Vettel streaks ahead with Valencia win

Runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel on Sunday accelerated ahead a further 17 points by winning in Valencia.

The German’s lead is now a whopping 77 points over his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, as the McLarens had a bad day in the Spanish port city.

Lewis Hamilton at least finished on Sunday, but he was off the podium, admitting afterwards that the British team has "taken a step back" in Spain.

"I think we’re quite a bit down in downforce," said the McLaren driver, "and I think that in the next race we may really struggle again."

Agreed teammate Jenson Button: "We need to get our heads down and come up with something — particularly aerodynamically I think. We need to take some risks."

There were two DRS overtaking zones this weekend and a big performance gap between the tyre compounds, but most observers agreed that the European grand prix was - as per usual - fairly unspectacular.

"Maybe from the outside it looked like a boring race but I enjoyed it so much," said winner Vettel.

Added Jenson Button: "It wasn’t the most exciting race, was it?"