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Lewis Hamilton took his second Grand Prix victory of the season with a determined drive at the Nürburgring. The McLaren driver took advantage from rival Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber with his sensational race pace to score a win in the German Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished in second position while pole sitter Mark Webber was only third for Red Bull Racing.

As for the battle for fourth, Sebastian Vettel pitted until the final lap to take the crucial track position over Felipe Massa in a race in the pits while changing to the prime tyre.

By finishing outside the podium positions, the championship leader’s remarkable run in coming first or second is over. And yet, Vettel still leads the standings with 216 points, 77 ahead over team-mate Webber and 82 over race winner Hamilton.

Webber almost got swamped at the start – no thanks to his car bogging down as the five red lights went out – with Hamilton instantly sweeping past him and the two Ferraris then going either side of the Red Bull into Turn 1. Neither made it through, and while Alonso held on in third ahead of Vettel, Massa was edged out wide and dropped to sixth behind Nico Rosberg.

Vettel would get past Alonso for third place when the Ferrari ran wide in the Mercedes-Benz complex on lap two, but six laps later the Silverstone winner was able to successfully retaliate into Turn 1. Soon afterwards, Vettel lost touch with the lead battle when he brushed the damp white marker line under braking for Turn 10 and snapped into a spin. He rejoined without losing track position, but the top three were long gone.

Webber was the first of the evenly-matched trio to pit on lap 14. The Australian initially lost time in traffic, but once in clear air he was able to start setting new fastest sector times, meaning that when Hamilton and Alonso pitted in unison on lap 16, they came out just behind the Red Bull.

Once the late-stopping Massa came in for his first tyre change, Webber finally found himself leading a lap for the first time this season, though he could not shake off Hamilton and Alonso.

Webber was again the first to come in when the second stops began on lap 30, with Hamilton and Alonso following suit over the next two laps.

This time the under-cut did not work. Hamilton rejoined ahead of Webber and determinedly fended off the Red Bull through the complex. Alonso managed to jump both of them, but Hamilton made the most of his warmer Pirellis to drive around the outside of the Ferrari at Turn 2 to retake the lead and then start edging clear, holding a three-second cushion while Webber began to drift away from Alonso.

With the prime tyres felt to be significantly slower, the leaders tried to stretch their third set of option as long as possible. Hamilton came in on lap 50, and though Alonso held on for two laps longer, the McLaren was able to stay narrowly in front.

Webber took a gamble in staying out longer and ran until lap 56 of 60 – finally taking the prime – but it did not pay off, as he rejoined still some distance behind Hamilton and Alonso.

Vettel fell behind Massa in the first pit-stops and spent the rest of the race on the Ferrari’s gearbox. Only when they finally pitted for the prime with just one lap to the flag did the championship leader manage to get fourth back.

Adrian Sutil’s best drive of the season brought him sixth place for Force India, as he made a two-stop strategy work to beat the Silver Arrows duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. The latter had been challenging his team-mate until losing time with a mid-race spin at Turn 10.

A great start and a two-stop strategy helped Kamui Kobayashi come through from P17 to ninth for Sauber, just ahead of Petrov, who lost ground by staying out too long on his first set of tyres.

As for Jenson Button, this was a disappointed race for the McLaren driver. A slow start dropped him to tenth, and he then spent the race in traffic, couped up behind Vitaly Petrov’s Renault for most of the first stint. Just after making it past Rosberg and into sixth spot, his car developed a hydraulic problem and had to retire.

Completing a disappointing day for the majority of the large home driver contingent, Renault’s Nick Heidfeld tangled with Paul di Resta’s Force India on the opening lap. The German earned a drive-through penalty for the incident, but by that time Heidfeld was out of the race after clashing with Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso on the approach to the chicane.

Red Bull Racing must be feeling the pressure as both Ferrari and McLaren are closing the performance gap. With Alonso winning the previous race at Silverstone and now Hamilton at the Nürburgring, the team must step up or risk losing the advantage as the Formula One World Championship enters the second half of the 2011 season.

German Grand Prix race result, 60 laps:

1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h37:30.334s
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +3.980s
3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +9.788s
4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +47.921s
5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +52.252s
6.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1:26.208s
7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
8.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
10.  Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
12.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
14.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
15.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +3 laps
18.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +3 laps
19.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps
20.  Chandhok      Lotus-Renault              +4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:34.587

Not classified/retirements:

Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth                 44 laps
Button        McLaren-Mercedes             42 laps
Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth            23 laps
Heidfeld      Renault                      10 laps

World Championship standings, round 10:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       216
2.  Webber       139
3.  Hamilton     134
4.  Alonso       130
5.  Button       109
6.  Massa         62
7.  Rosberg       46
8.  Heidfeld      34
9.  Schumacher    32
10.  Petrov        32
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         18
13.  Alguersuari    9
14.  Perez          8
15.  Buemi          8
16.  Barrichello    4
17.  Di Resta       2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          355
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          243
3.  Ferrari                   192
4.  Mercedes                   78
5.  Renault                    66
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
7.  Force India-Mercedes       20
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         17
9.  Williams-Cosworth           4

Next race: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring. July 29-31.

