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The results are up for round 8 of the f1buzz prediction game and they show that Sergio has managed to just sneak past Andrew for the lead.

Everyone thought Jenson Button was going to score his first home Grand Prix win on Sunday, despite a few people picking Vettel for pole.  Out of 20 drivers on the grid it seems people thought only the Brawn and Red Bull drivers had a chance.

We are still only half way through the season so there are plenty of points up for grabs but if you want to overtake the leaders you might have to take some risks with some unconvential predictions.

There is a rare break in the F1 calendar now until the German Grand Prix at Nürburgring in three weeks’ time.

Image: Brawn GP

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber secured Red Bull’s second 1-2 finish of the season at the British Grand Prix on Sunday.

As indicated by Vettel’s incredible pace in qualifying, the young German was in another class for the whole race, crossing the line 15 seconds ahead of team mate Mark Webber, who was followed by Rubens Barrichello.

From the moments the lights went out in front of a capacity crowd at Silverstone, Vettel’s win was never really in doubt.  Rubens Barrichello managed to hold second position off the line but lost out to Mark Webber in the first set of pit stops.

Championship leader Jenson Button got squeezed at the start, dropping back to P9 behind Jarno Trulli and then struggled to keep the heat in his hard tyres, eventually finishing the race in 6th:

On the hard tyres the car just didn’t work and I couldn’t get any tyre temperature. That’s the way our car is in cooler temperatures.

Lewis Hamilton started 18th and  finished a slightly less miserable 16th.

While the local fans may have been hoping for a Brit to win what may be the last F1 race at Silverstone, the Red Bull resurgence has injected a bit more excitement into what was fast becoming a foregone conclusion.  All those extra bits Adrian Newey bolted onto the RB5 allowed Sebastian Vettel to close his gap to Button from 32 points to 25 points and the 1-2 finish sees Red Bull narrow Brawn’s lead in the Constructors’ Championship from 39.5 points to 30.5 points.

The Championship is far from over.

2009 British Grand Prix Race Results

Image: Red Bull / Getty

The FIA now publishes the weights of each car after qualifying on Saturday.  Those cars that make it through to the final qualifying session must use the fuel they qualified with while the rest of the field may refuel before the race.

Below is a graph showing the actual top ten qualifying times as well as those times adjusted for the weight of fuel each car is carrying.  The graph assumes a standard lap time cost of 0.3 seconds per 10kg of fuel.

Nobody looks particularly out of place, although Kazuki Nakajima’s time was only possible because he was fuelled lighter than anyone else on the grid.

What it does show is how fast Sebastian Vettel really was.  His team mate Mark Webber was fuelled lighter than him but could only manage 3rd.  Vettel looks a lot faster than anyone else on the grid.

2009 British Grand Prix car weights

Image: Red Bull / Getty

The two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber posted the quickest time in both practice sessions for the British Grand Prix at a windy Silverstone on Friday.

Sebastian Vettel outpaced his team mate in both sessions but the new parts Red Bull have fitted (including a new front wing and nose) were obviously working well.

Mark Webber’s second session was cut short when he hit the curb and lost all electrical power:

It’s been a pretty good day for us; we’ve tried a few new bits here, which seem to be going pretty well. We’ve tried both sets of tyres and need to go through all the data tonight.  My second session ended a little early as I hit a kerb on Turn five, which caused the car’s electronics to stop.

In the first session, the two Brawn GP cars were 3rd and 4th fastest but, surprisingly, it was Force India’s Adrian Sutil who went 3rd fastest in the second session.

As Silverstone is such a light braking circuit, it can be hard to harvest enough energy to make KERS worthwhile so McLaren chose to run different strategies for their drivers in practice.  Heikki Kovalainen continued to use KERS while Lewis Hamilton ran without the device as Norbert Haug explains:

Lewis today drove without KERS because Silverstone is a circuit where you do not brake too often: you get less of a benefit from the system here than you would on heavy-braking circuits. By way of comparison, Heikki used the system today and our specialists will analyse today’s results and decide whether we choose to continue using the system on his car for the rest of the weekend.

It will be interesting to see what they choose to do on Saturday as Kovalainen felt he could still make use of KERS:

It’s still difficult to say whether it’s an advantage to be running KERS, but I felt I was getting a laptime benefit from the system.

Morning showers are predicted for Saturday but it should be dry by the time qualifying gets underway.

Here are the times from the first two practice sessions:
First Practice

Second Practice

In 1943 the Royal Air Force opened RAF Silverstone as a base for Vickers Wellington bombers.  After the Second World War, the Royal Automobile Club took a lease on the deserted airfield and held a couple of races on the runways with a track laid out in hay bales before switching to the perimiter track in 1949.

In 1950, Silverstone hosted the first race of the newly created Formula One World Championship.  The British Grand Prix then rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch before settling permanently at Silverstone in 1987.

If Bernie Ecclestone has his way 2009 will be the last time the British Grand Prix is run at Silverstone, at least for the next 17 years.  From 2010 the race will move to Donnington Park, a circuit not without its own history but still lacking the connection with Formula One that Silverstone has had for the last 60 years.

Last year, Lewis Hamilton proved he was a master in the rain when he won at Silverstone in one of Formula One’s greatest ever wet-weather drives.  Hamilton described it as “by far the best victory I’ve ever had”, eventually finishing over a minute ahead of Nick Heidfeld in second place.

Unfortunately for Lewis he has practically no chance of repeating that result on Sunday, even if it rains.  Silverstone is a high-speed track with more than 60% of the circuit taken at full throttle.  But it also requires high-downforce through the incredible high-speed corners like Becketts, and downforce is something the McLaren just hasn’t got right yet.

Jenson Button on the other hand is looking forward to racing in front of his home fans:

To be leading the championship going into my home grand prix is something that I’ve never experienced before and it puts a smile on my face every time I think about it.

Renault will be bringing developments to the R29’s diffuser and an upgraded front wing package and Technical Director Bob Bell thinks the high-speed nature of the circuit should suit their car:

We’ve got reasonably high expectations for Silverstone, although we’re remaining realistic because we know we’re not suddenly going to be fighting for the podium.

Toyota had quite a strong result in Turkey, with Jarno Trulli finishing fourth, and according to Toyota’s Pascal Vasselon the team are hoping to build on that at Silvertone:

So far this season, we have been extremely competitive at tracks which require high aero efficiency, so we are optimistic for Silverstone.

But the biggest threat to a Brawn GP victory on Sunday is Red Bull.  Both Red Bull drivers were on the podium in Turkey and the fast nature of Silverstone should suit the RB5.

To make your predictions in round 8 of the F1Buzz prediction game (and be in with a chance to win some nice prizes), just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Remember, the deadline for entries is start of qualifying on Saturday, that’s 12:00 GMT.

Good luck!

Image: McLaren