F1: Triumph and Tears at Silverston for British GP 2011

For Ferrari fans, the story of this year's British Grand Prix is one of success. For those that remember the last year of Honda when the car had bags of power but simply could not get pace because of an error in the calibration of their wind tunnel, that Ferrari have had the same problem will be a surprise: how quickly lessons are forgotten. Having found the problem, Ferrari rented time at the old Toyota wind tunnel at Cologne. That has led to significant improvements in the cars' aerodynamics. Both Massa and Alonso presented well in qualifying and Alonso, having had some luck as Red Bull fluffed Vettel's pit stop, stormed to a convincing win.

Whether Alonso would have won despite the Red Bull mistake is a moot point but it has to be said that he won by more than the time Vettel lost in the pits, Vettel lost a lot of pace in the final few laps and Alonso was strong at the end. Massa, too, was running strongly as the final drama unfolded. Alonso has been uncharacteristically humble in recent weeks and his response to the win was "what a wonderful surprise." It would be nice to see more of that side of him rather than the truculence that characterised the Renault and McLaren years: perhaps its the contract that makes him number one for the next few years that has settled him.

The win was symbolically important. It is sixty years this year that Ferrari won its first Formula One Grand Prix - and that was at Silverstone. Before the race, Alonso drove a demonstration lap in the car that won that 1951 race. Ferrari is the only team that has been continuously in F1 since then. That is, surely, something to celebrate.

For Red Bull, the story will be different: perhaps more hampered than Ferrari by the madness of mid-season regulation changes, the race was defined by a relative lack of pace although, at the beginning no one would have thought that would develop. Off the line, Vettel streaked away with a perfect start leaving pole-sitter Webber to tuck in behind. Whatever Vettel has, Webber needs it for as Webber scrapped with Alonso and Button, Vettel simply sauntered off into the distance. The startling thing was that his car was so well planted in difficult wet/dry conditions that he seemed to be taking no risks in order to be so much faster. As the track dried and the tyre changes started, Vetell stayed out, still outperforming those around him. Then at the pit stop, a problem caused a delay that was long enough for both Alonso and Hamilton to storm past while Vettel was in the pits. Hamilton was not fast: the McLarens were having a dismal weekend that just got worse every time a wheel turned, it seemed. Vettel did not get to wag his "number one" finger. Or rather, he did but not so publicly. As the last laps unfolded, he clearly had a problem. Webber, sensing his chance to finish ahead of his team mate, drove masterfully and without warning arrived on his team-mate's back wing. Vettel blocked and Webber chose not to risk taking them both out: Vettel of course has form when it comes to being overtaken by his greatest rival, as one's team-mate always is.

The record books will show that Vettel beat Webber. He did not: the team told Webber to "hold station" and although he tried to un-nerve Vettel (a tactic that was never going to work because Vettel knew Webber had been told not to challenge) he dutifully followed the young German home. Publicly, Webber was the team player : he did not know that race control had broadcast the message to him telling him to stand off. In the post-race interview, Webber said "both Seb and I were having trouble with the tyres at the end of the race. I tried to pass him, but not quite, and that was the race.” But the body language in Parc Firme, in the weigh-in, in the room where the drivers put the sponsors' caps and watches, etc. on, Webber and Vettel stayed away from each other. In the press conference, Vettel was smug; Webber was subdued. In the week where there has been speculation as to his future with the team, that decision might just have made up Webber's mind: if there is a top team that wants him, and will not treat him as a second class citizen, he may well decide to go. There is no doubt that, without those team orders (which are now permitted, thankfully) Webber would have taken second place.Webber, an avid user of twitter, has not posted any comment since the race ended, which itself speaks volumes.

Down the pit lane at McLaren, the question of who would finish ahead was never, really, in doubt. Button's car was, to put it mildly, rubbish. Hamilton, starting tenth, rocketed through the field in one of the most impressive first laps ever. Not that Button was hanging about: his start was almost bookish: he did not race off, dashing into the melee that the first corner often provides. Instead he almost hovered, waited until the two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris had sorted themselves out and then, by reason of being on the outside, simply didn't brake when they did. That kept him in his fourth position as per grid slot. And it was the last good thing that happened. It's almost as if Button's car is dragging a lead balloon behind it. No matter what he does, the car just won't go. His straight line speed was down, his cornering was slow. The reduction in rear downforce by the blown diffuser rule changes has destabilised the back of the car going into corners but this is Button: he is a very experienced driver and the gains from that are the odd-man-out as they have been made only this year. McLaren don't seem to have made the best use of DRS. Their KERS doesn't appear to give the same boost. Their aero package doesn't seem to keep the car as planted as before. Their rear suspension seems to be - actually, it's not certain what it seems to be but it's not keeping the car settled under braking. Going into the race, Hamilton was asked what the team could do to help him gain points and get back into the championship. He was blunt but fair: "give me a car I can win with," he said. There is no doubt that McLaren have dropped the ball. And in Silverstone, as Button drove the wheels of the car to keep in touch with the leaders, he came into the pits from second, some places having been inherited as a result of pit stops but only because Button had fought to stay close enough.

Hamilton did a stunning job: he would not have won but he should have been third or very close to it. As it was, he barely clung to fourth place. Why: the team under-fuelled his car and he had to back off in the last ten laps.As it was, he was under instructions to do whatever he could to fend of Webber's challenge but not to risk not finishing. As Massa ate up the distance between then, Hamilton was given the all-clear to race the last half-lap but by then Massa was too close. They finished the race side by side, Massa off the track having made a daring outside dash off the last corner, just two thousanths of a second apart.

