What a stopper!

Lap 8 - Hamilaton and Alonso both on very bad softer tyres pit and come out side by side racing out of the pits, sadly Ham loses out from the lead.  Red Bulls who were 2nd and 4th on harder tyres now 1-2.  They were all over the back of others and Weber had already overtaken Button.

Lap 12 - they are now a second a lap quicker than the red bulls.  More cars pitting all the time.  Oooh, will this be a more than 1 stop race.  Think that would be the first this year under the new no refuelling me thinks?  Schumacher and Kubica tussle out of the pits and over the grass.

Lap 13 - Weber pitting.

Lap 14 - Vetel pitting.  Buemi leading race - only one not pitting.  Vetel goes for softs.

Lap 15- Buemi, Alonso, Ham as close as anything.  Ham gets passed as Buemi pits so into lead!

Lap 17 - Ted just said 'tyre degradation gone through the roof'.  That's why theyre in pits so much and it might be a 3 stop race!!!!  Ooh, apparently, an engineer said it might be a 5 stopper!

Lap 20 - as Petrov's getting a new nose, ought to add that there have also been plenty of new noses this race so far!

Lap 23 - mildly calm now so i will give you an order update.  Ham, Alonso, Button, Vetel, Weber.  All pretty close, but can't quite see all 5 on the start finish straight.  Closest are probs Ham and Alonso.  It's a 1min 20 sec lap and we've got 70 of them in total.  Lots to happen....  They've been talking up safety cars so much in the build up to race, basically saying its a certainty and the 23rd car in the race.  But so far, not had it!  Someone mentioned earlier that the cars were actually underfuelled for full race distance as they were expecting safety cars!!  what a cool gamble!

Lap 26 - Ted giving updates that Red Bulls might only be 2 stopping but others 3...

Lap 27 - as Alonso is basically overtaking Ham, Ham pits and puts on hards again.  Ted says he's 3 stopping.

Lap 28 - Button and Vetel pitting and keep formation.  Alonso on fire in lead. 

Lap 29 - Alonso pits and out between McLarens - phewff.

There have been 3 drive through penalties for mid teams so far but in a race of this much excitement there's just not time to record it!

Lap 31 - Ted giving an updates on number of tyres teams have left - basically no new sets!

Lap 43 - Weber, still to have a stint on the softer tyres, having built up a lead of about 11 seconds, is losing a big chunk of time each lap back to Ham.  Down to 6.6 seconds.  Interestingly here you only need 18 seconds to do a stop.

Lap 46 - excitement, apparently, that Christian Horner himself has come on the radio to tell Vetel to overtake the cars in front of him.  Possibly related to the tangle last race.

Time to note, that it is currently 10.14pm, and I'm watching on iplayer having had a lovely day at Nirvana Spa.  Funnily it would have been a good one to have the live timings, primarily to keep track of how many times people have stopped.

Lap 50 - Ham passes Weber on track for the lead.  Alonso right behind.  Weber pits at last.

Lap 52 - Ted informs that the only reason Horner is communicating with drivers is because Vetel's race engineer, Rocky's radio is broken so to get messages to Vetel he has to lean over to Christian to relay them!

Lap 57 - Commentators just totally missed watching Button pass Alonso into second!!

Lap 62 of 70 - eyes a closing - will I make it??  Will there tyres make it, their brakes, their fuel... Three seconds between Ham, Button, Alonso. 

Lap 65 - I think this has been the worst weekend of the year for Schumacher.  as he edges Massa towards the wall as Massa is about to pass him.  Schuey has been on the soft tyres for 20 laps apparently and are totally shot.  Massa pits for new nose.

Ooh - in parc ferme, or wherever its's called after a race and Ham is the winner!!  ie I fell asleep!