Oh my giddy Aunt!
After my body somehow managed to pull a Mystic Meg on me and cause me to fall asleep during the first lap of Valencia (which proved to be a snooze-fest to forget), I had decided this race I should probably be awake in order to form an opinion or two on it.
Silverstone is a race you cannot afford to miss for many reasons; Loyalty, Britishness, VT’s of Button and Hamilton frolicking… actually, sod it. There are three reasons to like Silverstone: 1) Rain 2) Rain and 3) More rain. This is the one time when our temperamental British weather is fine by me. I find myself sitting pressing my fingers together in a pyramid, evil-genius style (occasionally accompanied by a maniacal giggle) when it’s announced that the track is wet, so this weekend I’ve been at my giggly best.
The first two laps will not go down as some of my favourite moments. In fact, everything seemed to be going well for my least favourite drivers and terribly for my favourite drivers; Vettel passing Webber with the greatest of ease encouraged a slew of expletives from myself (For the benefit of my mother, those were “oh goodness” and “oh that rascal Vettel!“) and I resigned myself to yet another procession race with Vettel not having to do very much except stay ahead. Wrong again was I, though I’m forgiving myself considering the end result!
Fernando ‘The Eyebrow’ Alonso. What a driver. I know I’m biased, but even his most avid critics can’t deny he is a brilliant all-round racer. Vettel may have the pace this year, but how many times have his overtaking abilities truly been tested? The Ferrari is not the fastest car this year, however considering the lead Nando ended the race with; it goes to show you can never completely ignore the red car looming in your mirror.
Aside from having a non-Vettel winner, there were several incidents which shaped the race today. Things that made me raise my voice in angst were mainly pit stop related. Kobayashi’s unsafe pit exit left him trundling through the Force India rigging to the sound of me squealing. I do love Force India. After years of hurt they may have replaced Minardi in my heart as the beloved underdogs… and also the previously mentioned resemblance of Di Resta to a certain family member of mine.
Vettel’s wheel incident left a massive grin on my face, for obvious reasons; because now if he wanted to win he’d actually have to race! Heaven forbid! Of course on the flipside there was what I shall forevermore call ‘The unfortunate tale of Jenson’s wheel’ in which upon leaving the pits his wheel threatened to make a break for it. Though he has remained remarkably humble about it and not kicked off…
Are you taking notes Lewis?
Next, I move to the magnificent maths of Christian Horner. Were you aware 18 + 15 does not produce the same as 15 + 18? Allegedly had the race ended with Webber in front this would have lost ‘the team’ what he referred to as ‘a lot of points’. I think the translation there is ‘My precious Sebby would have lost some points!’. Had Horner said ‘look, it’s for the championship’ fair enough. However creating some hypocritical excuse just magnified the situation. Or was I mistaken in thinking it was Christian Horner who said that Red Bull ‘don’t do team orders’. Red Bull used to be the people’s team. Now they are beginning to get a rep as bad as Ferrari’s, which is quite sad.
However, after the race I was reminded that some of these guys have a sense of humour away from the racing, as proved by my quote of the day from new boy Ricciardo “The blue flags kept me occupied” – Atta boy!
Now I’m off to have a celebratory victory lap around my living room.
Roll on Germany!