2011 British Grand Prix

The 2011 British Grand Prix (formally the 2011 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix [ 2 ] ) was a Formula One motor race held on 10 July 2011 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire , England, and won by Fernando Alonso . [ 3 ] It was the ninth race of the 2011 season , and saw the introduction of a ban on off-throttle blown diffusers, [ 4 ] the practice of forcing the engine to continue to produce exhaust gasses to generate downforce when drivers are not using the t...

The circuit underwent a major reconfiguration for the 2010 British Grand Prix , with the addition of the "Arena" loop bypassing the old Abbey, Bridge and Priory corners before re-joining at Brooklands. The 2011 race saw the second stage of this reconfiguration used for the first time, with the pits and the start/finish line moved to the straight between Club Corner and the new Abbey. The new pit facility was deliberately designed to be challenging for drivers, and to minimise the amount of time ...

Following complaints from MotoGP riders in 2010 , the entry to the new Abbey has been re-surfaced to remove a large bump situated on the racing line. [ 5 ] The reconfiguration was not without controversy, as the lowered pit lane meant that the pit garages were obscured from the view of the spectators by a retaining wall. Formula One Management reversed the intended pit lane order, placing the Red Bull Racing , McLaren and Ferrari pit garages behind the retaining wall, and moving the Team Lotus ,...

After experimenting with two Drag Reduction System (DRS) zones in Montreal and Valencia , the FIA announced that the sport would return to using only the one DRS zone at Silverstone, with the activation point placed before Aintree corner, allowing drivers to deploy the system for the length of the Wellington Straight. [ 7 ]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound as the softer "option" compound. This was the same tyre selection that Bridgestone had chosen to bring to the British Grand Prix for the previous two years. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ]

On 30 June, it was announced that Scuderia Toro Rosso testing and reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo would replace Narain Karthikeyan at HRT Formula 1 Team . [ 11 ] With Mark Webber driving for Red Bull Racing , Ricciardo's debut marks the first time that two Australian drivers have competed in the same race since Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan raced in the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix .

The first ninety-minute session of the weekend was deemed wet. The initial lap times were slow, but as a dry line began to appear around the circuit, the drivers switched to Pirelli's intermediate compound, and lap times began to improve significantly. Mark Webber set the fastest time of the session, but experienced fuel problems and stopped on the circuit. Michael Schumacher finished second ahead of Rubens Barrichello third. The rain returned late in the session, and Kamui Kobayashi crashed hea...

The final period began as the previous two had, with most of the drivers venturing out as soon as the circuit was opened. The front-running drivers planned for two separate runs, but were anticipating rain later in the period, making the early laps crucial. Meanwhile, Pastor Maldonado, Kamui Kobayashi and Paul di Resta opted for just one qualifying run. Mark Webber claimed his second pole position of the season, just three-hundredths of a second ahead of Vettel on their first run before the pred...

Vettel started building up a comfortable lead ahead of Webber whilst Jenson Button struggled, first losing fourth place to Massa and then being passed by Hamilton as the 2008 World Champion climbed back up through the field. The Lotuses of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli became the first retirements of the race, stopping within the first ten laps of the race due to gearbox issues. As the first round of scheduled pit stops approached, Michael Schumacher collided with Kamui Kobayashi at Luffiel...

The second round of pit stops saw Vettel and Alonso enter at the same time, but an uncharacteristic mistake from the Red Bull mechanics meant Vettel was delayed and allowing Alonso to take the lead of the race. Vettel emerged in third behind Lewis Hamilton, and struggled to pass the McLaren driver as Alonso increased his lead. Red Bull would eventually pit Vettel for a third time to allow him to run in clear air. Meanwhile, Button pitted for new tyres but retired from the race after the front ri...

I think that the top teams will lose quite a bit, because we've had this for a little while now so you start designing the car around the systems that you have in place. It's going to be a reasonably big hit and you'll feel it everywhere: high, low speed, not so much on power but it's more under braking and high speed corners. I think the biggest problem will be is that braking and exit will be very different in corners to the feeling of the car, could be changing a lot, so that's probably the t...

Further controversy erupted on the Friday of the Grand Prix when it was revealed that the FIA had allowed Renault -powered teams certain concessions over the ban. Where the ban prevented teams from running engine maps that simulated throttle conditions of more than 10%, Renault had applied for a special exemption to the rule on the grounds that running at 10% of full throttle conditions adversely affected the reliability of their engines. The FIA granted the concession, permitting them to run up...