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Great Britain 06-08 Jul 2012Santander British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Northhamptonshire, United Kingdom Race Distance: 52 laps, 306.747 km Built on a WWII bomber base, the Silverstone circuit roughly follows the perimeter road surrounding the bases three runways. The track is fairly non-technical, with long fast straights connected together by corners and chicanes. New in 2010, the "Arena Complex" (originally designed for MotoGP) will be used again for the F1 race. Webber started from pole in 2011, but lost the lead immediately to Vettel. Vettel later lost the lead to Alonso with a slow pit stop. Webber ends in 3rd, Vettel in 2nd, and Alonso wins on the 60th anniversary of Ferrari's 1st F1 win, which also occurred here at Silverstone. Rain soaked Silverstone qualifying resulting in a 90 minute red flag during Q2 and catching teams out that didn't get on track early enough as conditions degraded. Button was the biggest name driver to fail to exit Q1. Then Q2 claimed Rosberg with a KERS issue and Grosjean who spun at the end of the session preventing him from running in Q3 despite a quick enough time. Q3 was run on a drying track that appeared to help Ferrari as Alonso takes pole and teammate Massa qualifies 5th. Webber led the Red Bull cars in 2nd with Vettel in 4th. Schumacher will start 3rd. The top 10 qualifiers in Britain: ALO WEB MSC VET MAS RAI MAL HAM HUL* GRO DIR *5 spot penalty for gearbox change Despite 2 days of rain leading up to the race, the British GP was a warm sunny day come Sunday. Alonso, starting on the harder tire unlike all the cars behind him, was able to run off to an early lead. But it was Webber's strategy to run the soft tires first that ultimately led to the fastest race as he passes Alonso in the 3rd stint for the win. Vettel makes good use of pit strategy to pass Schumacher and Massa (who got by him at the start) to take 3rd. Schumacher falls during stint 2 to Massa and Raikkonen, putting them into 4th and 5th at the end, while Grosjean puts in an amazing drive from the back of the field (where an early wing change left him) all the way to 6th just in front of Schumacher in 7th. Home town drivers Hamilton and Button finish in a disappointing 8th and 10th, while di Resta crashes out on lap 2.
Santander British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Northhamptonshire, United Kingdom
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