Mark Webber takes his second consecutive pole position, edging out a surprising challenge from Lewis Hamilton and McLaren.

In the build-up to qualifying, the McLaren team were not expected to challenge for pole position honours following a low-key practice form. But in the all important top-ten shootout, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren turned out to be the biggest threat to Webber and Red Bull.

And yet, the Australian was able to response with an impressive lap time of one minute, 30.079 seconds to maintain Red Bull Racing’s excellent form in qualifying this season.

As for his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, he will start his home race in only third position as Lewis Hamilton drove a ‘wicked lap’ to split the Red Bulls. This is the first time that the championship leader is not on the front row.

Silverstone winner Fernando Alonso had to settle for fourth for Ferrari. This was a disappointment following some promising speed in the practice sessions leading up to qualifying.

Webber looked unbeatable throughout Q3, producing a one minute, 30.251 seconds on his first flying lap and then improving to one minute, 30.079 seconds to put himself out of reach from his rivals.

Hamilton was third after the first runs, was briefly pushed down to fourth place by Alonso, but then blasted to second position with a lap only 0.055 seconds down on Webber.

Vettel’s second attempt was not quick enough to reclaim the outside front row spot, while Alonso was 0.4 seconds off the pole pace as he took fourth, half a second clear of his fifth-placed Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.

Nico Rosberg opted to run a single flying lap to qualify his Mercedes in sixth, ahead of Jenson Button, who was a second away from his McLaren team-mate.

Adrian Sutil reached Q3 for his home Grand Prix and gave Force India eighth position, ahead of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and national hero Michael Schumacher in the other Silver Arrows.

Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta could not match their Renault and Force India team-mates’ progress into Q2 so will share the sixth row, ahead of the Williams duo, with Pastor Maldonado out-qualifying Rubens Barrichello by four tenths of a second.

After three start in P18 – Jaime Alguersuari finally got beyond Q1 again – though he only made it as high as P17, just behind Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastien Buemi. The pair are in between the Saubers, with Sergio Perez in P15 and Kamui Kobayashi being eliminated in Q1.

Karun Chandhok got within 0.823 seconds of Team Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, though the Indian could not prevent Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock sneaking between the Lotus duo.

Daniel Ricciardo showed highly encouraging pace in his second Grand Prix qualifying session, as he was only 0.025 seconds adrift of Hispania team-mate Tonio Liuzzi on the back row. And he will start ahead of the Italian in any case due to Liuzzi’s gearbox change penalty.

Qualifying times from the Nürburgring:

1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1n30.079s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1n30.134s
3.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1n30.216s
4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1n30.442s
5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1n30.910s
6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1n31.263s
7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1n31.288s
8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1n32.010s
9.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1n32.187s
10.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1n32.482s
11.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m32.215s
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m32.560s
13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m32.635s
14.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m33.043s
15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m33.176s
16.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m33.546s
17.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m33.698s
18.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m33.786s
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m35.599s
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.400s
21.  Karun Chandhok        Lotus-Renault        1m36.422s
22.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.641s
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m37.036s
24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m37.011s*

*Five-place penalty for gearbox change.

107 per cent time: 1m38.253s

Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag with a charging drive in the Ferrari to score his twenty-seventh career Grand Prix victory at Silverstone.

By taking the win at the British Grand Prix, it reveals the Scuderia are back to challenge the likes of Red Bull Racing and McLaren Mercedes for top honours this season.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was able to fend off team-mate Mark Webber to take second – even though the use of team orders issued by Christian Horner prevented the Australian to overtake the German in the final few laps.

As for the duel for fourth, Lewis Hamilton just managed to hold onto the position with a last lap, final corner move from Felipe Massa. The McLaren and Ferrari actually made contact into Club but Hamilton kept his line and forced his rival off track to keep the spot.

The race had got underway in half-wet/half-dry conditions, with the area around the original start/finish area sodden but the new grid relatively dry by comparison.

Vettel got the jump on pole man Webber off the start, and charged into a comfortable early lead, while the Australian kept Alonso at bay in third.

Hamilton provided most of the initial action, making very rapid progress from his disappointing tenth on the grid to attack Felipe Massa’s Ferrari for fourth within a handful of laps.

Michael Schumacher triggered the move to slicks tyres somewhat accidentally when he slithered into Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber on lap 10 and had to pit for a new front wing and tyres on his Mercedes.

