense. The teams would have studied their cars' tyres meticulously before the race, and Charlie Whiting would have allowed special dispensation if there were any problems then. So, was the kerb modified after Qualifying, for one of the support races, or maybe damaged? Whatever the case, it is very tricky to pinpoint. I don't want to disgrace Pirelli, neither to I wish to cast aspersions on the BRDC (British Racing Drivers' Club, who own Silverstone) and track organisers, so I will lay the blame somewhere in between.
Driver of the day: Mark Webber.
THANKS
Thank you very much for checking out my blog. If you want to get updates from me whenever I post (I aim to post once a week if I have the time, but every race weekend without fail) then please subscribe to me! I'm going to university in September to study journalism and I LOVE doing this blog for practice. If you care much for my material and want to aid a teenager in his meteoric rise to a job at the BBC then feel free to share with your friends!
Thank you very much for checking out my blog. If you want to get updates from me whenever I post (I aim to post once a week if I have the time, but every race weekend without fail) then please subscribe to me! I'm going to university in September to study journalism and I LOVE doing this blog for practice. If you care much for my material and want to aid a teenager in his meteoric rise to a job at the BBC then feel free to share with your friends!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @EpsilonEustice as well for live updates during races and silliness and cameraderie during the week.
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