Vettel wins in Catalunya !

Sebastian Vettel won Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix despite a close challenge from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. The German crossed the finish line 0.6s ahead of his rivals.

Jenson Button completed the podium but finished the race 35 seconds of the leaders. Polesitter Webber could only finish fourth. Alonso took fifth for Ferrari but finished a lap down.

Schumacher, Rosberg, Heidfeld – who started from last on the grid – Perez and Kobayashi scored points.

How the race unfolded :

Mark Webber took a decent start from pole position but came under attack from teammate Sebastian Vettel. This allowed Fernando Alonso to sneak past and lead in the first corner.

Vettel took P2 ahead of Webber. Hamilton was fourth with Petrov fifth and Schumacher sixth. Jenson Button had a poor start and completed the opening lap down in tenth place.

Alonso set a good pace at the front but couldn’t shake off the chasing Red Bulls. Hamilton was also within three second of the leader on lap 7 while fifth placed Petrov was already 10 seconds down.

Vettel pitted from second as early as lap 9 and rejoined behind McLaren’s Button. He only took a couple of corners to clear the Briton and then quickly dispatched Massa to take P6. Alonso and Webber stopped on the next lap, so as Schumacher.

Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 11. Alonso was back at the front but only had a 0.8s advantage over Vettel. Hamilton was up in 3rd, having managed to jump Webber as the Australian slightly struggled through the traffic. Button was up in fifth place but was still to stop.

On lap 14, there was nothing to choose between the top three as it was covered by just a second. Button stopped on lap 15 and Webber made the most of a clear track to close the gap to the leaders.

Vettel kicked off the 2nd round of pitstops on lap 18, letting Alonso and Hamilton fight for the lead. Ferrari reacted to Vettel’s move and pitted Alonso in the following lap but the Spaniard rejoined behind the Red Bull driver.

Now in the lead, Hamilton pushed hard in anticipation of his coming pitstop. Vettel responded to his charge by setting a new fastest lap of the race. Behind them, Alonso and Webber were locked in a battle for third.

Hamilton eventually stopped on lap 23 and relinquished the lead to Vettel. He rejoined ahead of Alonso and Webber whose scrap for third place played right into the McLaren driver’s hands. Vettel was now leading Hamilton by 4.9s. The top four were covered by 8.2s while fifth placed Button was only 15s off the lead – and planning one less stop.

Fresher tyres helped Hamilton cut Vettel’s lead to 2s but things evened up after some laps.

Alonso and Webber stopped again on lap 29. Button made his second stop on lap 31. Vettel took his turn on lap 34 as his teammate briefly passed Alonso but failed to stay in front of the Ferrari. Hamilton dived in the pitlane on lap 35 and rejoined behind Vettel.

In the meantime, his teammate Button made the most of his soft tyres to pass Webber. He was soon all over the rear wing of Alonso and overtook him seconds later. On lap 40, Alonso came in for another set of hard tyres. Webber immediately upped his pace in the hope of jumping him in the pits.

On lap 45, Vettel was still leading Hamilton by just over a second… and told by his team not to use his KERS system. Button was third with Webber and Alonso completed the top five.

Webber pitted on lap 48 and easily rejoined in fourth. His teammate Vettel pitted from the lead at the end of this very same lap. Button came in seconds later. McLaren called Hamilton in on lap 49, handing back the lead to Red Bull’s Vettel.

There was still nothing to choose between the two leaders as they were only separated by 1.9s with 16 laps to go. Hamilton pushed hard to close on Vettel and set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 53 despite yellow flags being waved on the second split after Kovalainen ran off track.

Hamilton came within a second of Vettel as the leader hit some traffic. But the German did well to keep him at bay as the two of them were matched on pace. Meanwhile, further down the order, Felipe Massa retired with a gearbox problem on lap 61.

Early leader Alonso was lapped by Vettel and Hamilton on lap 64.

Vettel held off the challenge of Hamilton to take another win. Button completed the podium.

Nick Heidfeld did a great race to come back from last on the grid to 8th on the finish line.

Only three cars retired: Massa, Kovalainen and Liuzzi.

Race classification: