Webberthon

Phil: When this blog first started, we tipped Mark Webber to win a race. I'm pleased to say our prediction has been proved right, even if it wasn't the race we were thinking of. When Martin Brundle spoke to him on the grid, he promised us a boring race, and he wasn't far wrong: his lead throughout the race was so unchallengeable that at times I almost forgot he was even in it. Taking his third career victory, he drove the perfect race: pole, fastest lap, and the win. His teammate Vettel, meanwhile, reminded us that the Red Bull is fast but also fragile.

Further down the grid, Michael Schumacher had the best result of his post-career, outqualifying and outracing his teammate to take fourth. Even so, this clearly isn't the Schumi of old: even if the Mercedes is most definitely fourth of the 'big four', he lacked pace and was clearly holding Button up during the middle part of the race. He finished around 40 seconds behind Vettel, who had no brakes, a dodgy wheel nut and a front wing that wasn't working properly. However, his on-track pace may have been lacking, but the on-screen graphic revealed he posted the fastest pitstop time of the day, with 3.8 seconds. The cream always rises to the top...

Jenson Button meanwhile retains his lead of the driver's championship. He was also last week granted the freedom of his home town, Frome in Somerset, which apparently gives him the right to do something involving sheep in the high street. If you were watching carefully during the pre-race coverage, you'll have noticed that they've also named a street after him, called, predictably enough, Jenson Drive. However, you'll have had to be watching BBC local news down here in the land of cider-drinkers to know that Jenson also visited his old primary school that day, where the kids sang him a specially written song in his honour, to the tune of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'. Classy. Incidentally, he's always referred to on the local news (and nowhere else) as, 'the Frome Flyer' (they have to reinforce the local interest, of course), so it did cross my mind that among the business interests that retired F1 drivers tend to get involved in, he could start a fish and chip shop called, 'the Frome Fryer', in the same way that Niki Lauda called his airline Air Lauda. Sort of.

Anyway, skiver of the day. I was tempted to nominate Heikki Kovalainen, who started packing up ready to go home before the race had even begun, but I suspect Lotus will provide me with plenty of other opportunities to take the piss out of them during this season, so I'm going to nominate David Coulthard instead, who couldn't even be bothered to turn up. Obviously German Touring Cars are a whole lot more interesting than talking to Eddie Jordan. That's wasn't a joke by the way.