The German’s immediate burst of pace convinced everyone else to come in, with Webber, Alonso and Hamilton choosing lap 12 while Vettel and Massa stayed out until the following lap.

Earlier proved slightly the better option, as by the time everyone was back up to speed on slicks, Vettel’s lead over Webber was down to 3.3 seconds, and rapidly getting smaller, although once the Red Bulls were within 1.5 seconds Vettel managed to raise his pace and keep his team-mate under control.

Alonso initially struggled to get temperature into his Pirellis and not only fell away from the Red Bulls, but lost third to a charging Hamilton into Copse.

But once the car and tyres were working in harmony again, Alonso started to fly. He used the Drag Reduction System to sweep past Hamilton into Brooklands on lap 23, and both then started hunting down the Red Bulls.

They got close enough that when both Vettel and Webber had slow pit-stops on laps 26 and 27, they fell to third and fourth behind new leader Alonso and Hamilton.

Now in clear air, Alonso began to look unstoppable – charging away from Hamilton at a rate of a second per lap as the McLaren had to start focusing on holding off the Red Bulls.

He succeeded until the final pit-stops, when Vettel stopped a lap sooner and jumped ahead. But even with the McLaren out of his way, Vettel could not catch the now dominant Alonso, who was long gone and heading for his first win since the Korean Grand Prix last year.

With his McLaren team instructing him to save fuel, Hamilton backed off and lost third to Webber, who then caught Vettel and mounted a huge late effort to overtake his team-mate until ordered to ‘maintain the gap’ on the final lap.

The slowing Hamilton had Massa all over him going into the closing moments, but retained fourth in a wild, wheel-banging battle through the last corners of the race.

Button ran fifth until the final pit-stops, when he was sent out with his right front wheel not properly attached and had to retire in the pit exit. His miserable bad luck on home ground continues with twelve appearance at the British Grand Prix not resulting in a podium finish.

Nico Rosberg made a two-stop strategy work to take sixth for Mercedes GP, just ahead of Sergio Perez’s Sauber. Nick Heidfeld salvaged eighth from Renault’s difficult weekend, with Michael Schumacher recovering well to take ninth, followed by Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil’s Force India and Vitaly Petrov in the other Renault.

Paul di Resta’s brilliant qualifying effort was wasted when a pit-stop miscommunication badly delayed the Force India. He later needed a new front wing after clashing with Sebastien Buemi in an incident that forced the Toro Rosso to retire due to damage from a resultant puncture.

Fernando Alonso’s victory at Silverstone means he is now 92 points behind series leader Sebastian Vettel, while Red Bull Racing increase their points lead in the constructors’ championship.

British Grand Prix, Silverstone. 52 laps:

1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h28:41.194
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +16.511
3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +16.947
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +28.986
5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +29.010
6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1:00.665
7.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1:05.590
8.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +1:15.542
9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1:17.912
10.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari        +1:19.108
11.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes      +1:19.712
12.  Petrov        Renault                   +1:20.600
13.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth         +1 lap
14.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth         +1 lap
15.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes      +1 lap
16.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth           +2 laps
17.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth           +2 laps
18.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth              +2 laps
19.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth              +3 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:34.908

Not classified/retirements:

Button        McLaren-Mercedes             41 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           26 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               24 laps
Trulli        Lotus-Renault                11 laps
Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault                3 laps

World Championship standings, round 9:

Drivers:
1. Vettel       204
2. Webber       124
3. Alonso       112
4. Hamilton     109
5. Button       109
6. Massa         52
7. Rosberg       40
8. Heidfeld      34
9. Petrov        31
10. Schumacher    28
11. Kobayashi     25
12. Sutil         10
13. Alguersuari    9
14. Buemi          8
15. Perez          8
16. Barrichello    4
17. Di Resta       2

Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault          328
2. McLaren-Mercedes          218
3. Ferrari                   164
4. Mercedes                   68
5. Renault                    65
6. Sauber-Ferrari             33
7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari         17
8. Force India-Mercedes       12
9. Williams-Cosworth           4

Next race: German Grand Prix, Nürburgring. July 22-24.

Mark Webber will start the British Grand Prix in pole position following changeable conditions at Silverstone.

Even though the on-going exhaust row is still causing a big distraction off track, the sheer speed of the RB7 on track continues to impress with Webber and Vettel earning the team yet another front row grid position.

The margin between the Red Bull drivers was only 0.032 seconds with Webber’s lap time of one minute, 30.399 seconds around the legendary British circuit good enough to earn his eighth career pole position.

Ferrari emerged as Red Bull Racing’s biggest threat, while McLaren struggled with pace. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa share row two – Alonso two tenths off pole position despite a trip through the gravel at one point – but the biggest disappointment was McLaren. Jenson Button was 1.5 seconds away from Webber’s time as he took fifth while team-mate Lewis Hamilton was way back in tenth place.

