Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel beat McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to win the European Grand Prix in Valencia.
World championship leader Hamilton bounced back from a drive-through penalty, but German Vettel proved equal to the challenge.
McLaren's Jenson Button was third, but is one of nine drivers who could be penalised for safety-car offences.
The safety car was caused by a massive crash for Mark Webber's Red Bull.
The Australian had made an early pit-stop to get himself out of traffic, after he had found himself running down in ninth place due to losing places on the first lap.
European GP - Top three drivers (UK only)
Webber was trying to pass the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen when he hit the back of the Finn's car. The Red Bull reared into the air, before crashing onto the circuit upside-down.
It flipped the right way up before Webber sledded at high speed into the tyre wall. Amazingly, he emerged unscathed.
There had already been an incident on the opening lap, as Hamilton tried to pass pole-winner Vettel for the lead at Turn 2.
The Red Bull's wheel clipped the left-front wing of the McLaren, and as a result Hamilton was suffering from a vibration during the opening stages of the race.
But the safety car, which appeared on track while marshals mopped up the debris from the Webber/Kovalainen accident, effectively allowed Hamilton to have a new nose fitted to his McLaren without losing a position.
Vettel managed to pass the pit-lane exit before the safety car emerged onto the circuit.
The safety car then exited the pits just as Hamilton was passing. Had the Englishman continued at racing speed he would have beaten it to the white 'safety-car line', but he backed off, then accelerated past the safety car a matter of feet after the line.
Hamilton then sprinted clear of the rest of the pack before following Vettel into the pits, as the timing of the safety car scuppered the prospects of Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were third and fourth respectively before Webber's accident. They had just passed the pit entry when the race went under caution, and were first in the queue behind the safety car before they pitted one lap later.
Button, who was in sixth position at the time of Webber's accident, was able to dive into the pits immediately the race went under caution.
That vaulted the reigning world champion to fourth, behind Vettel, Hamilton and the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, who had elected not to pit while the race was under caution.
With Button unable to challenge Kobayashi for position, Vettel and Hamilton scorched away from the pack.
Hamilton then served his drive-through penalty at the end of the 27th of 57 laps, and such was his advantage over Kobayashi that we able to rejoin without losing a place.
As well as his first-lap brush with Hamilton, Vettel survived another scare when he locked up under braking at the final turn, just as the safety car returned to the pits.
The German was particularly happy to take his third win of the season on a circuit that was not expected to suit the Red Bull.
"We didn't expect to be that strong," said Vettel, "so it was great to be quick enough to slightly pull away, find the gap and then bring the car home.
"I had a huge lock-up of my brakes after the safety car, trying to brake as late as I could. The tyres weren't up to temperature after going round slowly, but I could stay in front.
"I tried not to push too hard and when I got the message that Lewis had the penalty I backed off a bit more.
"It's good to get a lot of points, it's good for the championship and the guys can be extremely proud - they had very little sleep but it paid off, and now we have to focus on the next one (the British Grand Prix in two weeks' time)."
Hamilton said: "At certain stages it looked like he was slowing down, so I tried to close the gap, but he was able to react to that.
"Therefore I just tried to bring the car home in one piece - there's nothing worse than getting almost the whole way through the race and then for something to happen at the end."
Kobayashi pitted with just six laps remaining, freeing up Button, who immediately set what would be the fastest lap of the race.
The Japanese driver rejoined in ninth and, on fresh tyres, was able to pass both Alonso and the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi (who left the door open at the final corner of the race) to take seventh.
But Alonso, who finished ninth on the road, may yet regain fourth place. That is because Button (who finished third), Williams driver Rubens Barrichello (fourth), Renault's Robert Kubica (fifth), Force India's Adrian Sutil (sixth) and Buemi (eighth) are all under investigation for breaching the rules and going too fast in the final sector as the safety car was returning to the pits.
Should penalties be applied to these drivers, then Kobayashi could be promoted to an unlikely third position.
Others who are investigation for the same offence are Pedro de la Rosa, who finished 10th for Sauber, Vitaly Petrov (11th for Renault), Vitantonio Liuzzi (13th for Force India) and Nico Hulkenberg, who retired his Williams a few laps from the finish.
No comments:
Post a Comment