page_title: 2010 British Grand Prix
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 British Grand Prix / Report / Race
caption_attribution_description: Sebastian Vettel driving for Red Bull Racing at the 2010 British Grand Prix. Photographer: Andrew Hoskins.
context_page_description: The 2010 British Grand Prix was the tenth race of the 2010 Formula One season. On 7 December 2009, it was confirmed that the race would take place at Silverstone for the next seventeen years after the failure of Donington Park to raise the necessary funds to hold the race. The event was staged on 11 July, the same day as the 2010 FIFA World Cup final.
  The race was won by Red Bull driver Mark Webber, taking his third victory of the season.
context_section_description: The race began with Sebastian Vettel attempting to force teammate Webber into yielding on the approach to Copse corner, but the Australian prevailed and Vettel ran wide as he made contact with Lewis Hamilton in third. As the field passed through the Maggotts-Becketts corner, Vettel was seen to run wide, having picked up a puncture from the contact with Hamilton as Webber and the Briton escaped the rest of the field. Other first-lap incidents saw Felipe Massa earn a puncture after contact in the new section, and the two drivers were forced to pit, shunting them to the back end of the field.
  The first casualty of the race was Lucas di Grassi, his VR-01 once again crippled by hydraulics failure, while at the front of the pack, Hamilton kept in touch with Webber as they raced on the softer tyre. His teammate Button was able to carve his way through the field, having started fourteenth. The early phase of the race was marked by another minor stewarding controversy as Fernando Alonso attempted to pass the struggling Robert Kubica on the entry to Vale. Alonso was forced off the circuit and recovered to take the second half of Club corner, but passed Kubica in the process. Alonso was given a drive-through penalty for failing to give the place back to Kubica, but problems began when Adrian Sutil made contact with Pedro de la Rosa on the main straight. Although both drivers were able to continue for the time being, de la Rosa's rear wing was damaged and it started to disintegrate as the Sauber took to the Hangar straight. He pitted and was released back into the race, but it was a mortal wound and de la Rosa was forced to retire. The debris on the circuit at the approach to Stowe prompted the deployment of the safety car, bunching the field back up. This was a problem for Alonso because he was unable to serve his drive-through penalty until after the safety car had withdrawn, sending him plummeting back down the order. Reactions from the commentators were unsympathetic, with many feeling that Alonso could have avoided trouble by giving the place back to Kubica at the earliest possible opportunity. Nevertheless, it was still described as a harsh penalty because Kubica had been forced out of the race with driveshaft problems before the de la Rosa-Sutil incident. Charlie Whiting, the FIA's race director, later told reporters that Alonso and Ferrari had been advised to yield to Kubica as soon as the Spaniard had passed the Renault, and twice more after that before the penalty was issued. Ferrari later released a timeline of the Alonso-Kubica pass and following events, showing that Charlie Whiting had told them he "had to look at pictures" and did not recommend Alonso return the position until a full two minutes after the controversial pass (critically after Alonso had already passed Alguersuari). The decision not to allow Kubica pass immediately after was a key moment in the championship, the lost points ultimately cost Alonso the championship.
  The unintended effect of the safety car deployment was that it bunched the field up again. Sebastian Vettel, who had been just three seconds ahead of Mark Webber on the road, was able to join the rear of the safety car train and proceeded to wage war against the rest of the grid, picking them off one by one. Several other battles also picked up, with Alonso and Liuzzi bashing wheels and Petrov threatening Nico Hülkenberg's tenth place until the Russian developed a slow puncture and was forced to pit. Meanwhile, Vettel continued his charge, made more complicated by the retirement of Jaime Alguersuari. The Toro Rosso driver beached himself at low speed on the outside of Luffield with eight laps to go, prompting marshalls to display yellow flags at the end of the new Wellington Straight and thus denying Vettel the opportunity to pass countryman Sutil into Brooklands. Vettel eventually bullied his way through, forcing a gap at Aintree several laps later. Sutil was left unimpressed by the pass as he came under fire from Schumacher, who himself had to fend of the tenth-placed Nico Hülkenberg.
  Mark We
caption: After his first-lap puncture, Sebastian Vettel recovered to finish the race in seventh place.
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