Paul di Resta will start his home race in a spectacular sixth place for Force India, while fellow rookie Pastor Maldonado continues to impress by qualifying in seventh for Williams, ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

For Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion was caught out in the mixed conditions and will start in a disappointing P13. The Renaults also had a difficult qualifying session with Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld in P14 and P16 respectively.

Toro Rosso was most disadvantaged when the rain came down in Q1, with Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi’s first runs only good enough for P18 and P19. That meant Lotus got a car into Q2 with Heikki Kovalainen, who took P17.

While at the back, Timo Glock managed to get his Virgin Racing ahead of Jarno Trulli’s Lotus in P20, with Daniel Ricciardo starting in P24 on his first grand prix appearance, having been 0.6 seconds slower than Hispania team-mate Tonio Liuzzi.

Qualifying times from Silverstone:

1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m30.399s
2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.431s
3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m30.516s
4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m31.124s
5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.989s
6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m31.929s
7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m31.933s
8.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.128s
9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.209s
10.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.376s
11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m32.617s
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.624s
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.656s
14.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m32.734s
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m33.119s
16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m33.805s
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m34.821s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.245s
19.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.749s
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.203s
21.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m36.456s
22.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m37.154s
23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m37.484s
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m38.059s

107 per cent time: 1m39.156s

Sebastian Vettel took his sixteenth career Grand Prix victory with a commanding drive at the Valencia street circuit.

The world championship leader led from the front and was able to resist the challenges from both Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber to take the chequered flag in style for the sixth time this season.

Alonso finished a very encouraging second for Scuderia Ferrari in front of his home crowd. Both Ferraris had jumped Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren at the start, with the flying Felipe Massa dodging between Hamilton and Alonso, then trying to get down the inside of Mark Webber for second. But as he had to back out of the move, Alonso went around the outside of his team-mate and took third.

Alonso then stayed close behind Webber and managed to grab second position with an outbraking move on lap 21. The Spaniard could not shake the Australian off, and when the Red Bull made its second stop one lap sooner, Webber was able to vault back ahead of Alonso.

But the battle was not over, as at the final tyre changes Alonso regained the advantage by running three laps further on used softs while Webber was on his new medium tyres. The Ferrari rejoined just in front, and any hope Webber had of coming back at Alonso ended when the Red Bull team ordered him to back off and take care of a gearbox finish. He held on for third spot.

Running longer at most pit-stops did not help Massa, who fell back to fifth in the end behind Hamilton. The McLaren driver was left struggling with pace during the middle stint on the soft Pirellis.

Canadian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button had a very low-key race. He was passed by Nico Rosberg at the start and by the time he had dived back ahead of the Mercedes with a bold move at Turn 2 on lap six, the rest of the leaders were out of reach. A later KERS fault ensured Button would finish in a disappointing sixth.

Rosberg took seventh, having battled for a while with the impressive Jaime Alguersuari, as the Toro Rosso driver converted his P18 grid position to an eighth place finish by making a two-stop strategy work while everyone else had to pit three times. Alguersuari fended off Adrian Sutil to the flag, as the Force India escaped from an early battle with Nick Heidfeld’s tenth placed Renault.

Sauber’s Sergio Perez adopted a one-stop strategy – just like Melbourne – but alas, the Mexican just finish outside the points with P11.

Michael Schumacher’s hopes of points ended when he made contact with Vitaly Petrov’s Renault as he rejoined the track from the pits following his first tyre change. That meant an extra stop for a new front wing, leaving the Mercedes in P17. Petrov was only P15, having never really recovered from a bad start.

Remarkably, all twenty-four cars started the European Grand Prix and after 57 laps in the warm conditions, there were no retirements. Although only the top seven finished on the lead lap.

Vettel’s sixth win out of eight means his championship lead is now more than three wins’ worth of points. By salvaging third place Webber is now tied for second with Jenson Button.

The next race is the home of motor racing, Silverstone. With the ban on the cold/hot air blown exhaust for the British Grand Prix, will we see a change in form? And can anyone catch the flying Red Bull and the superb Sebastian Vettel? We will find out next month.

Race results from Valencia, 57 laps:
1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h39:36.169
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +10.891
3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +27.255
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +46.190
5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +51.705
6.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +1:00.000
7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1:38.000
8.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
9.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
10.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +1 lap
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
12.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
13.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
14.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
15.  Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
16.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
17.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
18.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
19.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
20.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
21.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +2 laps
22.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +2 laps
23.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps
24.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:41.852

World Championship standings, round 8:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       186
2.  Webber       109
3.  Button       109
4.  Hamilton      97
5.  Alonso        87
6.  Massa         42
7.  Rosberg       32
8.  Petrov        31
9.  Heidfeld      30
10.  Schumacher    26
11.  Kobayashi     25
12.  Sutil         10
13.  Alguersuari    8
14.  Buemi          8
15.  Barrichello    4
16.  Perez          2
17.  Di Resta       2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          295
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          206
3.  Ferrari                   129
4.  Renault                    61
5.  Mercedes                   58
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             27
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         16
8.  Force India-Mercedes       12
9.  Williams-Cosworth           4

Next race: British Grand Prix, Silverstone. July 8-10.

