British Grand Prix: full blown mayhem!

The British Grand Prix was explosive, but unfortunately not in the right way. At one point during the race I couldn't help thinking, it really should have been abandoned, as Pirelli tyres failed left right and centre, resulting in at least two drivers almost having very big crashes. Massa had a big spin when his tyre delaminated and exploded on one of the fastest corners of the circuit. During the first of two safety car periods, pundits, officials and teams were trying to work out exactly what was going on, through a combination of speculation, investigation and simple guess work. Could it have been a failure of the Pirelli tyres themselves? A particular corner on the circuit? Or simply the geometry of the track? As the race progressed it looked like things had been resolved, however a blowout for Sergio Perez, in the final few laps, proved otherwise. Should the race have been abandoned after the first three blowouts? I think so.

The beginning of the race saw Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, displaying some unusually good race pace. Rosberg lost second to Vettel, in to the first corner, but then both Mercedes cars kept up the pace very well. Webber had another characteristically bad start and dropped all the way from fourth down to fourteenth, whilst Massa engineered the opposite for himself, powering from thirteenth all the way up to fifth. Things were going well for him, up until the tyre failure that really scuppered his race.

It was Hamilton who experienced the curse of the tyres first, much to the disappointment of his adoring followers. To make matters worse, the blowout occurred right at the end of the lap and after the pit lane entrance, meaning he was forced to drive an entire lap on three wheels. It was a credit to Lewis that he was able to work his way all the way up to fourth place by the chequered flag.

The end of the race was extremely exciting. Rosberg put in a sterling effort to take the win and its nice to see Mercedes managing to convert a perfect qualifying result in to another win. Webber caused a lot of excitement by discovering some blistering pace and storming past car after car, to take second place. He almost managed to snatch the win from under Nico's nose, but in all fairness Rosberg didn't deserve for that to happen.

The biggest story of the race, for me, was the British fans displaying their lack of sportsmanship, at the apparent 'home of Formula One'. It was shameful to hear a huge roar go up as Sebastian Vettel suffered an engine failure on the home straight. I think what made it worse was the fact that, it wasn't the case that Vettel's cruel luck allowed a Brit, Hamilton or Button, to come through for the lead. It was the bitter jealousy and soreness that resulted in a crowd of baying patriotic Brits, jeering and mocking (and later booing) the brilliant young German driver. I think its time we moved on and put the boring and poorly managed 'home of Formula One' behind us, to enjoy some racing in a far more welcoming venue.

The Race Result:

1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32:59.456
2.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+0.765
3.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+7.124
4.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+7.756
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	+11.257
6.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+14.573
7.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+16.335
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	+16.543
9.	Paul di Resta	Force India	+17.943
10.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber	+19.709
11.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+21.135
12.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+25.094
13.	Jenson Button	McLaren	+25.969
14.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber	+26.285
15.	Charles Pic	Caterham	+31.613
16.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+36.097
17.	Max Chilton	Marussia	+1:07.660
18.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	+1:07.759
Did not finish
19.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+1 Lap
20.	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+6 Laps
21.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	+11 Laps
22.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+17 Laps