Bull run makes it two-horse race

Alan Baldwin

After a wet and muddy British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, Formula One could see some sort of a pattern emerging in a season that has so far stood out for unpredictability. Ferrari and Red Bull like the look of it but for McLaren, and their world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, it is not a pretty sight.

The long-suffering but loyal 125,000-strong crowd on Sunday saw Ferrari's Fernando Alonso start on pole position and Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber take the chequered flag and winner's champagne. At the previous race in Valencia it had been a Red Bull on pole, this time with double world champion Sebastian Vettel at the wheel, while Alonso went on to triumph.

Alonso and Webber are now the only two drivers to have won twice in the nine races so far this year and Silverstone's rain-soaked track handed both their teams their biggest points haul of the season from a single race. The Spaniard has 129 points to Webber's 116 with Vettel the only other driver with a three figure tally on 100.

With three races in quick succession this month — Germany and Hungary are on back-to-back weekends — there is the danger that by the time the teams head into the August break the championship has gone from being wide open to a two-team tussle at the front. McLaren tumbled from second to fourth with Hamilton now 37 points adrift of Alonso and behind both Red Bull drivers.

"A pattern is starting to emerge but that could be thrown out of the window quite easily at the next race," said ever-cautious Red Bull principal Christian Horner. "I think it's far too early to write off anybody."

Ferrari recovery

That said, Red Bull and Ferrari have been consistent. Alonso has now finished his last 21 races in the points while Webber has suffered only one retirement in the past 12 months and finished in the top four in seven of nine this season.

... contd.

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