The complete 2011 British GP review

PRACTICE

Practice one

Silverstone greeted the field with a shiny new pit complex and a very wet track for opening practice, but it was still Red Bull on top, with Mark Webber leading the way by 0.6 seconds from Michael Schumacher's Mercedes.

Rubens Barrichello looked strong for Williams in third, as did Sauber's Sergio Perez in fourth, though these were never likely to be the most representative performances of the year given the conditions and the drivers' unwillingness to get through too many sets of tyres that they might need later in the weekend if things stayed damp.

By far the biggest incident happened in the closing minutes, when Kamui Kobayashi ran wide out of the final corner, slewed left as his Sauber suddenly gripped on the run-off ara, then hit a bump on the grass and almost flipped before slamming into the barriers. He was unhurt, and the Sauber team did a spectacular job to repair the car for the afternoon.

Practice two

Very, very little happened for the first 45 minutes in the afternoon, when the track was wetter still. But conditions did eventually improve enough for teams to decide it was worth popping out, and with the track getting better towards the end, there was even a spectacular late flurry of changing times.

Felipe Massa emerged in front with Nico Rosberg second, while Kobayashi's third place was a good reward for Sauber after a very busy lunchtime. The McLarens completed the top five.

Practice three

Finally the drivers enjoyed a dry track in the last practice session, though persistent showers kept intervening even then.

As the row over exhaust rules became ever more heated in the paddock, Sebastian Vettel hinted that Red Bull was not in too bad a shape after all by going quickest, though Fernando Alonso's Ferrari was only 0.063s behind.

Their respective team-mates Webber and Massa were next up, with Pastor Maldonado shining for Williams in fifth.

QUALIFYING

1. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

Saturday was a weird day for everybody at Silverstone, and even Webber himself did not seem to care too much about having secured pole. There was too much focus on the diffuser controversy and on the weather, but even so, the Australian put on a great performance to maintain Red Bull's perfect record of poles this year. But the points would be awarded on Sunday, and there were still question marks about how his car would perform there.

2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

Having lost pole for only the second time this year, Vettel was far from unhappy, especially given the difficult circumstances. In the end, the German had to settle for just one run because of the rain that hit Q3 near the end and, given all the speculation about Red Bull's pace at Silverstone, the front row lock-out guaranteed a pleasing day for the team.

3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-0

A delighted Alonso was adamant that Ferrari's progress on a track that didn't suit its car especially well had little to do with the diffuser clampdown. That remained to be seen, but there was no doubt that the Spaniard and his team were closer to pole than ever before this year. Understandably, he was delighted, especially given his race pace.

4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-9

It was a mixed day for Massa, whose fourth place on the grid was good news. On the other hand, however, the Brazilian was in no man's land, finishing over 0.6s behind Alonso. Massa admitted his only run in Q3 had been far from perfect and, like many others, he didn't get a second chance.

5. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-6

Button himself was forced to admit that the gap to the front was just massive after McLaren found itself miles from its rivals come Silverstone. Fifth was not a disastrous result, but being 1.5s off the pace was mystifying for Button, whose team was obviously hit hard by the regulation changes.

6. Paul di Resta, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

The Scot put on another superb qualifying performance, highlighting his raw speed at a track he knows well. Di Resta was lucky to secure sixth place as the rain that hit the track in Q3 helped him, but he was sure he would have been in the top eight nonetheless.

7. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-4

Another man showcasing his progress at Silverstone, Maldonado was also very strong on Saturday. Although he too seemed to benefit from the weather, the Williams driver made it into Q3 for the third time in his rookie season. As a bonus, he was eight places ahead of team-mate Barrichello.

8. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-4

Despite struggling in Q1 with the balance of his car on hard tyres, the Japanese and his Sauber team handled the changing conditions well to reach Q3 again. After his heavy crash on Friday, Kobayashi recovered well and a career-best eighth place was a good rewards for his team's efforts.

9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-1

Although he admitted he was happy with the progress of the team's technical package over the weekend, Rosberg conceded that ninth place was not good enough. The German ended Q2 in fifth, so things were looking good, but the rain at the end of the session meant he had to abort his second run and settle for the fifth row of the grid.

10. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-3

A KERS problem in the morning, following by a first run on old tyres in Q3 left Hamilton lamenting a rather lackluster Saturday. The used tyres proved a costly mistake, as he was another of the men who could not complete a second lap. Tenth was his worst qualifying position since the 2010 Malaysian GP.

11. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

Despite failing to match the performance of his team-mate, Sutil was very happy with how his day had gone. He felt Force India had made all the right calls with his tyres, and the German missed the cut to go into Q3 by just 0.029s.

12. Sergio Perez, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-5

Like Sutil, Perez was pleased with his job during the session, and also like Sutil, the Mexican missed the cut by the tiniest of margins. With the high-speed nature of the circuit suiting Sauber's car, the rookie was upbeat about his race chances.

13. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-8

Schumacher said he was not frustrated despite not having managed to reach Q3, the German adamant that only the circumstances had ruled him out. As it was, Schumacher decided to do his Q2 runs very early and the track conditions were not great. By the time they had improved, his tyres were gone.

14. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

Petrov was understandably disappointed with his performance, having expected a better result given the nature of the circuit. But it wasn't an easy day for Renault. The Russian and his team did not cope well with the conditions and ended up losing out.

15. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-5

The Brazilian blamed traffic for having failed to achieve a better result on a day when his team-mate Maldonado reached the top ten. Barrichello said he had traffic on his opening run, also affecting his speed on the second run, leaving him without a chance of a better position.

16. Nick Heidfeld, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

Heidfeld completed a poor day for Renault, the German wondering how big an effect the rule changes had made. Heidfeld, however, was adamant that it was not only the rules, but rather several other factors, that had contributed to a difficult day.

17. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-1

Kovalainen made good use of the conditions in Q1 to make it to the second qualifying segment. He then opted to do just one late run in Q2 to try to gain another position, but Lotus's pace was just not enough to beat anyone else and the Finn had to settle for 17th.

18. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

Alguersuari was positive despite missing the cut to go into Q2 for the fourth time in a row. This time his team's strategy was to blame, however, as he only got to run with the soft tyres as the rain began to fall on the track.

19. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

Like Alguersuari, Buemi was a victim of the conditions and Toro Rosso's strategy, the team deciding to switch to soft tyres too late. An early run on softs could have secured a place in Q2, but as thing went, the rain left the Faenza squad with its worst qualifying showing of the year.

20. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

Glock had reasons to be happy after managing to qualify ahead of a Lotus, which is currently a small triumph for the struggling Virgin team. The German admitted his car was not perfectly dialled in, but a good opening run and the late rain was enough to equal his best qualifying position of the season.

21. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-8

Trulli was another victim of the conditions at the end of Q1, the Italian unable to complete a second run in the dry. His first run had not been brilliant either, with a few mistakes meaning he never stood a chance of moving on to Q2.

22. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

D'Ambrosio had been happy with his car all day, and he expected a better performance in qualifying. However, the Belgian made a mistake on his first run which, as it turned out, would be his only one as the rain hit the circuit as he went out for the second.

23. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-0

There was not much to write home about for Hispania on Saturday, the team finishing very far from the pace of the quickest Virgin, which is still the target. Liuzzi did not feel comfortable with the handling of his car all weekend, and he admitted the balance in qualifying was far from perfect.

24. Daniel Ricciardo, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-1

Considering the lack of dry running Ricciardo had ahead of qualifying, the Australian could be pleased with his performance in the grid-deciding session. Finishing around 0.5s off Liuzzi's pace was not a bad effort for his first outing, especially considering he could only do one run before it started raining.

QUALIFYING RESULTS
Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap    
 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m30.399s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.431s   + 0.032s
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m30.516s   + 0.117s
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m31.124s   + 0.725s
 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.898s   + 1.501s
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m31.929s   + 1.530s
 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m31.933s   + 1.534s
 8.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.128s   + 1.729s
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.209s   + 1.810s
10.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.376s   + 1.977s
11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m32.617s   + 0.977s
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.624s   + 0.984s
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.656s   + 1.016s
14.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m32.734s   + 1.094s
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m33.119s   + 1.479s
16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m33.805s   + 2.165s
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m34.821s   + 3.181s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.245s   + 2.575s
19.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.749s   + 3.079s
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.203s   + 3.533s
21.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m36.456s   + 3.786s
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m37.154s   + 4.484s
23.  Vitantonio Liuzzi     Hispania-Cosworth    1m37.484s   + 4.814s
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      Hispania-Cosworth    1m38.059s   + 5.389s

RACE

It had been a weekend of rows and frowns over a topic inaccessible to so many of the fans that had flocked to Silverstone. But the sight of a track that was half so wet that the reconnaissance laps featured huge spray and aquaplaning, but half dry enough that slicks would have been viable, suggested that for the next 90 minutes the intracacies of blown diffusers and engine concessions were going to become pretty irrelevant.

