A Red rag to the bulls

Australian Mark Webber,who had started on pole position,finished third for Red Bull after trying to pass his team mate on the penultimate lap and then being told to maintain his position.

“I had two laps today with that (1951) car before the parade,” said Alonso of Argentine Jose Froilan Gonzalez’s historic Ferrari.

“Now 60 years later in the same circuit,with the same atmosphere and the same passion,winning again. I’m very proud…it made a special day.”

“I saw the problem in the pit stop with Sebastian and we were in the lead at that moment,but who knows what might have happened after that,”Alonso said. “I knew it was a race to be calm,make no mistakes,to not be off the track,and with that I knew the car had enough for victory and it came,” he added.

Vettel had hoped to chalk up a seventh win in nine races but still extended his overall lead over Webber,last year’s winner at Silverstone who has yet to lead a lap this season,to 80 points from a previous 77.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton entertained the fans by roaring from 10th on the grid to fourth,banging bodywork in a furious battle with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa — who was forced wide — at the final corner.

Alonso took the lead on the 28th of the 52 laps when he pitted right behind Vettel,who had grabbed the lead off the grid. As the German’s crew battled with the wheelgun,the Spaniard slipped past and was gone.

“It’s hard to say how much we lost but surely we lost the lead. I think we had quite a cushion at that stage,” said Vettel,who has still dropped only 21 points out of a possible 225,of the pitstop drama.

“I think you have to accept fair and square that Ferrari beat us today…I think it shows us that we have to keep working and pushing very hard.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recognised afterwards that obviously Mark disagreed with the order not to pass Vettel.

McLaren’s Jenson Button’s home-race jinx continued with the 31-year-old’s hopes also wrecked by a wheelgun when he was waved away before the right front nut had been secured 12 laps from the end.

With the wheel wobbling wildly,he parked up at the pit lane exit and walked back to the garages without speaking to reporters. The Briton has never yet stood on the F1 podium at Silverstone in 12 attempts.

Force India without points

A pit-stop goof-up pushed Paul di Resta to a poor 15th place finish while Adrian Sutil came 11th as Force India returned without points from the British Grand Prix despite good positions on the grid. After starting at a season-best sixth place on the grid,Resta was in points contention till the half-way mark in the 52-lap race,but a messy second pit stop in lap 25 compromised his home race.

It was a disastrous stop. Resta had come for a tyre change but the pit crew brought the Scott his teammate Adrian Sutil’s tyres. By the time the error was realised and rectified,Resta dropped to 16th from a good seventh. Hamilton had overtaken the sixth place from di Resta in the opening lap itself.

Sutil had a good race after starting 11th on the grid as he had moved to eighth position behind di Resta and maintained that even after the first pit stop.

He had dropped to 11th but managed to get to ninth by lap 34 but eventually finished outside the points bracket.