Sebastian Vettel achieved his twenty-second career pole position – his seventh from eight Grands Prix – with an impressive lap around the Valencia street circuit.

The world championship leader’s time of one minute, 36.975 seconds is the fastest ever lap and his margin over his team-mate Mark Webber was 0.188 seconds. And yet significantly four tenths of a second clear of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Despite a change to the engine mapping settings enforced by the sport’s governing body, the sheer raw speed from the RB7 resulted in Red Bull Racing taking yet another front row grid position.

Lewis Hamilton will start third for McLaren, ahead of the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, while Montreal winner Jenson Button will start the European Grand Prix in sixth.

As for Mercedes, the team chose to only make a single Q3 run for both drivers. The end result is Nico Rosberg out-qualifying his team-mate Michael Schumacher by a margin of 0.009 seconds. The Silver Arrows will line up on row four.

Nick Heidfeld is ninth for Renault with Adrian Sutil completing the top ten for Force India. Both elated not to take part in Q3 in order to save tyres for the race.

Sutil’s last-minute progress into the top ten shootout came at the expense of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, which was the only real upset in this three-part qualifying session.

Paul di Resta joined the Russian on row six in the second Force India, ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Williams and Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber.

A brief red flag period interrupted Q2 when Pastor Maldonado spun his Williams to a halt in the middle of the track. But the Formula One rookie had already done a time good enough to secure P15 on the grid ahead of Sergio Perez and Sebastien Buemi.

Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari will start in P18, ahead of the Lotus duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli. The latter tried in vain to go faster than his team-mate but spun on  his final Q1 run.

All the drivers comfortably made the 107 per cent qualifying cut, with the Hispania of Tonio Liuzzi splitting the Virgin Racing as he edged ahead of Jerome D’Ambrosio.

Qualifying times from Valencia:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m36.975s
2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m37.163s
3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m37.380s
4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m37.454s
5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m37.535s
6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m37.645s
7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m38.231s
8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m38.240s
9.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault               No time
10.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  No time
11.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m39.068s
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m39.422s
13.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m39.489s
14.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.525s
15.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m39.645s
16.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.657s
17.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.711s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m40.232s
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m41.664s
20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m42.234s
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m42.553s
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m43.584s
23.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m43.735s
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m44.363s

107 per cent time: 1m45.301s

Jenson Button scored a sensational victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, passing world champion Sebastian Vettel on the final lap in a rain-affected race that lasted four hours.

The McLaren driver bounced back after two collisions – with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – a drive-through penalty and six visits to the Montreal pitlane.

Button’s victory came only after Vettel lost the lead on the final lap due to a driving error with just a handful of corners left.

The world champion had dominated the race from the start but came under pressure from a flying Button in the end.

Mark Webber was third for Red Bull Racing, with Michael Schumacher in fourth position – his best result since coming back to Formula One – and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov in fifth.

Felipe Massa was the only Ferrari driver to finish the race with sixth, after beating Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi to the spot right on the finish line. The margin between the pair was only 0.045 seconds!

Jaime Alguersuari, Rubens Barrichello and Sebastien Buemi completed the points-paying positions.

The Canadian Grand Prix started under the safety car, as the race director deemed the track was too wet for a standing start. The decision meant all twenty-four drivers had to start with the full wet tyres from Pirelli. The Drag Reduction System was also disabled while the track was wet for safety reasons.

The safety car dived into the pits after five laps, and Vettel managed to keep the lead despite an attack from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Vettel’s team-mate Webber was not so lucky, however, and spun after making contact with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton into the opening corners. The Australian was able to recover but was down in P14. Hamilton also lost some positions with the contact and he dropped behind team-mate Button after going wide at the hairpin while fighting with Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton tried to regain the lost position on lap seven, only to make contact with Button as he tried to pass on the main straight. Hamilton had been quicker coming out of the final chicane and tried to pass his team-mate on the left, only for Button to close the gap.

Their cars made contact and Hamilton hit the wall, retiring from the Canadian Grand Prix a few corners later and forcing the deployment of the safety car after parking his damaged car after Turn 5. Button pitted for repairs and rejoined in P12.

The race was restarted again on lap 12, with Vettel still leading from Alonso and Massa. Immediately afterwards, race control announced a drive-through penalty for Button for having sped under the safety car period. He had already made a visit to the pits to change to the intermediate tyres in the first stop and this penalty meant he dropped further behind.

