Class of Alonso continues to shine with British Grand Prix Pole

The ongoing Formula One season has been one of the closest of all time. The first seven races were won by seven different drivers, the first five races by five different constructors. Six former World Champions are on the grid. There has been no undisputed dominant force. Yet one man has risen above the equal playing field to demonstrate his true class. Sadly for Britatin, his has been neither of the McLaren drivers. Jenson Button began the season with a victory but has since been unable to recreate that form with a series of disappointments dropping him well of the World Championship pace. Lewis Hamilton has been closer to the front but has characteristically lacked the application required to dominate. Neither has it been the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull dominated the Formula One World Championship in 2010, only for reliability issues to mean Vettel only secured the title in the final race. 2011 saw no such problems as Vettel cruised to his second crown. But this season the team has come back to the pack. Both Lotus and Mercedes have shown flashes of brilliance, but these have been too few and far between, while the drives by Pastor Maldonado of Williams to win in Spain, and Sergio Perez of Sauber to come second in Malaysia, have been outstanding, but neither has been able to replicate it across the season as a whole.

The man who has come closest to dominating, against the odds, has been Fernando Alonso. To those who are not close followers of Formula One, this may not be such a surprise. He is a two-time world champion, and is driving for Ferrari, probably the most iconic team in motor sports. However, this is not the same Ferrari team that dominated the sport in the early noughties, masterminding five successive world championships for Michael Schumacher from 2000 to 2004. The team has gone through a number of years of struggle, still amongst the best in the sport but not quite reaching the high standards they once had set. Fans of Formula One will tell you that, this season, little was expected of the Ferrari car, far from a vintage model for the team. It was expected to be a struggle to compete at the front for the Italians.

Many would argue that the concerns over the car have come to fruition. It would be wrong to claim that it was entirely the car which won Schumacher’s world championships. After all, he won two titles at Benneton in the mid-nineties. Similarly, it would be wrong to say that the car has been nothing but a burden this season for Alonso. Yet it must be admitted that at the start of the season the team was given no chance to compete, even in the knowledge that one of the great drivers in Alonso would be behind the wheel. But the Spaniard has really pulled it out of the bag. The first, and so far only, driver to record multiple race wins this season, he seems to have recreated the form which won him two world championships. He has had a canny knack of being towards the front of the pack in races this year.

The question is, can he keep it up? Certainly his performances have been no fluke, but a return of the class which we all knew he was capable of.  His driving has been nearly faultless and he has extracted all he can from the car. It is often said that it is in the rain that drivers’ true skill is demonstrated. At Silverstone this afternoon, Alonso showed this to be true. He may have had some luck in the second qualifying session as the stewards chose not the penalise him for speeding through waved yellow flags, though on second look this decision would appear fair and well thought through. In the final session, he recorded the fastest time and will sit on pole for tomorrow’s race. It will be his first pole position since 2010, perhaps making it all the more remarkable that he leads the Drivers’ Championship in a sport which many have labelled as boring due to lack of overtaking. I do not agree with this interpretation, but even those who stand by it must agree that Alonso is an exception to it.

A victory tomorrow is far from guaranteed. There are too many variables in Formula One for any worthwhile predictions to be made. With more rain forecast, genuinely anything could happen. But Alonso has given himself the best chance of victory, and it is no coincidence that in a year when most of the cars seem to be on a level playing field, it is him who has managed to take the lead at this stage of the Drivers’ Championship. A win and his class will be beyond dispute. This could be a special year for Alonso. If he can complete his third World Championship, it would surely be the most satisfying for him.