Renault are beginning to make a habit of looking good in the first half of the race, only to fall away as the end approaches. This was the case again at Silverstone, Alonso looking very sharp in the early laps and Piquet keeping up a couple of places further back. Fernando made the same mistake at his first pit stop as did Ferrari, staying with his old tires, and suffered a drop in performance as a result. The race was a battle for him from then on and he did well to finish in sixth.
Piquet ahead of Alonso - savor it!
His team mate went to new intermediates at the first stop and was looking good until caught out by the heavier rain. Poor Nelson seems to be having a terrible struggle to beat his run of bad luck and must wonder if he will ever prove his right to be in F1.
It has to be said that the Renault team are not making the best tactical decisions at the moment. Alonso continues to impress with driving skills that put the car well ahead of where it should be but is seeing much of his effort squandered by poor judgement at crucial moments. His frustration at this is already beginning to show in occasional outbursts of criticism of the team and no doubt this intensifies his search for a better seat next year.
Rumors abound on that score, of course, but I find most of them unlikely. No doubt Honda would take him on in an instant but that would seem a step back for the Spaniard. BMW are likely to stick with their dependable pair and that means Fernando has to hope that Ferrari find room for him. That looked like pie in the sky earlier in the season but Massa's see-sawing form and Raikkonen's inability to dominate the team has produced signs of discontent in the man who matters - Luca di Montezemolo. It would not surprise me if Luca were to make a concerted effort to hire Alonso for 2009.
Toyota were back to their usual status as the team most likely to disappoint, both drivers qualifying poorly, Glock ahead of Trulli for once. In the race, Trulli remained true to expectations, climbing up the order until he found a spot where he could hold others back. This time, however, he proved a bit easier to pass and was lucky to get by Nakajima for seventh on the last lap. Considering how mediocre the car was at this venue, it was a just reward for his efforts.
Timo Glock managed to spin his way out of a promising position, once again casting doubts upon his ability as a F1 driver. Nelson Piquet has been the whipping boy so far this season but, as Nelson gets closer to his highly rated-team mate, Glock's chances of being first rookie out the door look ever stronger. And the fact that Toyota's favorite son, Kazuki Nakajima, is proving a valuable asset to Williams gives Toyota just the excuse they need to drop the German.
Now that we have passed the halfway mark in the season, the rumor mill really gets into gear and we can expect all sorts of theoretical shuffling to take place. It strikes me that there is more than the usual discontent with existing arrangements amongst the teams this year and I can see quite a few changes coming on the driver front. This time there will be fewer newcomers, I think, and it is likely that the driver market will be more of a merry-go-round of swaps and deals. It all makes for fascinating stuff, F1 excelling itself on the track while the political nonsense continues to rumble on in the background. Was there ever a sport so brilliant at times and so farcical at others?