While at the front, Vettel increased his lead quite comfortably, but Alonso decided to pit for intermediates on lap 18, seeing that Button was the fastest man on track.

Alonso rejoined in eighth, right in front of Vitaly Petrov and Button himself, but the rain became a downpour moments later and the safety car was deployed for the third time, with Alonso deciding to pit again for full wets.

Leader Vettel and team-mate Webber pitted for full wets during this safety car period, with the Australian also getting a new steering wheel as he was having problems shifting down gears.

Several drivers followed suit into the pits, leaving Vettel in the lead again, ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi – who had not stopped – and Massa.

Still under the safety car, Vettel told his Red Bull Racing team on the radio that it was impossible to drive and that the race should be stopped. On lap 25, Vettel’s wish was granted, and the Grand Prix was red-flagged.

Nearly two hours after it was stopped, the race was restarted behind the safety car and with mandatory full wet weather tyres.

Heikki Kovalainen became the second retirement even before the safety car was back in, the Finn suffering a driveshaft failure on lap 30.

After nine laps on track, the safety car drove into pits and the race was launched with Vettel out front, followed by Kobayashi, who managed to keep Massa at bay at the first corner.

The majority of the field pitted as soon as it was allowed to fit intermediates tyre, although Vettel stayed out for a couple of laps, before the safety car was deployed again when Button made contact with Alonso when trying to pass at Turn 3.

Button touched the Ferrari’s right rear wheel and sent the Spaniard into a spin, his car getting stuck on the kerbs. The McLaren driver had to pit again to change his punctured Pirelli.

At the time of the fourth safety car period, Vettel led from Kobayashi, Massa, Heidfeld, Paul di Resta and Webber, with Button dropping down to the back of the field.

The race resumed on lap 41, with Vettel opening a clear gap right away as Kobayashi held a train of cars behind him.

There was a lot action behind the race leader, with several position changes, which included a clash between Heidfeld and di Resta, the Scot having to pit for a new front wing.

Heidfeld’s team-mate Petrov was given a drive-through penalty moments later for having overtaken while the safety car was still on track.

Despite the track being still wet, the race director enabled the use of the Drag Reduction System on lap 45.

By lap 50 – with twenty to the chequered flag – Vettel was leading Kobayashi by over six seconds and Massa by seven, with Schumacher having charged to fourth.

On lap 51, Webber became the first of the lead drivers to change to slick tyres, as Schumacher passed both Massa and Kobayashi and set his sights on Vettel, both still on intermediates.

However, Vettel was still the quickest driver on track, extending his lead over Schumacher to eleven seconds by lap 52. Schumacher pitted for slicks a lap later, with Massa following suit.

Vettel changed his Pirellis a lap later, as team-mate Webber showed slicks were the way to go, lapping three seconds faster than the championship leader. Vettel rejoined the race in the lead, while Massa was forced to come into the pits after damaging his front wing when losing control of his car while lapping an HRT.

With 13 laps to go, the safety car was deployed for the fifth time when Heidfeld crashed out following contact with Kobayashi. The Renault driver had damaged his front wing in the clash, and then it got under his car at speed, sending him off the track. Luckily he was able to stop the car without making contact with the barriers.

However the safety car was deployed while the Renault’s wing debris was cleared.

With nine laps to the flag, the race was relaunched once more with Vettel on top, followed by Schumacher, Webber, Button and Kobayashi.

Vettel continued his flawless run, opening a gap quickly as Webber and Button pushed a slower Schumacher hard.

Webber passed Schumacher with six laps to go, but had to let German through as he had jumped the final chicane.

On the following lap he made the same mistake again, this time losing third place to Button. The McLaren driver took second with five laps left, passing Schumacher comfortably and launching his attack on Vettel.

Webber finally captured third place from Schumacher with three laps left, but all eyes were on the battle at the front.

Vettel picked up the pace but Button continued to take several tenths of a second out of his lead per lap. On the penultimate lap he was able to use his DRS and take more time out of Vettel’s lead.

The pair began the final lap with Button within a second and poised to pounce in the DRS zone. But it was decided before then as Vettel put two wheels on the still-damp surface at turn six and slewed sideways, allowing Button through to claim an improbable win.

It was a fantastic performance by Jenson Button. Not only he made six visits to the pits for tyre changes, repairs and a drive-through penalty, but also he was at one point last in the field. He responded with a determined drive to pass the world champion on the final lap.

Vettel looked despondent after losing the lead he had held for almost the whole Grand Prix. But he retains a healthy 60-point margin over Button, who is now second in the title race.

