After the tragic events both in and out of Formula 1 (the deaths of Mark Robinson and several drivers since the Canadian GP finished), the teams set up at Silverstone (although Force India are just across the road so it wasn't exactly difficult for them!).
On Thursday it was announced that after months of speculation, Mark Webber would be leaving F1 at the end of 2013 to drive for Porsche in their 2014 World Endurance team. It was later confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen, Jean Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo will all be considered for the Red Bull drive in 2014.
During Friday Practice the weather was again a limiting factor in the amount of laps completed, which meant the 80,000 or so spectators probably felt a bit short changed by the rain. But during the F1 show it did at least give a classic Silverstone setting for a live proposal in the from a pair of F1 fans!
Moving on to Saturday Practice, over the three sessions Mercedes and Red Bull had set the pace, but Ferrari and Lotus had yet to shine. As for McLaren they still looked to have problems, especially when Sergio Perez suffered the first puncture of the weekend, but Force India and Toro Rosso had both impressed so far. However Williams were not replicating any of Valtteri's Canadian GP qualifying pace.
Then came Qualifying. The usual suspects, being a Williams, Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber, Caterham and Marussia, all fell in Q1. This time it was Pastor Maldonado who made it to Q2, where he joined both McLarens, Massa, Vergne and Hulkenberg in failing to reach Q3.
In the final part of Qualifying it was the usual four at the front (Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel and Webber) but both Paul Di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo shone ahead of Sutil, Grosjean, Raikkonen and Alonso. However it transpired that Di Resta's car was underweight, and he was excluded from Qualifying which meant he had to start from P22.
Finally, Race Day was upon us with the home crowd hoping Lewis Hamilton could convert pole to win, something he hadn't done since announcing his move to Mercedes.
It was all going well for most people, notably apart from Webber (who had a slow start, damaged his wing and ended up in P14 at the end of Lap 1) and Button, who also dropped back on a circuit where his record is relatively poor despite it being his home race. That was at least until Lap 8!
Hamilton had led away from pole with Vettel and Rosberg following within a few seconds, but a rear left puncture coming out of Turn 4 ruined his chances of a home podium. The new order was Vettel, Rosberg and Sutil, who had made good ground and passed Ricciardo in the opening phase. Just two laps later, Felipe Massa had the same puncture and his race was also severely compromised. A few laps later, it was Vergne's turn to have a blowout on Hangar Straight, right in front of the Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
These three incidents brought out the first Safety Car of the afternoon, and once the race had resumed Vettel scampered off into the distance. Or so it seemed... After a relatively quiet (tyre wise) middle stint (where a number of drivers had somehow got back round to the pits despite tyre damage), Sebastian's car slowed and ground to a halt on the start finish straight, triggering a second Safety Car. This gave Nico Rosberg a "free" pitstop but also helped the likes of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso, who would later see a close call with Perez, who had another tyre problem, this time on Hangar Straight.
Luckily it was only those four and that Alonso chose the right side of Sergio to overtake and not the left, otherwise it might not have ended well, but a very clear message from all the drivers that the tyres need to be made safer.
The sheer multitude of incidents somewhat overshadowed Nico Rosberg's victory, and left many British fans with a "what if" for Lewis Hamilton that will never be answered.
As the teams head to Germany they will be looking to avoid a repeat of these tyre failures, and will be given a chance to do tyre testing (apart from Mercedes) at the Young Driver Test.
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