Alonso equals Stewart; Mansell next up

Fernando Alonso's British Grand Prix win was not only his first of 2011 - and Ferrari's first for 10 races - but it also came at the same Silverstone circuit where Jose Froilan Gonzalez had taken the team's first World Championship race win almost 60 years previously to the day.

There was more reason for the Spaniard to be joyous though. Last weekend's result gave him the 27th grand prix win of his career, equalling the number of victories achieved by Britain's three-time world champion Jackie Stewart and leaving him joint fifth in the all-time winners' list.

Next on Alonso's hit list is Nigel Mansell, fourth in the all-time standings with 31 wins. He still has a long way to go to catch Michael Schumacher though, the German having taken 91 victories during his 20-year-career.

Alonso also scored his 19th fastest lap in Formula 1, moving him level with Stirling Moss, Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill in 11th place on the all-time list.

Vettel keeps on getting stronger

Even when Sebastian Vettel doesn't win, he still increases his championship lead, such has been the German's astonishing form during the 2011 season and the alternating fortunes of his closest challengers.

As a case in point, Vettel has extended his advantage at the top of the table in all but one of the races this year; that being the Chinese Grand Prix, at which he was beaten by Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel's second place at Silverstone was his ninth straight podium finish of 2011, equalling the start made by Alonso in 2006 and Schumacher in 2002 - a year in which he finished inside the top three in all 17 races.

If Vettel continues his extraordinary run, his team-mate Mark Webber may start to feel a little hot under the collar. Webber scored his eighth F1 pole position and his 25th podium finish, but for the third time in his career he failed to convert pole into victory.

There's another statistic to worry the Australian too; he has not led a lap since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix, in contrast to Vettel's extraordinary achievement of having been at the front for 78 per cent of all the laps run in 2011.

Race notes

Perez took his best F1 finish to date © LAT

• For the first time in 2011, Nico Rosberg finished higher than he qualified as he improved from ninth on the grid to sixth by the chequered flag. Previously in 2011 he had slipped back in the race five times, held station twice and retired once.

• Sergio Perez took the best result of his career in seventh. It was also the best result for a Mexican in F1 since Hector Rebaque took fourth at the 1981 Dutch Grand Prix.

• Silverstone was the scene for Jaime Alguersuari's third points finish in a row. Prior to this string of results, which began with the Canadian Grand Prix last month, he had taken only three points finishes from 33 starts.

• After 10 straight points finishes, Jenson Button retired at Silverstone. Prior to that, he had completed every racing lap in 2011 and not retired since Vettel knocked him out of last year's Belgian Grand Prix.

• Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi both retired for the first time in 2011 at Silverstone. The Sauber driver's last mechanical failure came at Monza last year.

• Lotus suffered its first double retirement since last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

Qualifying notes

• Ferrari scored its second best qualifying result of the year in Britain with third and fourth places for Alonso and Felipe Massa. Its best collective of the result was the second and third in Canada.

• Force India driver Paul di Resta's sixth place on the grid at Silverstone was the best of his F1 career. Pastor Maldonado and Kobayashi also took career-best spots in seventh and eighth respectively.

• The victims of these three were Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Schumacher. Rosberg's ninth place on the grid equalled his worst of 2011 while Hamilton's 10th spot was his worst since Malaysia last year. Schumacher failed to start in the top 10 for the first time in a British Grand Prix.

• Renault suffered a disaster in qualifying, Vitaly Petrov taking his worst result of the year in 14th and neither car making Q3.

• For the fourth time Heikki Kovalainen took his Lotus into Q2, although Jarno Trulli took his worst grid spot since Singapore last year.

• Toro Rosso suffered a below-par qualifying result. Alguersuari failed to make it out of Q1 for the fourth time this year while Buemi was stuck there for the first time in 2011. The last time neither car made Q2 was at the 2009 Italian Grand Prix.