Race results from Montreal:
1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       4h04:39.537
2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault         +2.709
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault         +13.828
4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                 +14.219
5.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                  +20.395
6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                  +33.225
7.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari           +33.270
8.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari       +35.964
9.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth        +45.117
10.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari       +47.056
11.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                 +50.454
12.  Pedro de la Rosa      Sauber-Ferrari           +1m03.607s
13.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth             +1 Lap
14.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth          +1 Lap
15.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth          +1 Lap
16.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault            +1 Lap
17.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth             +1 Lap
18.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes     +3 Laps

Retirements:
Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth           61 laps
Nick Heidfeld         Renault                     55 laps
Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes        49 laps
Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                     36 laps
Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault               28 laps
Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes            7 laps

World Championship standings, round 7:

Drivers:
1.  Sebastian Vettel      161
2.  Jenson Button         101
3.  Mark Webber           94
4.  Lewis Hamilton        85
5.  Fernando Alonso       69
6.  Felipe Massa          32
7.  Vitaly Petrov         31
8.  Nick Heidfeld         29
9.  Michael Schumacher    26
10.  Nico Rosberg          26
11.  Kamui Kobayashi       25
12.  Adrian Sutil          8
13.  Sebastien Buemi       8
14.  Jaime Alguersuari     4
15.  Rubens Barrichello    4
16.  Sergio Perez          2
17.  Paul Di Resta         2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault        255
2.  McLaren-Mercedes        186
3.  Ferrari                 101
4.  Renault                 60
5.  Mercedes                52
6.  Sauber-Ferrari          27
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      12
8.  Force India-Mercedes    10
9.  Williams-Cosworth       4

Next race: European Grand Prix, Valencia. June 24-26.

World championship leader Sebastian Vettel secured his sixth pole position of the season, fending off the Scuderia drivers to the top spot at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Vettel’s lap time of one minute, 13.014 seconds placed him ahead of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. This was the strongest qualifying performance by Ferrari so far.

His Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber had to settle for a position on the second row of the grid after securing fourth.

Despite being tipped as one of the favourites to fight for pole and race victory in Canada, McLaren endured a rather low-key day, with last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton in fifth position while team-mate Jenson Button was seventh, behind Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg.

As for Michael Schumacher, he will start the Canadian Grand Prix in eighth position.

Both Renaults made it into the top-ten this round, with Nick Heidfeld qualifying in ninth position ahead of Vitaly Petrov.

It was another strong qualifying performance from Paul di Resta, who secured P11 for Force India. This is impressive considering team-mate Adrian Sutil could only managed P14.

Pastor Maldonado was another Formula One rookie keen to make an impact in the sport with the Venezuelan driver outqualifying the more experience Rubens Barrichello by a margin of four grid positions. The Williams drivers will start in P12 and P16 respectively.

Following Sergio Perez’s qualifying crash in Monaco, Pedro de la Rosa will represent the Sauber team in Canada. The reserve driver put in a decent performance despite his lack of running on track, making it to Q2 and finishing around three tenths off team-mate Kobayashi in P17.

Jarno Trulli outqualified Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, as both drivers were again out in Q1. They were joined by Tonio Liuzzi in the Hispania, who managed to outpace both Virgin Racing, with Timo Glock in P22 and Jerome D’Ambrosio last behind Narain Karthikeyan.

As for D’Ambrosio, the Belgian failed to qualify for the race after finishing nearly half a second off the 107 per cent time. But he will be allowed to take part, as the Virgin Racing driver is fast enough when compared to his lap times set in the opening practice session.

Qualifying times from Montreal:
1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m13.014s
2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m13.199s
3.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m13.217s
4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m13.429s
5.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m13.565s
6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m13.814s
7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m13.838s
8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m13.864s
9.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m14.062s
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m14.085s
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m14.752s
12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m15.043s
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.285s
14.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m15.287s
15.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m15.334s
16.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m15.361s
17.  Pedro de la Rosa      Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.587s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m16.294s
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m16.745s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m16.786s
21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m18.424s
22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m18.537s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m18.574s
24.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m19.414s

107 per cent time: 1m18.989

Sebastian Vettel resisted immense pressure from Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button to take victory in an incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix.

By winning the famous race in the streets of the principality, the reigning world champion extends his lead in the standings with a massive 143 points. This is a remarkable achievement from the Red Bull Racing driver.

Vettel opted against pitting during a mid-race safety car period, and ran an impressive 56-lap stint on the super soft Pirelli against all expectations, gaining track position over previous leader Jenson Button.

That left him ahead when the race was red-flagged, at which point Sebastian Vettel, second placed Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button – who had dropped to third after pitting just before a mid-race safety car – were all allowed to fit new Pirellis on the grid.

By discarding the old tyres for fresh new rubber, it sealed the victory for the Red Bull driver. The eventual winning margin was 1.1 seconds ahead of his Ferrari rival, who was a similar distance clear from the McLaren.

