F1 2012 - Mercedes GP British Grand Prix Race Report: Schumi Claims 7th whiles Nico Finishes 15th

[Scourge82]

RBR's Mark Webber took the checker flag after an exciting weekend filled with rain that turned dry on race day. In front of 120,000 fans that braved the rain, Webber managed to take first spot from Ferrari's Alonso with 4 laps to go. Alonso managed to dominate the race, putting 12 sec between him and Webber at one point, but that lead disappeared with Alonso's fading tires. Webber's teammate Vettel managed to claim 3rd after jumping drivers through well placed pitstops. Micheal Schumacher started the race in 3rd place, but quickly saw himself having to fend of his position from a resurgent Felipe Massa. Massa was able to pass him with the help of DRS. After the first stint of pitstops Schumacher dropped to 12th place. After his second stop, Schumi saw himself in 8th place and gaining on Mclaren's Hamilton. He managed to pass him with 5 laps to go and finished in 7th place. Nico Rosberg had a relatively quite race and finished 15th after a bad first lap that saw him drop 4 spots.

Michael after the race said

"We achieved what was possible for us today, and we have to be satisfied with that. We were pretty competitive towards the end of the race, but overall we knew that the characteristics of this circuit wouldn't suit us in normal conditions - we definitely could have done better in the wet.

Even so, we managed to score a few points, which can be important for the team. Our attention now turns to Hockenheim, our next home circuit, where things should look better in any case. I can only say to all motorsport fans that we are counting on your support. Like always in Germany, it will be a very special weekend, and we want to celebrate it together with them. So make sure you're there in Hockenheim!”

For Nico,

“The whole weekend just hasn’t gone to plan for me which is a bit unexpected and really disappointing. In the race today, I had a poor start and generally we just didn’t have the pace. Then a slow second pit stop held me up towards the end; so all in all, it really didn’t come together.

Now we need to work hard to improve the car for our next home race at Hockenheim in two weeks time. Hockenheim is a completely different circuit to here which should suit our car better, and we will hope to put on a great show for all of our fans there.”

For Ross,

“we were the fourth best team today and that was reflected in Michael's seventh place finish on the road. Clearly, our pace in the dry didn't match our competitiveness yesterday in the wet, and we will have to take a good look at the data to find out why. Both drivers experienced graining on the option tyre this afternoon - Michael in his first stint, Nico in the final one - and that certainly compromised our performance at important parts of the race. Michael drove solidly to seventh place, defending his position against the cars around him, and he was particularly competitive in the final stint - right up to setting his fastest time on the final lap of the race.

Nico's race was compromised by a bad start, which left him 15th at the end of the first lap. From then, he was fighting an uphill battle, and it was hard to find clean air for him to run in, which further complicated things. We can take positives from our weekend - including our much-improved wet weather performance - and we will work hard to learn our lessons from today before Hockenheim.”

Norbert after the race.

“Not a great result for us today after a good qualifying performance from Michael yesterday. We expected rain this afternoon and Michael's car was not ideally balanced during the first half of the race. Michael's lap times in the second half were much better compared to the fastest cars at the front and he finally finished 7th after 52 laps, 30 seconds behind winner Mark Webber, after overtaking Lewis Hamilton with five laps remaining.

Nico started 11th and lost four places during lap one which prevented him from scoring points today. We now are looking forward to our next home race in two weeks at Hockenheim, where we will welcome the spectators with a very special, cost-free programme at the Mercedes Grandstand.”

Full Race Results
After 52 of 52 laps

Position	Driver		Team
Fastest lap: K Raikkonen 1:34:661 on lap 50
1	Australia	M Webber	Red Bull
2	Spain	F Alonso	Ferrari
3	Germany	S Vettel	Red Bull
4	Brazil	F Massa	Ferrari
5	Finland	K Raikkonen	Lotus
6	France	R Grosjean	Lotus
7	Germany	M Schumacher	Mercedes
8	Great Britain	L Hamilton	McLaren
9	Brazil	B Senna	Williams
10	Great Britain	J Button	McLaren
11	Japan	K Kobayashi	Sauber
12	Germany	N Hulkenberg	Force India
13	Australia	D Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
14	France	J Vergne	Toro Rosso
15	Germany	N Rosberg	Mercedes
16	Venezuela	P Maldonado	Williams
17	Finland	H Kovalainen	Caterham
18	Germany	T Glock	Marussia
19	France	C Pic	Marussia
20	Spain	P de la Rosa	HRT
21	India	N Karthikeyan	HRT
22	Mexico	S Perez (ret.)	Sauber
23	Great Britain	P Di Resta (ret.)	Force India
24	Russian Federation	V Petrov (ret.)	Caterham

[Scourge82]

Just got back from the race and didn't know if I'd get this in time. But it was an awesome time, even with all the rain and mud. I'll have a full write up of the weekend for those that want to know what it's all about.

But this was a great race. The whole time Alonso was in control only to see Webber fight back and win it in the end. And again, Maldonado manages to take some one out. Seeing Kobiyashi's pitstop made me cringe as he took out his right side pit crew with a misjudged stop. What I don't get is how does Kobi get a 25K fine and Maldonado only get 10K for his. I don't get the race stewards...

[Sticky]

Perfect timing Scourge.

Is it me or is Schumi getting stronger as the season progresses?

[Scourge82]

I think he has been stronger all this season, but now he's getting luck on his side. The beginning of the season, he qualified strong, but either the car failed him or someone took him out. There's still 11 races this season, I don't think Mercedes is strong enough to get him in the Championship hunt, but I think he will get at least one win this season.

[DavidV]

I think Webber has shown his best every time he overtakes Alonso.
This time again it was a beautiful pass!
And good teamwork with his engineer informing Webber where exactly Alonso used his KERS, do he could anticipate that.
Great race, lots of action.

[Scourge82]

Webber is doing great this year. It's great finally seeing the team fully behind him. I saw the overtake there, we were sitting at the Luffield stands. It was a thing of beauty, The British fans went crazy when he pulled that pass. Schumi pulled a good overtake move on Hamilton, I think his hard tires were fading at the point. The biggest boos came when Maldonado hit Perez. The UK fans hate Maldonado with a passion.

[DavidV]

Sounds like you were at the best spot on track
Some of the best action happened right there.
In all fairness the Maldonado/Perez action was not entirely Pastor's fault. Where was he to go?
Perez was really buthurt over it stating Maldonado crashing into somebody almost every race (witch is true) and not respecting other drivers.
The FIA stated that Maldonado was adjudged to have caused his collision with Sergio Perez, which led to the Sauber driver’s retirement, and due to the seriousness of the incident he received a double penalty in the form of a reprimand and a 10,000 euro fine.
I think that was more of a accumulation of accidents then just only for this one crash.


So you were there the whole weekend?

[Scourge82]

Yeah, My buddy and I were the the whole weekend, covered in mud and everything. The weather and parking fiasco didn't really hit us, I took a backroad route that got us past all the traffic jams. The worst part was Saturday, when we went to leave and my car got stuck in the parking fields, I had to get the departing marshals to come and help me out.

The Maldonado/Perez thing was 50/50 I guess. Perez did give him enough room, about a whole car width. I was talking to some of the people there, they just don't like him from what he did in Formula Renault and GP2. In 2005, he hit almost killed a marshal in Monaco for ignoring flags and was supposedly banned for life from Monaco, and then, he ignored red flags in GP2 and almost took out the driver of a crashed car and a few marshals.

[Sticky]

You guys posting up your pics or what?