Webber rules in Spain!

Mark Webber drove a faultless race to win the Spanish Grand Prix on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Australian held off the assaults of his teammate Sebastian Vettel at the start to stay in the lead and set an impressive pace at the wheel of his RB6. He pitted on lap 17 and safely rejoined in P1 while Vettel found himself embroiled in a battle for second with Lewis Hamilton.

The McLaren-Mercedes driver found the opening after his one and only stop. Having been messed up by a very slow Di Grassi, Vettel went slightly wide allowing for Hamilton to dive past him. From then on, the German was unable to get close enough to the Briton to line up a pass and had to content himself with third place… until his brakes showed some signs of weakness.

Vettel had an off on lap 54 and pitted to have new soft tyres fitted to his car. He rejoined in P4, behind Fernando Alonso, but was told by his team to be extremely careful as his brakes “were about to go”. He eventually managed to bring his car to the finish and was rewarded of his efforts by a podium finish as Lewis Hamilton crashed out of the race on the penultimate lap.

Replays showed Hamilton’s crash could have been caused by a front left puncture. His retirement promoted Alonso to 2nd and Vettel to 3rd. But the gap between them and race winner Mark Webber was massive as the Ferrari driver crossed the line 24 seconds away from him. Vettel was 51 seconds down on his teammate.

Michael Schumacher was a brilliant fourth, albeit a minute down on the winner. The German drove superbly to fend off the assaults of Jenson Button for most part of the race. The reigning World Champion spent many laps right behind the Mercedes but could not find a way through and eventually finished fifth.

Felipe Massa ended in sixth position. The final points went to Adrian Sutil, Robert Kubica, Rubens Barrichello and Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard had an eventful home race. Starting from 16th on the grid, he was up to 9th after a couple of corners. He collided with Karun Chandhok on lap 29 and was handed a drive through penalty for causing the collision.

His Toro Rosso teammate Sebastien Buemi also served a drive through penalty for rejoining the track unsafely but eventually retired with mechanical problems on lap 45.

Having had close encounters with Felipe Massa and Alguersuari, Karun Chandhok retired on lap 31. Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa retired on lap 22. Tonio Liuzzi stopped on track on the very last lap.

HRT’s Bruno Senna crashed out of the race on the first lap.

A gearbox problem on his Lotus meant Heikki Kovalainen was unable to start the Spanish GP. His teammate Jarno Trulli won the battle of the ‘newbies’ in finishing 1.4s ahead of Glock’s Virgin.