The race went down to a six-lap sprint following a red flag for a crash involving Vitaly Petrov, Jaime Alguersuari and Lewis Hamilton, that was triggered by Pastor Maldonado passing Adrian Sutil for sixth position at Tabac.

The one-stopping Sutil, who had ran fourth for quite a while but was dropping back on old used Pirelli, smacked into the armco exiting Tabac and punctured his right-rear tyre. While trying to avoid the slowing Force India, Petrov ran into the back of Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, which in turn hit the rear of Hamilton’s McLaren.

Alguersuari and Petrov hit the barriers hard, forcing the race to be stopped with six laps to the flag and necessitating Petrov’s extrication from the Renault by the medical team.

Having lost the lead to Button thanks to a sluggish pit-stop on lap 16, Vettel opted against pitting when Felipe Massa’s mid-race crash brought out the safety car.

Button, who had already stopped twice by this stage, was clearly the faster driver on his fresher Pirelli, but had also lost track position to Alonso during the safety car period.

Button made his third pit-stop on lap 48 after becoming stuck behind Vettel, but reduced an 18-second deficit to less than a second with eight laps to go. His problem, however, was that Alonso’s Ferrari was in between them.

Button’s hopes of race victory rested on his rivals tyres going off before his, as both Vettel and Alonso switched their strategies and opted against making further pit-stops. The red flag and subsequent tyre changes on the grid put paid to that, however.

Mark Webber finished fourth, having dropped as low as P14 early on due to a 15-second stop as Red Bull pitted him on the same lap as his team-mate. Webber’s two-stop strategy left him with fresher rubber than many of the cars around him during the second half of the Grand Prix, allowing the Australian to pass Kobayashi, Sutil, Petrov and Maldonado within the final 15 laps.

Kamui Kobayashi ceded fourth to Webber after missing the chicane with two laps to go, but still collected the best result of his career. As for Maldonado, the Williams driver was on his way to finishing sixth, but he crashed out at Ste Devote with five laps remaining following contact with Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton’s rear wing was damaged in the Petrov/Alguersuari accident, but the mechanics were able to fix it during the red flag period.

His race was very frustrating. Passed by Michael Schumacher’s slow-starting Mercedes at Loews hairpin on the opening lap, he lost a significant amount of time when the German’s rear tyres dropped off at an alarming rate within ten laps.

Even after passing the seven-time world champion at Ste Devote with a great move, his pace was compromised as he became bogged down in a seven-car battle for fourth place behind Sutil.

Hamilton, Webber and Felipe Massa all came together at Loews on lap 34 – an incident that Hamilton was deemed to have caused and received a drive-through penalty for – but by that time Massa was out, the Ferrari driver having hit the wall in the tunnel as Hamilton passed seconds later.

Hamilton eventually finished sixth, ahead of the lapped Sutil, Nick Heidfeld’s Renault, Rubens Barrichello’s Williams and the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi.

Paul di Resta finished in P12 after receiving a drive-through penalty for the same reason as Hamilton – colliding with a car at Loews – but the Force India driver also damaged his car in the incident with Alguersuari and was force to pit for a new nose/front wing.

Schumacher did not make the finish, his Mercedes grinding to a halt just ahead of Alonso as the safety car came out for the Massa crash. Timo Glock was the only other retiree, the Virgin driver’s right-rear suspension failing just before half distance.

Vettel’s fifth win from six starts extends his dominant start to the season. But Formula One will reflect on an incident-packed weekend in Monte Carlo, which ends with two drivers, Vitaly Petrov and the non-starting Sergio Perez, recovering from injuries.

Race results from Monte Carlo, 78 laps:

1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           2h09:38.373
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +1.138
3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +2.378
4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +23.100
5.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +26.900
6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           + 27.200
7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
8.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +1 lap
9.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
10.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +2 laps
13.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
14.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
15.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +2 laps
16.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps
17.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps
18.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +5 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:16.234

Not classified/retirements:

Petrov        Renault                      68 laps
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           68 laps
Massa         Ferrari                      33 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     33 laps
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              31 laps
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               1 lap

World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       143
2.  Hamilton      85
3.  Webber        79
4.  Button        76
5.  Alonso        69
6.  Heidfeld      29
7.  Rosberg       26
8.  Massa         24
9.  Petrov        21
10.  Kobayashi     19
11.  Schumacher    14
12.  Sutil          8
13.  Buemi          7
14.  Perez          2
15.  Barrichello    2
16.  Di Resta       2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          222
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          161
3.  Ferrari                    93
4.  Renault                    50
5.  Mercedes                   40
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             21
7.  Force India-Mercedes       10
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          7
9.  Williams-Cosworth           2

Next race: Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal. June 10-12.