British GP: A team order from Red Bull!

The start of the British grand prix couldn´t have been more exciting! The conditions were quite tricky as one part of the circuit was wet and the other part dry. All the drivers had decided to start to the race on intermediate tyres. My heart was pounding when the lights went off and what an outstanding start Vettel took from P2! He reached the first corners leading the race with his team-mate following closely behind him. Vettel managed to pull out a decent gap very soon and everything seemed to go according to the manuscript until the second pit stop on the 28th lap... Vettel was leading from Alonso when the pair came in to pit on the same lap. Vettel´s rear wheel gun had a problem and his car had to be jacked up again to attach the tyre which cost him dearly and allowed Alonso through in to the lead! I almost stopped breathing when saw Sebastian spending seconds and seconds in the pit...!

The first disappointment was to see Heikki retire due to a mechanical problem. Such a shame, I´m sure the mixed conditions would have suited well for him! And Trulli retiring a little later made Lotus´s weekend perfectly unsuccessful! Can´t do much more than just hope better success for the team in Germany in two weeks...!

The race was entertaining for sure! It was really enjoyable to watch Alonso and Hamilton battling against each other and making overtaking moves! But if Vettel had a bad day looking from a pit-stop point of view, the day was certainly not much better for the McLaren driver Button who was driving in front of his home crowd! Button left pit with a loose front tyre and had to retire the race due to the pit-stop mistake!

Alonso was able to pull away when Vettel got stuck behind Hamilton after his second pit-stop. I was screaming on the sofa when watching the young German trying to overtake Hamilton and them almost touching each other... I was actually relieved to see Vettel pitting which was a good choice. But I was screaming again in the closing laps when Webber got right behind Vettel and was able to use the DRS to try to overtake his team-mate...! Those last laps felt like an eternity and I was sooo happy to see Seb coming 2nd to the chequered flag with Webber just 0.4 seconds behind him! So it was a sweeping victory for Alonso today. The pit-stop mistake leaves me wondering if Alonso had won the race without it happening but I know it´s in vain. Alonso deserved the win today and that´s that.

But what really leaves me with mixed emotions is the team order given by Red Bull! The team instructed Webber in the final 4-5 laps to maintain positions which clearly meant that he wasn´t allowed to overtake Vettel. We´ve seen several team orders in Formula 1 over past years and this year they aren´t even against the rules so why mixed feelings? I tell you why. I never ever could expect a team order from RED BULL and at this point of the season!! That´s one of the things I´ve always admired and respected about the team that they give equal chances to their drivers to fight for the victories... Even at the end of the previous season when Webber got more points than his team-mate there were no team orders given to Vettel at that stage! So why now? Vettel had a 77-point lead before this race and there´re 10 more rounds to go! Don´t Red Bull trust Mark Webber? I find it as a vote of no confidence when team principal Horner said after the race that they didn´t want to risk such a load of points. I´m sure (or pretty sure at least...) that Webber wouldn´t have tried anything stupid at the end! And Vettel having a KERS problem... No matter how huge a Vettel fan I am, Webber should have been allowed to try overtake his team-mate! I completely understand why Webber ignored the message given by the team because there was no actual reason to do so... My opinion only but I was sooo disappointed to see this happen! The team that plays fair play and gives both drivers equal chances... Not any more :( I had to cool down my emotions after the race by having a swim in a lake in nice cool water!

What about the bright side? Finally it seems that the teams will scrap the blown diffuser row... And that´s all I want to say about the subject! So let´s hope it´s going to be pure racing in Germany at the end of July!