In the early stages it looked like even a half-sodden, half-bone dry track wasn't going to be enough of a quirk to upset Sebastian Vettel's run of success. The disadvantage of being outqualified by his team-mate Mark Webber for only the second time all year lasted only a few yards, as Vettel got the better start and made sure he was at the head of the clouds of spray as the field slithered through the opening complex.

Webber held second despite Fernando Alonso's best efforts, and for a while the Red Bulls started stretching away together, although as the track dried Vettel was able to pull clear of Webber, who fell back into the clutches of Alonso.

The man on the move at this stage though was Lewis Hamilton. He wasted no time in making up for his poor qualifying result, gaining three places off the line and then passing fellow Britons Paul di Resta and Jenson Button in quick succession to reach fifth spot.

Felipe Massa, who had dropped back from Alonso, was next on Hamilton's list, and he tried several moves on the Ferrari, including an outside-line dive at Brooklands that left him exploring the run-off area for a few seconds.

By that time, the track was ready for slicks, though it took a misadventure by Michael Schumacher to prove it. The former champion's latest slip was to slither into Kamui Kobayashi in the complex, spinning the Sauber and breaking his own front wing.

"It's clearly my fault," Schumacher admitted. "It was the first moment I had to use DRS. I came in with more speed, misjudged the braking point and slid into Kobayashi."

With a pitstop necessary anyway, Schumacher decided to try slicks, and his immediately quick times convinced everyone else to make the same move over the following three laps.

Vettel was one of those who waited the longest, not taking dry tyres until lap 13, and this resulted in a shrunken lead for the German, who rejoined only 3.3s ahead of Webber, and saw that gap cut in half over the next lap before his confidence in the slicks grew and he was able to edge away again.

Alonso fell back at this stage - the Ferrari taking time to generate any temperature in its new tyres and falling behind the flying Hamilton, who was revelling in the still slightly uncertain conditions, having finally jumped Massa in the pits.

But once the Ferrari's rubber was up to temperature, Alonso was firmly back on the pace, and breezed past the McLaren to reclaim third with a DRS-enabled move on the approach to Brooklands.

During their battle, both had closed on the Red Bulls, with the top four all within 7s of each other heading into the second of three pitstops.

That was not enough of a comfort margin for anything to go wrong, and when both Vettel and Webber had slightly slow tyre changes, they suddenly found themselves down from first and second to third and fourth, behind new top two Alonso and Hamilton.

The McLaren driver had been the first to pit so was fully up to speed on fresh rubber and ready to attack his sometime arch-rival for the lead of his home race.

But that romantic storyline didn't come to pass, as once in clear air Alonso started unleashing an awesome pace that enabled him to storm away from Hamilton at a second per lap, leaving the McLaren to cope with massive pressure from the recovering Red Bulls.

Hamilton was able to fend them off on-track, but the speed difference became clear when Vettel made his final (this time perfectly smooth) stop just one lap sooner than the McLaren and jumped it with relative ease.

Catching Alonso would not be so straightforward, though. The Ferrari was clearly faster, and rather than finding himself being hunted down by Vettel, Alonso was able to edge even further away once the Red Bull was up to second.

Now Hamilton had to focus on Webber, and he had the added headache of radio messages from his team announcing that he had to back off to conserve fuel. Defending a position from a faster car, while in economy mode, in the DRS era, was always unlikely to succeed, and with seven laps to go Webber shot down the outside on the approach to Brooklands, avoided being speared by the McLaren as Hamilton tried to cling on under braking, and then set off in pursuit of Vettel.

The champion was having some KERS issues and was looking vulnerable as a very determined Webber stormed up behind him going into the final laps. Team boss Christian Horner got on the radio to urge Webber to "maintain the gap" - an order that did not go down well...

"Of course I ignored the team as I want to try and get another place," said Webber. "Seb was doing his best and I was doing my best. I don't want to crash with anyone, but that was it."

Vettel, who managed to successfully stay ahead despite some close calls, said he understood both points of view.

"Obviously, we were racing each other. I don't think there's anything wrong with that," he said.

"Sure, from a team point of view, if you have the cars quite isolated in second and third, the first car is away, the fourth car is pretty far away as well, so from the team's point of view, there's no point in racing and trying to do something stupid because the points for the team are the same, the difference between second and third is not massive, but naturally we try to race."

