2009 British Grand Prix: Mega-Gallery

Under dark clouds not of British rain but the dissolution of Formula One was held this year’s British Grand Prix. Warning: spoilers.

Those of you who have followed our impromptu live text will know all about the blitz young Sebastian Vettel in his Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull subjected the Silverstone field to. After so many races where he was held up in traffic, he got off from his pole position to a flying start and ran a race of pure, unadulterated fury.

Knocking home fastest lap after fastest lap, he was in a race all his own, reminiscent of Jenson Button’s performance two weeks ago at Istanbul Park. Vettel became the only German to win the British Grand Prix not driving a Ferrari, after Ferrari drivers Wolfgang von Trips (1961) and Michael Schumacher (1998, 2002, 2004).

He was followed home by his teammate Mark Webber, with Rubens Barrichello sneaking up on the podium after a race of continuous pressure from Felipe Massa of Ferrari and Nico Rosberg of Williams.

And as for Jenson Button? The insane pressure of returning to his home crowd after a decade in the doldrums as the Jimmy Clark of the 2009 season finally got the better of our beloved Pinky, who stuttered in qualifying, got off to an awkward start from sixth place and fell back to ninth, from where he clawed his way back to where he’d started. He seemed to regain his wheels in the last few laps when he came bearing down on Rosberg and Massa, but was unable to make his move for fifth.

He still leads the championship by a comfortable margin of 64 points to teammate Barrichello’s 41—but with his second victory in eight races and two podium finishes, Vettel has climbed his way to within two points of Brawn GP’s veteran driver. And we still have nine races to go. The next one on July 12 will be at the German’s stomping grounds: the Nürburgring.

On a related note, Silverstone Bunny was nowhere to be seen this year. I sincerely hope he is okay.