Formula 1 Race Nine: Race

Lotus had their 500th race today, which is a fantastic achievement despite their poor position in the tables. They almost had the first retirement of the race when Trulli had gearbox trouble, but they were able to get him working again, although he fell far behind the rest. Instead, they ended up with the second retirement, for Kovalainen.

There was a terrible accident, as Webber went over the back of Kovalainen! Webber's car was destroyed, but he was able to get out of the car, but it's his first retirement of the season.

Michael Schumacher started low on the grid, and while the safety car was out for Webber, went into the pits. Coming out of the pits, he had to wait while all the other cars went past, and ended up second-last. This wasn't a good race for the former world champion, but he did get some fast laps in later. It wasn't so bad for Jenson Button and most of the other drivers that were in the right position during the accident, as they were all able to filter into the pits and get their mandatory tyre change out of the way.

Before the safety car, Alonso had set the fastest lap: 1.42.566, but afterwards he and Massa ended up losing out, falling far back in the field. Alonso ended up ninth.

Japanese Kobayashi showed some great driving skills. He didn't pit until the end of the 54th lap, when he went down from third to ninth, then retook Alonso and Buemi on the final lap, thanks to his fresh tyres! He only qualified 18th, so this is a fantastic race for him.

Lewis Hamilton went under investigation for overtaking the safety car – Alonso ended up stuck behind the safety car while Hamilton was ahead. He ended up with a drive-through penalty, and took it just managing to stay ahead of Kobayashi and Button. He ended up second, which he will keep despite other drivers being under investigation at the end of the race.

Schumacher on fresh tyres after a third pit stop was the first driver to dip under 1.40.000, from way back down in 17th place.

Cars 1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 22 are all set to be investigated after the race due to possible safety-car infringement. That's Button, Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Petrov, Sutil, Liuzzi, Buemi and De La Rosa! The question is: if they did infringe the rules, what will the punishment be? Alonso could see himself boosted quite a way up if they are forced to lose time or positions. Hulkenberg went out on lap 51 with car problems thanks to a bust tyre and bodywork damage, amongst other things, so the punishment can't really affect him.

1.VETTEL, 2. HAMILTON, 3. BUTTON.

A German-British-British podium, but with drivers still to be investigated, who knows how the results will end up? And will this have any bearing on the football?

Fastest lap: Button: 1.38.766 (lap 54)

I'll be back on the F1 trail for race 10 at Silverstone.