A little way behind, a far more fraught battle was unfolding, as Massa caught up with the ailing Hamilton going onto the final lap and tried his utmost to get fourth. Some spectacular dicing followed as the pair banged wheels through the final corners before Hamilton's battered McLaren squeezed across the line ahead as Massa slewed over the run-off. Refreshingly, neither had any complaints.

Button would have been somewhere amid all this had he not retired when he was sent out from his final pitstop with the right front wheel not attached - in an incident that both ended his race and earned McLaren a fine for an unsafe release.

Another man who had a strong claim to a top six position was Paul di Resta. Following his superb qualifying result, he looked on course for at least seventh until a disastrously slow pitstop, caused by Force India expecting Adrian Sutil - who had just reported a puncture - instead and preparing the wrong set of tyres. Di Resta later tangled with Sebastien Buemi, leaving the Toro Rosso with a shredded tyre which forced it to park. A penalty for that clash left di Resta only 15th in a race that could have been his finest in F1 yet.

In the end it was Nico Rosberg who came through to the best of the rest slot, pulling off a two-stop strategy to recover from a poor start. Sergio Perez chased him home, and felt seventh proved he was now fully over the Monaco crash.

Fellow two-stopper Nick Heidfeld salvaged some points for Renault in eighth, ahead of the recovering Schumacher, and Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari, who had flown in the wet early on.

Further back, Williams's slump was among the most notable midfield storylines, as a lack of pace in the damp featured Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello in freefall. They finally finished 14th and 15th, the Brazilian ahead.

And after Valencia's perfect reliability, Silverstone featured the return of retirements. As well as Button and Buemi stopping, neither Lotus lasted long, and Kobayashi eventually parked with an oil leak having followed his Schumacher clash with a near-miss with both Barrichello and the Force India crew in the pits.

The finishing rate wasn't the only difference to Valencia, of course. Some may have started to worry before the Silverstone race got underway. It had been such a glorious year, but perhaps the general public was beginning to notice that for all the epic racing, there was one man winning again and again - and in Valencia he had the temerity to do it in quite a boring fashion. And then F1 started disappearing into itself in one of its classic obscure technical rows that have no resonance beyond the paddock. A spectacular race, and a return to the top for names as big as Alonso and Ferrari was exactly what was required - and fired up by the British GP result, Alonso promised more of the same in the remaining rounds.

"From now it will always be the same thing," he declared. "Every race we try to do like the final. Championship hopes are very difficult because Sebastian keeps finishing all the races first and second so the only thing we can do is try to win every race we go to and be very aggressive. Every race, every start, every strategy will be at the maximum."

RACE RESULTS

The British Grand Prix
52 laps;
Weather: Wet, then dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h28m41.194s     
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    16.511s      
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    16.947s      
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    28.986s      
 5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    29.010s      
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1m00.665s      
 7.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +  1m05.590s      
 8.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +  1m15.542s      
 9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +  1m17.912s      
10.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1m19.108s      
11.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +  1m19.712s      
12.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1m20.600s      
13.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1 lap         
14.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +  1 lap         
15.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1 lap         
16.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +  2 laps        
17.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +  2 laps        
18.  Liuzzi        Hispania-Cosworth          +  2 laps        
19.  Ricciardo     Hispania-Cosworth          +  3 laps        

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1m34.908s

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         Gap
Button        McLaren-Mercedes             11
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           26
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               28
Trulli        Lotus-Renault                41
Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault                49


World Championship standings, round 9:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       204        1.  Red Bull-Renault          328
 2.  Webber       124        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          218
 3.  Alonso       112        3.  Ferrari                   164
 4.  Hamilton     109        4.  Mercedes                   68
 5.  Button       109        5.  Renault                    65
 6.  Massa         52        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             33
 7.  Rosberg       40        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         17
 8.  Heidfeld      34        8.  Force India-Mercedes       12
 9.  Petrov        31        9.  Williams-Cosworth           4
10.  Schumacher    28       
11.  Kobayashi     25       
12.  Sutil         10       
13.  Alguersuari    9       
14.  Buemi          8       
15.  Perez          8       
16.  Barrichello    4       
17.  Di Resta       2       

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM-BY-TEAM

Red Bull

The champion team was adamant that it was going to be heavily disadvantaged by the eventual shape of the exhaust rules, yet it still swept the front row yet again, though this time with Webber ahead of Vettel.

The German jumped ahead into the first corner, and for much of the race it looked like another one-two was in prospect.

But slow second pitstops dropped Vettel and Webber from first and second to third and fourth, forcing a fightback. Vettel managed to get ahead of Hamilton in the third stops, with Webber passing the McLaren on-track. But neither could catch Alonso, and instead they ended up in an in-house battle for second that prompted another team orders spat as Vettel resisted Webber to the flag.

