British Grand Prix: Alonso brought victory to Ferrari (VIDEO)
Chișinău / Moldova.ORG/ -- Fernando Alonso got ahead both Red Bull cars and won this season's first victory for the Ferrari team in a beautiful struggle.
The command tactics kept Vettel in the second place, the Russian Vitaly Petrov was able to finish only the 12th.
Although there had been recently raining and the roads were full of water, the race was started without the safety car.
Racers started on intermediate tires, because the wet areas slicks were just throwing off the road.
Sebastian Vettel easily exceeded his Red Bull team-mate, Mark Webber, from the very beginning and immediately started gaining distance.
Felipe Massa lost one position to Jenson Button, but was able to regain his position on the second round.
Lewis Hamilton was actively breaking up the peloton, found himself soon behind his McLaren partner and drove ahead!
Vitaly Petrov, first climbed one position, but then gave way to both Nick Heidfeld and Sergio Perez.
Hamilton made a serious mistake in a tough attack on Massa and went off the road, fortunately, a wide paved security area brought him properly back into the race.
The FIA technical director, Charlie Whiting, allowed DRS inclusion, despite the fact that part of the track remained wet and the pilots continued to race on rain tires.
Heikki Kovalainen went out due to technical problems, and Michael Schumacher - the seven-time world champion, was the first who went into the pits, once again hooked on a foreign car while attacking, and was forced to go to change the nose cone.
This touching derailed Kamui Kobayashi and made the Japanese lack positions.Hamilton realized he wouldn't get Massa and also changed tires for the dry ones.
Batton did the same afterwards and the pilots burst. Alonso and Webber went into the pits concomitantly and the mechanics' struggle began.
But Ferrari could not get ahead of Red Bull and, due to the gap, Webber and Alonso returned to the track the 3rd and the 4th.
Vettel was able to hold the position after changing tires, but Massa lost the second place and returned only the 5th. Kobayashi very nearly collided with Pastor Maldonado in the pits and the incident came into FIA control. But Schumacher got a 10-second "stop and go" on pitleyn for the clash with the Japanese.
At first, Button passed Massa, and then Hamilton overtook Alonso in a beautiful struggle - the Soft Pirelli tires worked clearly better on the McLaren car.
But while Fernando was holding on to Lewis, Felipe was clearly slower than Button. Schumacher, after serving his sentence, returned to the track for Petrov, who was dragging in the peloton tail on the 16th position.
Force India behaved on the track very well, finishing 7th and 8th, and Di Resta and Sutil didn't give up and went 5 seconds ahead Nico Rosberg.
But the best circles cuts were executed by Lewis Hamilton, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than Webber passing all the sectors. Kobayashi also received a 10-second "stop and go" for the incident on pitleyne - the referee race, former world champion, Nigel Mansell, was clearly not going to joke and used draconian punishments for the perpetrators of dangerous situations. Kamui's stop allowed Petrov to move up one position, but he was almost immediately passed by Michael Schumacher, thus he returned to the 16th place.
Alonso, then, sharply accelerated and came ahead Hamilton.
Apparently, the set of tires functioned well and the Spanish showed the fastest time, passing by Briton beautifully inside the path.
After all his troubles, Kamui Kobayashi burned the Ferrari motor on his Sauber bolide and fizzled.
At the same time, Paul di Resta got into trouble - the mechanics took out the wrong set of tires on the pits and the Briton lost all his advantage.
And, as a chain reaction, Mark Webber had problems in the pit, the same thing happened to Sebastian Vettel!
As a result, the Ferrari mechanics released Alonso's car quicker on the track, but Vettel stayed so long in the pits that he got passed even by Hamilton.
At the same time, Di Resta and Sebastien Buemi collided on the track which caused the piercing of the back left wheel of the Swiss car.
He tried to get to the boxes on the punctured tire, but the judges decided to get the Toro Rosso car out of race, for safety reasons.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was trying to get away from the pursuing Hamilton and Vettel.
He quickened his pace, but he was advised from boxes not to drive and wait for the moment, awaiting for the Ferrari driver to spend his gums.
But Sebastian did not listen to his race engineer, and started attacking Hamilton, braking sometimes.
And Mark Webber, neglecting tires consumption, drove the Silverstone high-speed turns to the limit in an attempt to get closer to the leading group.
As a result of the incidents, the Russian Vitaly Petrov rose to the 10th place and, at this point of the race, he was the one who once changed tires.
He was 8 seconds ahead his team-mate, Nick Heidfeld, and behind them, actively rolling over, Michael Schumacher was passing outsider riders one by one.
Vettel had to pay for his aggression - after the attacks on Lewis, the current world champion, Hamilton, worn his tires out so much that he was forced to drop into the pits for a change.
But Hamilton also messed up his set of tires and also went to the pit stop for the next round.
And after the British stopped in the pits, Sebastian has done the impossible - he went so quickly this circle that he could beat Lewis at his pit-stop!
On new rubbers, Vettel started attacking again and went ahead Massa easily.
Alonso and Button drove to their scheduled pit stops in the same round, but if Fernando was able to hold the first position, then Jenson continued his "tradition" of pit stop problems - the fastening nut remained in the mechanic wrench and he had to leave the McLaren car at the exit from pit lane.
In addition, the judge will punish the team for the poor twisted nut.
These problems have allowed Vettel to rise to the second place, and Webber, with a fresh set of tires, to the fourth.
Hamilton was warned out of boxes to drop rates as the fuel consumption was too high, and it might not be enough to finish, but Mark accelerated even more, trying to get the dark-skinned Brit.
After three laps, he managed to pass the McLaren, and began to break away from Lewis. But Massa overtook Hamilton, driving almost two seconds faster.
Vitaly Petrov rolled to the 12th place after his pit stop, and three laps before finish he was hanging on the tail of Sutila and Algesuari.
But the most interesting struggle broke out on the last lap - Ueeber caught up with his partner, and nearly passed him in the fight for the second place.
Vettel, after all, too much wearing out his tires, could not maintain a fast pace. At this point, Hamilton was following Massa and desperately tried to overtake him.
And at that moment, a strange advice came out the Red Bull crew boxes- Webber was told to maintain the gap and not attack Fettel.
Lewis struck the side of the Ferrari car and Massa was knocked from the track, causing wide distract of the turn, thus, he managed to keep the 4th place.
Fernando Alonso brilliantly past the whole race, finishing in the first place and brought the long-awaited victory for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.
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