Thaindian News

Silverstone, July 10 (IANS) Fernando Alonso recorded his and Ferrari’s maiden victory this season by winning the British Grand Prix here Sunday while Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta finished out of points at 11th and 15th place.

Redbull’s Sebastian Vettel hung onto his second position on the starting grid with team mate Mark Webber completing the 52-lap race just .4 of a second behind the German.

The win was Alonso’s 27th of his career and reinforced that Ferrari is the only team challenging the leaders Red Bull at the moment. For Ferarri, the win commemorated their first Formula One win 60 years ago at the same circuit.

“I saw the problem in the pit stop with Sebastian and we were in the lead at that moment, but who knows what might have happened after that,” Alonso said. “I knew it was a race to be calm, make no mistakes, to not be off the track, and with that I knew the car had enough for victory and it came.”

The win lifted Alonso to third in the drivers’ championship behind Vettel and Webber.

“Today it is 60 years since Ferrari won its first Grand Prix in Formula One,” Alonso said. “And today we won on the same circuit.”

Force India, however, had a forgettable outing after an impressive qualifying session Saturday when di Resta secured his and his team’s best position on the grid by being 6th fastest while Sutil was 11th.

Di Resta was running at the seventh place until lap 27. Coming out on the track after his first pit stop, the Scotsman collided with Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi and that forced him to make another stop for a nosepin replacement. He came out of the pits at 15th position and could not make inroads from there on.

The opening lap of the race saw di Resta losing one track position to the onslaught of Lewis Hamiltion, who jumped to fifth place from 10th in the first few minutes. Sutil had moved to 10th by the end of lap five.