Mark Webber put the disappointment of the previous races behind him with a barnstorming performance to win the Santander British Grand Prix. Driving with the misfortune chassis 'Luscious Liz' and without RedBul's newly-designed front wing he manage to dominate the race, beating his team-mate Sebastian Vettel into the first corner and hold local hero Lewis Hamilton in the 2nd position. His victory at Santander British Grand Prix makes Webber the first championship contender with 3 wins in the season, taking into account Ecclestone's victory medal's proposition.
However, Webber expressed his frustration for his consideration as the No2 driver of the team and the fact that Vettel is in favorable position after providing to him RedBull's unique new designed front wing. In the press conference after the race, the Australian commented:
"I was disappointed. We will see how it goes in the future, I will keep doing what I am doing and I hope it is enough. I've had a few hurdles in my career, sometimes privately as well, so I think you can judge a person's character by how they come back from adversity. Some drivers have that, I've had a bit more than others.
It can work but obviously it is not how long is a piece of string. You have to make sure it is not constantly happening because it can test you too much but if the balance is right it can put some fuel on the fire."
At the start of the race, pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel who lost first position from his team-mate tried to ensure to turn before Lewis Hamilton but touched wheels with him and headed off with damage to his rear wheel. He battled back through the whole field to seventh and was impressive to required bold overtaking manoeuvres on Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg among others. He was undoubtedly helped by the safety car bunching up the pack, but did very well to manage a set of hard tyres for the entire race. Sutil finished eighth ahead of Schumacher, who again struggled making "tyre and car testing" for the whole race.
Behind Webber, who reeled off a succession of fastest laps, Lewis Hamilton exceeded his expectations by taking 2nd position and his team-mate Jenson Button produced if anything a better drive in taking 4rth after starting in 14th although McLaren was struggling to match pace and has been much described by Button as "undrivable".
Nico Rosberg took the 3rd podium spot quietly, smoothly and keeping out of racing troubles after a good getaway from the grid. Rubens Barrichello impressed to finish fifth for Williams at its home race, ahead of an equally impressive performance by Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi who keeps bringing points to the small Swiss team for the 2nd consecutive race.
James Key, Sauber's Team Principal commented:
"I am very pleased we brought home points for the second race in a row. We consolidated our performance shown in qualifying. Kamui had an excellent first lap and then he drove a very controlled race - again with no mistakes. The team also got everything right and the pit stop strategy was fine. It is a great shame for Pedro, because he really deserved a good race result. But after the collision the rear wing endplate and diffuser were damaged, and once we have had a first look at it we decided to retire Pedro from the race because we were uncertain about further structural damage."
Not for the first time Fernando Alonso was left fuming after a race when stewards hit him with a controversial drive-through penalty for cutting a corner when passing Robert Kubica. The Ferrari team were then told that Alonso had to let the Renault back through but by that time Kubica had retired with a seized differential. As a result the stewards decided the best course of action was to issue Alonso with a penalty, but the situation was made several times worse for the Spaniard when the safety car came out and bunched up the pack behind him. As a result, when he came into the pits to serve his punishment he dropped down to 15th and out of contention for points.
He then started a spirited drive back through the field, but even that was cut short when Tonio Liuzzi tagged his left-rear tyre as he passed him and punctured it. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari also had a terrible race, making a contact with Alonso at the start shredded his right-rear tyre. He made some progress back through the field but a spin 12 laps from the end forced him to pit again for tyres and meant he finished the race 15th. As if to prove a point for a miserable race for Ferrari that was feeling like an actual backmarker, Alonso set the fastest lap of the race on his last lap.