McLaren

McLaren felt it had come off worst in the rules row as Button and Hamilton were left in disappointing fifth and 10th places on the grid for their home race.

Hamilton flew forward on Sunday, getting up to fourth in the wet and then passing Alonso for third. The Ferrari got back in front, but then when the Red Bulls had their slow stops, Hamilton found himself in second.

Required to conserve fuel, he could not keep them back and returned to fourth place by the finish, which he only held thanks to some firm driving as Massa attacked.

Button ran fifth for much of the race, not quite on the lead pace but keeping Massa at bay and sometimes closing in, before an improperly attached wheel forced him to retire as he left his final pitstop.

Ferrari

Alonso turned Ferrari's season around by charging to an ultimately dominant victory. He had been very pleased to qualify just over a tenth off Red Bull pace in third, and though tyre warm-up issues meant he fell to fourth at one stage in the race, he was able to pass Hamilton for third, pick up the lead when the Red Bulls had slow stops, and then charge away.

Massa was not quite on that pace as he qualified fourth, then ran sixth, having stayed out slightly too long on wet tyres. He nearly managed to get fourth from the slowing Hamilton in a wheel-banging last-lap battle.

Mercedes

A disappointing qualifying resulted in Rosberg ninth on the grid after not getting a good enough lap in before rain, and Schumacher 13th having struggled to time his Q2 run right.

A poor start for Rosberg and an early collision with Kobayashi for Schumacher suggested the race would be little better, but good speed and strong strategies helped them to come back to encouraging-in-the-circumstances sixth and ninth places.

Renault

A sheer lack of pace left Petrov and Heidfeld only 14th and 16th on the grid, but the latter had a much stronger race. A well-timed change to slicks, good pace and a successful two-stop strategy helped him to reach eighth. Long stints didn't work so well for Petrov, who could only manage 12th.

Williams

Both cars were encouragingly quick at times in practice, and Maldonado impressed again with an excellent seventh on the grid, while Barrichello felt traffic was the main cause of his disappointing 15th.

Race day was tough for both men, as a lack of pace in the wet caused them to tumble down the order. Barrichello had the better speed in the end and came through to 13th, just ahead of his team-mate.

Force India

Di Resta took a superb sixth on the grid for his home race, while Sutil only narrowly missed out on a top 10 spot as he lined up 11th in one of Force India's strongest performances of the year.

Di Resta's race fell apart when pit miscommunication meant he arrived at the garage a time when the team was expecting Sutil, who had reported a puncture. A later clash with Buemi then earned di Resta a penalty and meant a likely sixth or seventh became a lowly 15th.

Sutil ran in the points for a while but didn't have the pace to beat the two-stoppers so fell to 11th.

Sauber

Kobayashi did comprehensive damage to his car with a Friday morning accident, but the team repaired it for the afternoon and both drivers showed great pace in the wet.

This continued into qualifying, where Kobayashi made it to eighth and Perez was content with 12th.

In the race it was the Mexican who shone, driving well on a two-stop strategy to hassle Rosberg for sixth until the finish. Kobayashi was punted into a spin by Schumacher, nearly hit Barrichello in a pit incident that earned a fine and a penalty, and then stopped with an oil leak.

A mistimed Q1 run left Buemi and Alguersuari only 18th and 19th on the grid, having failed to put strong laps in before the rain. But they moved forward very quickly in the race, although Buemi's afternoon was ended when a touch with di Resta left him limping around damagingly on a slashed tyre. Alguersuari came home 10th after another strong race drive.

There was more qualifying delight as Kovalainen made the most of Toro Rosso's miscue to reach Q2 and start 17th. But Trulli was in the same position as STR, and had to rely on a disappointing pre-rain time that put him in 21st.

Both were early retirements in the race - Kovalainen losing fourth gear and Trulli's car suffering an oil leak.

Newcomer Ricciardo edged Liuzzi in practice, but come qualifying it was the more experienced man who took 23rd to Ricciardo's 24th. They were not quite quick enough to challenge the other teams in the race, so took 18th and 19th, Liuzzi ahead again.

Glock was pleased to beat Trulli to 20th, and felt he had the measure of Lotus in the race too, even before they retired. With no one else to fight, that was 16th place secured.

D'Ambrosio was back in habitual Virgin number two no man's land - quicker than Hispania but not on Glock's pace. That meant 22nd on the grid and 17th at the flag.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)