What can you say about Alonso (Ferrari) and his win, other than faultless? He is looking true championship material and will become the new world champion if he keeps up this standard of driving (and calculating). What can you say about his team mate Felipe Massa? It really is time Felipe fell on his sword. His driving just is not good enough, in a car that wins races in his team mate’s hands. But to be down the back of the grid with the wobblers is not where Ferrari expects of him. Ferrari may put up with this till the end of the year, but you can forget about 2013, Felipe.
We also learned that McLaren’s updates do work, and it was a rejuvenated Jenson Button who (eventually) was given his second place back. Lewis Hamilton also showed the speed in the new McLaren package, and after his unfortunate puncture on the second lap drove well to unlap himself getting fairly past Vettel (who was still whining about it after the race) and Alonso (who was quite happy to see Hamilton between himself and Vettel). However, Alonso is older than Vettel, who still does revert to thumb-sucking at times.
Raikkonen (“Lotus”) was elevated to third after Vettel’s demotion, and drove a solid, if uninspiring, race. The TV directors thought so too, as we rarely got to see him. His team mate never got out of the back markers and reverted to hitting people again. Ah well, he’s still young too.
Krasher Ken Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) belied his nickname and drove an excellent race to eventually finish fourth and five seconds in front of team mate Perez.
After Perez came Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) who despite his 3rd place after Qualifying, could not maintain position and slipped backwards during the race eventually 7th. An old driver getting tired? Actually I think not. On lap 57 he set the fastest lap of the race. Schumacher knows how to pace himself, and finished well in front of his younger team mate Rosberg. I think the sad part is that Brawn’s Mercedes is just not quick enough.
In eighth came the second Red Bull of Mark Webber, who drove like an old tart all day, but is a big enough man to admit it. “I had no pace today and wasn’t quick. I couldn’t stay with people that I normally can. This is a completely different track (to Silverstone where he won), but we have to be quick in all conditions and today we weren’t for whatever reason.” Despite this bad weekend, I expect him to feature strongly in Hungary this weekend.
As for the rest, just make-weights, I am afraid. Even the TV cameras couldn’t be bothered with the likes of Marussia, HRT and Caterham and Williams were nowhere, though Maldonado avoided crashing into people.