It's not often that the phrase "it was going well until the wheels fell off" can be taken literally. But as Button drove across the white line that marks the limit of where mechanics are allowed to go, his right front wheel wobbled alarmingly and Button pulled off immediately. An airgun had failed. As the mechanic turned to collect a replacement, the lollipop man saw the mechanic move, thought he was clearing for takeoff (despite the fact no arm was raised) and waved Button out. The mechanic turned back to find the car gone and the locking nut on the ground between his knees. Button described it as "disappointing" and hinted at disapproval "hopefully, it won't happen again." The cock up cost the team 5000 euro in a fine for an unsafe release.

The same penalty was suffered by Sauber but in rather less clear-cut circumstances. Released properly, the car bogged down. That hesitation brought him out directly into the side of Maldonado. Kobayashi swerved to avoid a collision and drove over the airguns in the McLaren pit. Whether that contributed to the airgun failure that caused Button's problem has not been said but it was not the gun on the same corner of the car.That Kobayashi's team suffered a penalty seems a little unfair given that the stewards had already imposed a ten second stop-go penalty for the offence. That penalty, ironically, being the same as was imposed on Schumacher for driving into the back of Kobayashi and causing damage that eventually put him out of the race.

Di Resta's, the third British driver in the field, was doing a stunning job: having got his Force India into sixth on the grid, he was a terrier in the race, not letting go of a place if there was any chance of keeping it. Indeed, he was challenging Button in the early stages, something few expected to see this season. But a major foul up in the pits cost him dear and he finished 15th - alongside the two who had been given stop-go penalties. Di Resta had been told to pit for tyres and did so but as he was on his way, Sutil reported a puncture. The team says they tried to tell Di Resta to stay out but he seems to have not had that message. When he arrived, Sutil's tyres were ready, his were not.

Williams gambled on it being a dry race. It wasn't. There's not much more to say except that the team that has shown so much improvement in recent races (and briefly topped the timesheets in qualifying) finished in 13th and 14th.

To put that into persptive, Virgin finished 16th and 17th. Aside from D'Ambrosio having a bit of a scrap with Liuzzi, the Virgin afternoon was basically spent driving around in circles staying out of the way although Glock excelled himself with the 17th fastest lap. That might not sound much but with Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Schumacher and Button trading fastest laps in the middle part of the race, the lap times falling more than once per lap, to hold the 17th fastest means being faster than almost everyone that wasn't in a Red Bull, a Ferrari or a McLaren.

Liuzzi is beginning to look almost like a liability: his new team-mate Ricciardo had a brutal introduction to F1 - his seat fitting was on Wednesday, on Friday he was in the car for practice. Sure, he was last but only one place behind his team mate. And most importantly for a novice, he finished his first race and he did so in conditions that saw more illustrious competitors flounder. But it's the battle for his place in the team that is most likely to unsettle him with ousted Karthikayan hinting at some retribution as he told ESPN that, so far as he is concerned, "we have a contract for a certain number of races and that contract is still in force." He went on to say that it is a matter for him and his sponsors to sort out. That appears to mean, bluntly, that where the Indian goes, so does TATA's money. Ricciardo is backed by Red Bull (just how much profit is there in each can of that drink?).

But conflicting rumours abound: Karthikeyan says that he has handed over two full instalments of his paid-for drive that will cost USD8 million and that should have kept him in the car until the end of July. How hard he presses will depend on politics as much as rights: he wants, more than anything, to be part of the F1 circus when it arrives in India later in October. Last week the team was sold to venture capitalists. Red Bull stumped up a lump sum to put their boy in the car to get him some racing miles. There is, rumours say, some chance that Ricciardo may take Webber's place in the senior team next year - a rumour given weight by the team's abandonment of Webber's championship hopes for this year as borne out by their decision to make him follow Vettel home. Certainly, Karthikeyan is unlikely to move up to a top flight team: his return to F1 was itself a surprise to many. But his main supporter at HRT, Colin Colles who was brought in right before the 2010 season to rescue the disaster that the team had become, is unlikely to remain with the team, according to paddock gossip.

But it was the sorry state of Team Lotus that disappointed the most people. An electronic failure on the gearbox led to Kovalainen retiring almost as soon as the race had begun. Some commentators had questioned the Lotus decision to use the Red Bull drive train but Mike Gascoyne says "It was definitely not a problem with the gearbox itself so we need to take a close look at what went wrong on our side and make sure it does not happen again." Fernandes was unusually glum, telling Lotus fans that the gearbox problem was with an ECU supplied by McLaren and the oil leak due to a faulty bolt in the engine supplied by Renault. But he was in a better mood when he said that Team Lotus had agreed to take the KERS system from Red Bull and that Ferrari - which had been the primary objector - had agreed to the use of blown diffusers for the rest of the season.

Trulli had qualified far below his team-mate's 17th (and, at one point, third on the qualifying time-sheets) and after a decent start was told to pit because an oil leak had developed and threatened to blow the engine.

Maybe the most fun story of the day was the message from McLaren to Button to come into the pits "and we can jump Webber." The message was broadcast and Webber dived in. Button stayed out and made up time with a clear track. Later, when the message to Hamilton to conserve fuel was broadcast, so was Red Bull's response; "but they could be bluffing," they said.

Add into all the intrigue and incident the fact that the new Silverstone layout has created a long, flowing, fast track and that led to wheel to wheel racing right through the field, and one thing can be said: everyone who was at the race will have a story to tell - and most of them will be different.

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Update: reports this morning say that Webber has told reporters that he "ignored" the orders from the team and that the team is angry at his refusal not to try to take Vettel's second place and that the reason he did not is that he could not. That seems at odds with the Australian's much greater pace before he came up behind Vettel and his first few attempts to pass which were frustrated, it seemed, only because of the narrow dry line and the vast amount of marbles that bordered the racing line.