F1 Motorsport: Ferrari Back to Winning Ways

Red is back with a bang. Fernando Alonso won a thrilling Santander British Grand Prix to give Ferrari their first win of the 2011 Formula One season. The race started with half the track being dry, while the other half was wet. Nevertheless, all cars opted to start on the intermediate tires, not risking any sliding and crashing that could have happened on the wet parts. Red Bull’s Mark Webber started on pole position, but his teammate Vettel powered into the lead right at the start. Vettel lead the race for quite some time, but there was a pitstop in which Vettel and Ferrari’s Alonso came in together. A slow pitstop allowed Alonso to get out in front, and from there on he just kept on increasing his lead over the rest, and in the end won the race with a full 20 seconds to spare. This win for Ferrari and Alonso has managed to stop the stronghold Red Bull have had this season, and might just be a turnaround to the second half of this year’s season. Vettel came in second, with teammate Webber taking the final podium position. Hamilton had to drive cautiously in the last five laps of the race as his fuel tank was drying up quickly, but managed to just come in ahead of Massa who was closing in on him at almost three seconds a lap.

Top 10 standings at the Santander British Grand Prix were – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Mark Webbed (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Segio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), and Jamie Alguersuari (STR-Ferrari). In the driver’s standings for this season, Vettel leads the pack, followed by Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Button, and Massa. Red Bull are quite ahead on the constructor’s championship at this point of time, followed by McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Renault.

It now seems that Ferrari have fought back well, and Red Bull will not be able to run away with things this F1 season. McLaren, Renault and Mercedes have the work cut out, if they want to make any impression. The next race will be in a couple of week’s time – the German Grand Prix.

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