British Grand Prix 2011: Paul di Resta stakes his claim

Ominous skies over Silverstone during qualifying

Qualifying for the British Grand Prix was a bit of a nonsense thanks to the blown diffuser row and rain , but Red Bull took the 1st row, Ferrari the 2nd and Button took 5th place.

Qualifying for the 2011 British Grand Prix was a wet event. After all, this is England in July.

Lewis Hamilton continued to act like a child who doesn’t get his own way; it was apparently his team’s fault for putting the wrong tyres on his car that he ended up in 10th place on the grid. Of course, if he’d got pole that would be down to him, not McLaren putting the right tyres on.

But part of Hamilton’s problem – and McLaren’s too, it has to be said – was the mad meddling with the rules governing exhaust gases and downforce.

The teams have got too clever and are now using sophisticated engine maps to keep throttle on even during the over run, feeding the resulting gases to create additional downforce at the back.

The FIA – in their infinite wisdom – decided to change the regs to outlaw the practice – mid-season, from this weekend. Chaos threatened to engulf the British GP as teams struggled to make cars designed around the practice work without the downforce.

Jenson Button was asked how McLaren were dealing with losing downforce at the back. ‘We’ve taken it off the front to match’, he said. And therein lay the problem. The cars were unbalanced. The FIA backed off. There has been some compromise for this weekend. And it’s all back to normal after Silverstone until the season end.

So we shouldn’t read too much in to grid positions. Except Red Bull, expected to suffer most from the blown diffuser issue, are in 1st and 2nd. True, Mark Webber – in his ‘home’ Grand Prix – pipped Sebastian Vettel to pole, but that was the only change.

The Ferraris – who it was thought would get the most help from the blown diffuser debacle – took 3rd and 4th and Jenson Button – who must have got the right tyres, by some miracle – took 5th; the best it was probably sensible to expect.

The star of the day was rookie Paul di Resta who took his Force India in to 6th place, urged on by what seemed to be the entire population of Bathgate – although it turns out it was just family.

But all of this will be turned on its head as the heavens open, the safety car comes out, the pack closes up and Jenson drives through a flailing field to take the win, with Paul di Resta hanging on to his coat tails for his first podium. Oh, and let’s have Rubens making up the podium to celebrate Williams and Renault’s partnership for next year.

Biased? Oh, yes. But that’s allowed – this is the British Grand Prix.