Webber in command as British challenge stutters

Australian Webber has long resided in Buckinghamshire, deciding to stay close to Red Bull’s factory base in Milton Keynes.

In contrast, British trio Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Paul di Resta all currently reside in Monaco, enjoying instead sunny climes and the tax breaks the French riviera haven affords.

Appreciably, the overwhelming support among the sell-out 125,500 fans was for the Brits, with grandstands adorned with flags and banners, and with McLaren’s rocket red caps strongly in evidence.

Although Hamilton led for a while, there was little for the fans to cheer, with Di Resta retiring after two laps, whilst the McLaren duo finished eighth and 10th.

So if there was going to be a popular winner then Webber was it, and on lap 48 he made the most important move of the 52-lap race by passing Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso for the lead he converted into the ninth victory of his career.

On top of the podium, and with thousands of fans having made their way on to the circuit to watch the celebrations – with Sebastian Vettel third – Webber was about as happy as could be.

“This is a very, very special victory for the team, just down the road, a local team, so thanks to all the guys,” said Webber. “It’s incredible for them, so I’m very proud today. I’ve had a few days like this now, which is nice, but this one is taking a little while to sink in.

“But thanks to all the fans for sticking with us for the past few days. It has been incredible.

“They have had to put up with some horrendous weather, but we’ve had a beautiful dry British Grand Prix.”

That remark drew loud cheers, and rightly so given the rain that had caused chaos the previous few days, turning grassed car parks into quagmires, and with horrendous traffic jams.

Remarkably, there was blue skies and sunshine at times during the race, although the weather played one last cruel hand with a 20-minute downpour around 90 minutes after the race just as the fans would have been attempting to escape the circuit.

Webber now trails Alonso by 13 points, and with two wins to his name – the same as the Spaniard – he has proven he is firmly in the world title fight.

The 35-year-old added: “We will enjoy this result, really soak it up. That’s what’s important.

“You have to remember how hard we work for these results, but I’m not getting too fired up about any particular championship positions at the moment.

“What is for sure is that I have a nice haul of points to keep going with.

“I’m not sitting on 20 points trying to start my campaign from here. So it’s going well so far.”

Alonso has consistency on his side as he remains the only man to finish every race in the points this season.

“I’m still leading, which is the main target for us, obviously,” said Alonso. “I lost seven points to Mark, but we gained some extra points on the rest of the field, so it was a good Sunday for us in terms of championship points.”

Vettel has fallen 29 points adrift, with Hamilton 37 down, whilst Button is now hopelessly adrift, 79 off the pace after picking up seven in the past six races.

McLaren had been bullish ahead of the British round of the championship, believing upgrades to the MP4-27 would lead to a strong performance on home soil.

But after starting eighth and 16th respectively the pair were never a factor in the fight for the podium places.

When asked how far the team are behind Red Bull, Hamilton said: “A long way away, but we will keep working at it and hopefully catch them up.

“It wasn’t a special race to be honest, I wish we could have done more for the fans, we tried as hard as we could but we just didn’t have the pace today.

“I don’t know why. I think I was in the lead at one point so I don’t understand how you can be there and then go all the way back to where I started, but I pushed all the way and did everything I could.

“I was flat out right to the end but for some reason we didn’t have any speed.”

Hamilton also said he would take a look at the strategy McLaren used for him.

Hamilton started on the hard compound tyre and took the lead when those ahead of him stopped, but as his tyres started to go off Alonso easily caught and passed the McLaren. But Hamilton felt he could have stayed out longer, even though he was substantially slower than the leaders immediately prior to his stop.

He said: “From what I can understand it must have been okay, but I will have to look at it afterwards to see how the strategy panned out.

“In the first stint my tyres were still good and I was almost holding on to Fernando on quite old tyres so maybe a one stop (strategy) would have been possible, I really don’t know to be honest.

“We did everything we could but it was a really tough race for us, really tough.”

Button, now without a podium finish on home soil in 13 attempts, was similarly despondent, and believes that it is not just the Red Bulls and Ferraris who have got the McLarens beat on pure speed at the moment.

He said: “I just don’t think we are very quick at the moment. I think that’s an issue for both cars.

“The Red Bulls look strong and even following the Williams around you can see they are very strong. They can put their car in certain areas I could not imagine putting the car and getting away with it.

“We have to find some pace, it’s not just Red Bull and Ferrari that are quicker than us, I think a lot of cars are, I just don’t think they got their strategy right.

“We have a lot to work on and I am sorry to the fans we could not have a better result and fight at the front, hopefully we can do that soon.”

Button at least clambered into the points after starting 16th, thanks mainly to a mistake made by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg on the penultimate lap.

But on a woeful day for McLaren they have now dropped to fourth in the constructors’ championship.

They find themselves behind Ferrari, for whom Felipe Massa was fourth for his best result since October 2010, and Lotus as Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were fifth and sixth.

As for Di Resta, he sustained a puncture after being clipped on the opening lap by Grosjean, and although making it back to the pits and out on track, floor damage forced him out.

F1 standings: Page 11.