When a team involving Ross Brawn gets criticised you should always expect a backlash. His Mercedes GP team burst back to life with Nico Rosberg picking up his third podium-finish of the season.

Finishing ahead of a McLaren and a Red Bull was nice, but having both cars beat Renault and Ferrari is a sign the Silver Arrows are back where they belong.

They have suffered badly lately, but at Silverstone – just down the road from their factories in Brackley and Brixworth – they dragged their car back towards the front.

Rosberg qualified his car in fifth-position, though Michael Schumacher disappointed once more by starting from tenth behind Pedro de la Rosa’s Sauber.

Both cars improved on their positions in the race, Rosberg two places to finish fifth, while Schumacher came home in ninth.

Rosberg had a mixed start. He jumped Fernando Alonso and took advantage of Sebastian Vettel’s puncture, but he was passed by Robert Kubica who proceeded to hold the 25-year-old up. It was a shame as it would have been interesting to see if he could have challenged Lewis Hamilton for second given the closeness in their fastest laps.

Given free-air he put his foot down and secured third spot. He deserves great credit for doing what he needed to at the right time – something his elder team-mate was renowned for.

While Mercedes will be happy with their return to the podium, question marks remain over the seven-time World Champion.

While Rosberg was able to hold off Jenson Button to keep third-place, Schumacher was passed twice in the closing stages by fellow-countrymen Vettel and Adrian Sutil.

Never mind returning to the sport to re-gain his status as the greatest driver in the world, he was only the fourth-best German this weekend. His quickest lap was 1.2 seconds slower than that of his team-mates. Yes he was stuck behind other cars for much of the race but his qualifying time in Q3 was 0.8 seconds slower than Rosberg’s – a huge gap between drivers in identical cars

But this is a time for a positive outlook on all things Mercedes. Their lead-driver is just eight-points behind two-time World Champion Alonso, they are comfortably in fourth-place in the Constructors’ Championship and, once more, Brawn has managed to right a problem in a short space of time.

His task now is to build on the weekend and attempt to close the gap on the cars in front to ensure this podium is not the last of the season.

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