There were plenty of Ferrari fireworks in England this Fourth of July weekend. The two Ferrari drivers started the race proper at a big disadvantage when they missed a window of opportunity to make qualifying runs on dry tyres during Q1 and both were eliminated from moving on to Q2. Fernando Alonso started 16th on the grid and teammate Kimi Raikkonen one row behind him in 18th. They had a lot of ground to make up and Raikkonen tried to get a little too much on lap one. He ran wide off the left hander headed onto the Wellington straight and was forced to use the runoff area there. As he rejoined the track he ran out of pavement and hit a drainage ditch, unsettling the car and sending him into a spin. Raikkonen smashed the wall on the right hand side of the track and flung back out across traffic where he was hit by Felipe Massa. Massa did a great job of sending his car into a spin before hitting Kimi, avoiding spearing the Finn’s car and causing a more serious accident.
Aside from the accident making a bad race weekend even worse for the Ferrari camp there was now concern over their driver as Raikkonen came limping out of the cockpit. It was later reported he had an ankle injury but luckily not one serious enough that he is in danger of missing the German Grand Prix on the 22nd. Fernando Alonso had an exciting day as well but it was much more positive overall. He finished in the points once again, coming sixth, but he had to take the long road to get there. A poor qualifying effort, as mentioned above, had Alonso deep in the field though he had moved up three spots to 13th before the red flag for Kimi’s accident.
When they got back to racing Alonso pushed hard, methodically moving through the field into the points and closing in on a top five. However, there was a problem. On the initial start of the race Alonso missed his starting box. He overshot the starting line by half a car length. The stewards decided to give the Spaniard a five second stop-and-go penalty. Alonso gave it all he had until lap 25 when he pitted. The crew waited the allotted five seconds, served the car and sent the determined man back on the track now in the ninth position.
Again, Alonso willed and wrestled his car towards the front. He clawed his way into P5 but reigning champ Sebastian Vettel was right on his tail with fresh rubber on his car. The laps were winding down but the action was heating up. Vettel stuck his Red Bull’s nose in on Alonso several times only to be sent wide and pushed aside by the feisty Alonso, sending Vettel into fits of rage over the radio. Vettel eventually got the run he was waiting for though; getting inside Alonso the two went wheel to wheel, mere inches apart before Alonso had to give way to the reigning champ. Vettel ran away from the Ferrari from there but couldn’t catch the fourth placed car of Jenson Button.
All of this excitement for fifth place was happening amidst a major shakeup at the front of the field. Nico Rosberg had been leading the way and was looking good to come away with the win until a gearbox malfunction took away his ability to downshift. This paved the way for his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to take his home country’s Grand Prix. The Englishman gave something for his countrymen to cheer about with England’s result in the World Cup and Wimbledon not going in their favour. Rosberg now holds just a four point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship.
In a weekend full of miscues and setbacks for the Ferrari team you have to wonder if Fernando is going to have the patience to stick with them as they get over the learning curve that the new car has put in front of them.
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