British Grand Prix in 90 seconds Mark Webber may have won the British Grand Prix but it was another difficult weekend for his Red Bull team. Webber's post race radio comment of "not bad for a number two driver" summed it up. Red Bull left Silverstone with a threat of civil war because of the friction they have injected into their own team - and not for the first time this season. Horner happy with 'competitive drivers' I feel uncomfortable in many ways for team principal Christian Horner because I suspect that some decisions are being forced on him. But he is the 'lightning conductor' who has to publicly explain it all away for the team - and that's not going terribly well. The friction between Webber and the team is growing after he had his new front wing taken off and given to his team-mate Sebastian Vettel before qualifying. It was a highly unusual situation, particularly as the problem originated on Vettel's car when his version was damaged. Significantly, that friction could well have created a divide amongst the two groups working on each car too. What they could have done is either taken the one remaining wing out of the system, simply left things alone, or declared that they were now backing Vettel for the title. To say that the piece was allocated on championship positions was a potential own goal because Webber now leads Vettel. Webber cools talk of Red Bull 'rift' The resultant tension almost certainly cost them a one-two in Britain. It should have been a slam-dunk. They had a car advantage similar to the 1998 McLaren, Schumacher's Ferrari's from the early 2000s, and last year's Brawn in the early races. Webber got away far better than Vettel in the first few metres, Vettel tried to squeeze him towards the pit wall but Webber was having none of it, slowing both of them into the first corner as Webber had to take a tighter line in. This allowed Lewis Hamilton into the action and he inadvertently took a slice out of Vettel's right rear tyre with the front wing of his McLaren. The resultant puncture had Vettel off the road at Becketts twice. He also picked up some bodywork damage in the process. His afternoon looked effectively over as he lost so much time cruising back to the pits some three miles away. I am surprised by all the punctures we continue to see because the regulations provide for a minimum radii on parts such as wing end fences so that they shouldn't cut a tyre. It happened again to Alonso when touching Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi late in the race. Vettel hints at disharmony in Red Bull team (UK only) The safety car deployment to clear up the debris from Pedro De La Rosa's Sauber on the pit and Hangar straights proved very timely to help Vettel close on the back of the pack. It was then game on for some tremendous fights and impressive if sometimes brutal overtaking moves, particularly on his compatriot Adrian Sutil, as he climbed back to seventh at the flag and six valuable points. Webber drove the perfect race, just as he did in Barcelona and Monaco, simply doing just enough to keep a comfortable gap on Hamilton. When they both pitted for harder tyres, his job looked even easier. Hamilton drove brilliantly all weekend, including a stunning race. He looks mighty strong at the top of the world championship, especially if McLaren can improve the speed of their car by sorting the new exhaust blown under-tray that they had to abandon mid weekend.  | ANDREW BENSON'S BLOG |
His second place, along with fourth for Jenson Button, was a big save for McLaren. They were massively happy and relieved because they feared they were going to lose a hatful of points to Red Bull. I talked to a couple of McLaren engineers after the race and said that their car looked better in the race than it had all weekend. They seemed as surprised as I was. The McLaren appeared to calm down over the bumps, especially with fuel on board. Button had a great race and his first lap was a stunner. He made a beautiful move down the outside into Vale and altogether gained six places. Two of those were down to Felipe Massa and Vettel's punctures but Button really did drive well, although he couldn't fluster Nico Rosberg, who also drove a great race to take an important third for Mercedes. Williams-Cosworth had two cars in the top 10 which was impressive and confirms their resurgence. Rubens Barrichello is like a fine wine, he gets better with age. Alonso penalty was harsh - Domenicali At Ferrari, the frustration continues to mount for Fernando Alonso. It just won't fall into place for him. He's either making untypical mistakes or he is being very unlucky. Two weeks ago, Alonso was enraged because Hamilton was involved in an incident with the safety car deployment but he carried on and gained a massive benefit. Alonso passed Robert Kubica's Renault at Silverstone by using the run-off area at Club corner and should have yielded the place instantly, of that there is no doubt. But he didn't and decided to press on while the team were fighting the case with race control which they eventually lost just in time for the safety car. A drive-through penalty was harsh, but he couldn't let Kubica back past because he had already retired, but the fact that you can't serve penalties behind the safety car made it doubly worse as he went towards the back of the queue. We saw in qualifying Alonso sticking his arms out of the cockpit gesticulating at another driver and on Sunday he was on the team radio saying 'don't talk to me anymore'. That is emotional behaviour, but he knows he could even be leading the world championship with the general pace he's had. Clearly he needs to employ the Octopus who predicted his team would win the World Cup and then calm down a little. What goes around comes around. There are nine race to go and 225 points to be won. This is still anybody's title.
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