WHOOPS! I forgot Brawn!

Ross Brawn, despite being held as a tactical and managerial genius par excellence, is sure reeling from this assault by not one, but THREE teams. Jenson was able to salvage some honor by qualifying 6th, but getting sandwiched between KERS-equipped Hamilton and Kovalainen will do him no favors. Poor Rubens had a blameless role in Massa's accident, but him not going to Q3 is supreme humiliation, agonizingly close for him to commit hara-kiri if his Honda bosses were running the team.

Here is the original report on the British Grand Prix at Silversone on 6/21/09 (which I preserved on my blog pages):

A report on the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as reported by "The Inquisition". Note that all opinions are those of the author, and jayhawk17 may or not agree with them. Nevertheless, all of us on the Formula One comment pages appreciate the author's contributions, and we will preserve these comments for your enjoyment whenever possible. The report by "The Inquistion" follows:

What a race, sure is refreshing to see another car break the Brawn deadlock, but even he did not break a sweat!

RBR

It was was a masterclass of speed and strategy by Vettel, Webber, Newey, and by the whole of Red Bull Racing. Once Vettel got a jump on Rubinho at the start he never looked back, and probably knowing that unlike Button, Barrichello has that tendency to blink first, he just turned on the afterburners and blew him away, at an astounding rate of a second a lap! Webber held station behind Rubens, almost equal in speed terms, but when Rubens pitted, Webber showed the Red Bull's true speed and just blew past the Brawn, and beat him in the strategy. It could have been a manic dash to the flag if Webber had beaten Rubinho at the start. Though Vettel and Webber had troubles on the hard compound tire stints, other teams had it worse!

Brawn

In the past GPs, Brawn's boys just blow past the RBRs with ease. This time, they got a big chunk of humble pie shoved down their throats. Aside from Rubinho holding off Webber, Jenson did not show much fire to haul himself to glory in front of his home crowd, who of course came to see their new reborn messiah. In fact, he made a bad start, got bottled up by Trulli, and was only passing cars during pit stops! All of the British champions bar Hawthorn and Graham Hill won in British circuits in the F1 calendar. If Button wins it all, this is one achievement he will regret not to have done. Rubinho was on fire, though, he was determined to try to catch Vettel and hold off Webber but the task was too much for him. When his stint on hard compound tires went on he was complaining of a certain lack of overall grip. Jenson was also feeling it, he complained loudly to his crew that the car is skating around some corners. He was also weaving his car around frantically to get some heat into his tires. Damage limitation was paramount, and though he can salvage further glory when he learned that Nico and Felipe were struggling in their last tire selections, he ran out of time.

Ferrari

BRAVO FELIPE! It seems that Felipe has now some knowledge on how to handle that lighter F60 chassis, and together with a blistering start, some canny pit strategy and pitwork, he jumped up 7 places from his 11th starting position! You can always count on Felipe for fireworks. Kimi was solid, not as fast as Felipe, but solid enough to get a point for the boys from Maranello. I could definitely feel that they can go farther than they think. Farther than just "best-of-the-rest". But as for now they are just a few inches away from the threshold.

Williams

Kaz's light fuel load at the start did not propel the young kamikaze pilot to glory. Though he had a good start holding fourth at the beginning, once he came in the pits he just fell off the pace. Battling with Raikkonen must have been a new experience for him. Nico meanwhile was absolutely terrific, the middling fuel load just the right set up for him, and he was in the upper echelons of the points all the race, but he was caught out by the smarts of Rob Smedley, Massa's race engineer. Massa, Rosberg, and Button had a procession at the later stages, Massa effectively holding off Rosberg, and Rosberg effectively holding off Button. It should have been a double points finish for Sir Frank's merry men.

Toyota

The Prius of Trulli had only one major highlight: holding off Jenson Button. But when Jenson beat Trulli the Prius just melted off into the landscape, until Kimi Raikkonen came along. Trulli this time did his rolling roadblock scheme to full effect, effectively locking in Kimi to eighth. Timo however was hassled through the race by a long-stinting Fisichella, and for a Prius, not shaking off a Tata Nano would have given the guys at Cologne nightmares.

Force India

BELLISSIMO, GIANCARLO! A good start, some opportunities seized, and a near-perfect strategy almost gave them points, but its clear that The Force are no longer the boys in the back. A triple-kill in Stowe of Kubica, Piquet Jr, and his old buddy Fernando Alonso capped off a good, if not great weekend for dear old Giancarlo. Sutil was fortunate to start the race, as his mechanics had a herculean job to rebuild the whole car in 24 hours time. Of course, a highlight was him racing with the Mclarens of Kovalainen and his buddy Lewis, but the lost opportunity of a good result when the brakes failed on him during qualifying took their toll.If The Force scored points here, it would have been an upset of Slumdog Millionaire proportions, and Vijay Mallya would be the one singing "Jai ####" throughout the night, even if Nicole Scherzinger was present at Silverstone.

Renault

My jaw just dropped at the final classification: Nelson Piquet Jr has beaten Fernando Alonso. But if Nelson had the result, Alonso got the highlights: an all-out battle with his best buddy Lewis Hamilton. It was 3 whole laps of non-stop action, even Vettel had to tread lightly against these two! That HAS to be some of the best moments of the GP. I can't wait to have them back in winning cars, that would be a riot!

BMW

I also can't wait for BMW to get its bearings right, for Kubica racing Hamilton was another highlight of the race. Heidfeld was blown away as usual.

Mclaren

Ah, what a difference a year makes. Last year was arguably Lewis Hamilton's greatest win. And where is he now, a year later? 16th. One thing I like about Hamilton being stuck at the back is that everything turns into a bar room brawl, as Lewis, being Lewis battles every car in front of him. First was Sutil, then Alonso, then Kubica, then Piquet Jr. His exuberance cost him, yes, but racing people at the back of the grid may have a profound effect on him. I think he's having fun, whipping and caning that Mclaren, and going toe-to-toe with his rivals is sure better than running away at the front. Kovalainen was having another anonymous weekend, only for him to guess wrong about Bourdais' line going to the Abbey chicane, damaging his suspension and ending his race.

Toro Rosso

Red Bull's feast and famine continues. As one Red Bull is at the top of the order, another Red Bull is at the back end. The Force is running away from you.

Three weeks of waiting for the next GP would s-u-c-k. But since Hockenheim is another fast circuit, expect the RBRs to shine. And expect the Germans to go Verserk over Vettel! Its also Merc's and BMW's home turf, and both will be keen to beat to beat each other, though Merc has the advantage of Brawn and the fast-improving Force India.