Vettel wins European GP

Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel came through to win the European Grand Prix this afternoon ahead of McLaren men Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel came through to win the European Grand Prix this afternoon at Valencia in Spain, the ninth round in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Vettel, who started from pole, led throughout and in the end took the victory with relative ease, after Lewis Hamilton's challenge was halted by a drive-through.

The Englishman was handed the penalty after over-taking the safety car, which was deployed after Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen came together in the early stages. Webber and Kovalainen were both uninjured, despite the fact it was a scary collision with the former's Red Bull flying through the air.

Jenson Button claimed third, while Williams' Rubens Barrichello and the Renault of Robert Kubica came in fourth and fifth respectively.

Adrian Sutil completed the top six in his Force India ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, who dived by Sebastien Buemi in the final corner. Fernando Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa took the final points' positions, with Vitaly Petrov 11th and Nico Rosberg 12th for Mercedes.

The classification however, remains provisional as nine cars are under investigation for speeding behind the safety car - including top-ten finishers Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi and de la Rosa.

European Grand Prix - Race results

1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 57 laps 1hr 40m 29.571s
2. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +5.0s
3. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +12.6s*
4. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth +25.6s*
5. Robert Kubica Poland Renault-Renault +27.1s*
6. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +30.1s*
7. Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari +30.9s
8. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +32.8s
9. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +36.2s*
10. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +44.3s

11. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari +46.6s
12. Pedro de la Rosa Spain BMW Sauber-Ferrari +47.4s*
13. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari +48.2s*
14. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault-Renault +48.2s*
15. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +48.8s
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes +50.8s*
17. Lucas di Grassi Brazil Virgin-Cosworth +1 lap
18. Karun Chandhok India HRT-Cosworth +2 laps
19. Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth +2 laps**
20. Bruno Senna Brazil HRT-Cosworth +2 laps
21. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Cosworth +4 laps

Rtd. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Williams-Cosworth 49 laps completed mechanical*
Rtd. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Cosworth 8 laps completed accident
Rtd. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 8 laps completed accident

Vettel Wins Pole Position at Valencia

Vettel heads Red Bull 1-2 in Valencia qualifying

Sebastian Vettel shows Canada was just a blip and puts Red Bull back on pole for the European GP, the team's eighth P1 of the F1 2010 season.
Sebastian Vettel re-asserted Red Bull Racing's authority in qualifying today for the European Grand Prix at Valencia in Spain by heading the pack and claiming his fourth pole position of the F1 2010 season.

Vettel, who had been fastest in final practice this morning, was on it throughout qualifying, posting the second best effort in Q1 and the fastest time in Q2 and Q3. He ended the session on a 1 minute 37.587 seconds, the best of the weekend.

Mark Webber meanwhile was next up, to give the Milton Keynes-based outfit its fourth front row lock of the season. Webber had held top spot through the first half of the top-ten shoot-out, but was pipped near the end and though he improved on his final run, it wasn't quite enough. He finished up just 0.075s adrift.

Lewis Hamilton took third and was the only other man in the 1m 37s. He was lucky to hang onto the place though after losing the rear end of his McLaren into turn 17 on his final run and blowing any hope of matching his Canadian GP pole of two weeks ago.

Fernando Alonso completes the second row, and given he was at the top of the times in practice on Friday, was disappointingly almost half a second off P1 in his Ferrari F10. His team-mate and inaugural Valencia GP race winner, Felipe Massa will start fifth, on a 1m 38.127s, just 0.052s slower.

Robert Kubica was again a force to be reckoned with in his Renault and took P6, ahead of reigning F1 world champion, Jenson Button, who made a mistake on his final lap. The Englishman was not at all pleased.

F1 2010 rookie's Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov both made it into the final part of qualifying and will start eighth and tenth, sandwiching the Williams of veteran, Rubens Barrichello. Barrichello incidentally set exactly the same time as his team-mate, Hulkenberg, a 1m 28.428s, but starts one place slower as he posted the marker later on.

While Williams had much to celebrate though, especially given this year has been quite tough to date, Mercedes and Force India were both left looking a bit lacklustre and went out in Q2. They weren't even on the cusp either, as that 'honour' went to Sebastien Buemi and Toro Rosso, who was P11 in the second session.

Mercedes men Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher will thus line-up 12th and 15th respectively, with FIF1's Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi slotted in-between in 13th and 14th. Schumacher, who was criticised after his performance in Montreal, only just made out of Q3 too, posting a time to lift him up to 12th right at the end. However he continued to struggle in Q2, with reports suggesting he had some sort of power steering issue. It was his worst qualifying position since opting to return to F1 at the start of the year.

Lewis Hamilton's second successive victory

Lewis Hamilton increases the momentum behind his F1 title bid with a second successive victory.

Lewis Hamilton insisted he was thrilled with his second successive victory in the 2010 F1 season in Canada – reflecting afterwards that he was hopeful that McLaren would now be able to make the most of the increasing momentum behind the Woking-based team.

In a dramatic race in Montreal, the scene of his maiden F1 victory back in 2007, Hamilton was able to master challenging conditions brought about by severe tyre wear to lead McLaren to a second straight 1-2 finish..

The victory also allowed Hamilton to jump into the lead of the drivers' championship standings.

“It was an incredibly challenging afternoon, especially in the last 20 laps, when I was trying to look after my tyres while also keeping Jenson and Fernando [Alonso] behind me,” he said. “It wasn't easy, I can tell you that!

“In terms of pure pace, I still think the Red Bull car is still a little bit faster than ours. But, as a whole, I think our package is now stronger. So, going forward, we need to build on the progress we've made recently, and we're going to do just that; we'll now knuckle down and make a really big effort to increase that gap.

“We've got good momentum now, so I hope we can continue our winning run through to Valencia in two weeks' time.”

Hamilton added that the whole McLaren team had been lifted by recent results and insisted that things were now 'better than ever' as he and Jenson Button chase championship success.

“The feeling and atmosphere within the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is better than ever,” he said. “The contribution that Jenson has brought is the best I've ever witnessed from a team-mate. He did another great job today to come from fourth to second – he's doing his part and I'm doing mine. The team is happier than ever.

“This has been a truly fantastic day.”

Canadian Grand Prix - Race results

Lewis Hamilton wins his second race in succession in Canada at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with team-mate Jenson Button again in the runners-up spot in the sister McLaren.
1. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 70 laps 1hr 33m 53.456s
2. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +2.2s
3. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +9.2s
4. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +37.8s
5. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault +39.2s
6. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +56.0s
7. Robert Kubica Poland Renault-Renault +57.3s
8. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
9. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
10. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
----------------------------------------------------
11. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +1 lap
12. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
13. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
14. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
15. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari +1 lap
16. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Cosworth +2 laps
17. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault-Renault +2 laps
18. Karun Chandhok India HRT-Cosworth +4 laps
19. Lucas di Grassi Brazil Virgin-Cosworth +5 laps

Rtd. Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 50 laps completed
Rtd. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Cosworth 42 laps completed
Rtd. Pedro de la Rosa Spain BMW Sauber-Ferrari 30 laps completed
Rtd. Bruno Senna Brazil HRT-Cosworth 13 laps completed
Rtd. Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1 lap completed


Fastest lap:

Robert Kubica Poland Renault-Renault 1m 16.972s