It was a relatively mixed weekend for Red Bull Racing at the British Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel seemed to find some of his qualifying form, but strategy ruined his race once again. However, with this we were treated to arguably one of the greatest duels in Formula One history, as two highly revered drivers went head to head and wheel to wheel. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo looked after his tyres very well and finished in third, but only just.
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)
Grid: P2
Race: P5
With Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo making errors in qualifying, Vettel earned his second front row start of the season by putting in a pretty solid lap. The German had a Mark Webber-like terrible start, and was passed by Hamilton and both McLarens before the red flag came out due to Kimi Raikkonen’s accident. After the race resumed, Red Bull split strategy, and Vettel found himself losing out. He passed Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen before engaging in an all-out duel between himself and arch rival Fernando Alonso. Alonso initially passed Vettel with a scarcely believable 180mph pass around the outside of one of the fastest corners in F1, before Vettel closed in and re-passed on the inside of the same corner, with the two cars just a matter of inches apart from each other. It was one of those battles that remind you of Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux at the French Grand Prix in 1979, where that too was a battle between a Ferrari and a Renault engine, and two greats of our sport.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Grid: P8
Race: P3
A strategic error in qualifying left him just eighth on the grid, but by the end of lap 1 he was just behind his team mate. A one-stop strategy saw him have to do well over half the race on the softer of the two tyres and Ricciardo managed to hold out, to take yet another podium finish. Like Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who was his former rival in Formula Renault, he too is being dubbed a future World Champion.
The team in form at the moment is Williams Racing, which may be a concern for Red Bull. They have a healthy lead over them and Ferrari at the moment but Williams are finally starting to deliver consistent results, so their P2 in the Constructors’ Championship may well be under threat towards the end of the season, especially with double points. With Hockenheim really being a power circuit, Red Bull are expected to struggle there, a circuit which they have never won on.
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