Category: Motor Racing

иконография

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel took his seventh Grand Prix victory of the season in a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix. He led home a Red Bull Racing one-two with Mark Webber close behind following a bad start off the grid.

This was the perfect result for Vettel following three disappointing races. To win his seventeenth career Grand Prix at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Vettel is well on his way to take the drivers’ title come the end of the championship.

McLaren’s Jenson Button made some stunning overtaking manoeuvres to recover from P13 to finish in third. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton had to retire following a clash with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

Fernando Alonso was a contender for race victory but fell down to fourth in the final stint on the Prime tyre.

As for Michael Schumacher, celebrating his twentieth anniversary since making his Formula One debut, the seven-time world champion drove a solid race from last on the grid to take fifth, ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

A chaotic start had seen Mark Webber stutter off the grid (once again) and fall from third to eighth, as Nico Rosberg burst through to second and then slipstream past Vettel to take a shock lead for Mercedes by Les Combes, with Felipe Massa, Hamilton and the fast-starting Alonso next up.

Rosberg’s lead lasted until lap three, when Vettel activated his Drag Reduction System and eased ahead on the Kemmel Straight. But the tyre issues that had been feared prior to the race started early for the Red Bulls, with Webber pitting after just three laps, and Vettel coming in from the lead next time around due to blistering.

That put Rosberg back in front, though he had Alonso right behind as the Spaniard had swiftly passed Hamilton, then outbraked team-mate Massa when the sister Ferrari lost momentum in a failed move on Rosberg. Hamilton also capitalised to further demote Massa as the shuffle unfolded.

By lap seven Alonso used a combination of DRS and KERS to sweep past Rosberg on the Kemmel Straight to move into the lead, with Hamilton doing likewise on the following lap.

The Ferrari and McLaren managed to keep their initial tyres intact until laps eight and eleven respectively, but the Red Bulls’ earlier pit stops had worked out better for them – and as Hamilton pitted from the lead, Vettel was sweeping around the outside of Rosberg in an epic move into Blanchimont ready to head the field again.

Shortly beforehand, Webber had produced a similarly spectacular move on Alonso into the Eau Rouge as the Ferrari emerged from its pit stop, though Alonso would repass the Red Bull next time around.

Hamilton’s challenge then ended on lap 13, when a brush of wheels with the yet-to-pit Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber on the run into Les Combes. The McLaren spun into the barriers, prompting a safety car period.

With the Safety Car out on track, Vettel immediately pitted for a fresh set of Pirellis, which meant that although Alonso was able to lead again from the restart, the champion was soon easing ahead once more with a DRS pass.

From then onwards Vettel was effectively untouchable, pulling away from Alonso through the next stint and clinching his first win since Valencia. When the Ferrari switched to the Prime for the final run to the chequered flag, Alonso’s pace tailed off dramatically and he found himself being passed by first Webber, then Button.

The Hungarian Grand Prix winner had driven another epic race, getting the Prime tyre out of the way in the first stint, then overtaking car after car to move himself into podium contention. Button secured his place on the rostrum by passing the troubled Alonso with two laps left.

Michael Schumacher took a superb fifth place from the back of the grid – like Button using the Prime tyre in the opening stint then charging spectacularly. His Mercedes team-mate Rosberg drifted back to sixth as the race progressed, ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil and the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.

An additional pit stop to replace a deflating tyre left Massa in ninth spot, while Pastor Maldonado put behind his qualifying controversy to score the final point for Williams.

Bruno Senna’s return to Formula One resulted in P13 for Renault. This was a bad result following his impressive qualifying form. It didn’t help he was quite ambition at La Source which ended in a tangle with Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. This first-corner clash earned the Brazilian a drive-through penalty.

Virgin’s Timo Glock was also given a drive-through after being adjudged to have triggered further multi-car mayhem at the back end of the pack.

So a great result for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. His lead in the drivers’ championship looks increasingly omnipresent with 259 points, ahead of Webber on 167, Alonso on 157, Button on 149 and Hamilton on 146. Massa remains sixth with 74, but Schumacher’s fifth hoists him clear of the ninth-place scrap with 42 points to Rosberg’s 56.

In the constructors’, Red Bull Racing had a very profitable day, garnering 43 points to bring their leading score to 426 ahead of McLaren on 295 and Ferrari on 231.

Belgian Grand Prix race results, 44 laps:

1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h26.44.893
2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +3.741s
3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +9.669s
4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +13.022s
5.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +47.464s
6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +48.674s
7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +59.713s
8.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1m06.076s
9.  Petrov        Renault                    +1m11.917s
10.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth         +1m17.615s
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1m23.994s
12.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1m31.976s
13.  Senna         Renault                    +1m32.985s
14.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
15.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
17.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
19.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:23.415

Not classified/retirements:

Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               27 laps
Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth                 13 laps
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             12 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           6 laps
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           1 lap

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel       259
2.  Webber       167
3.  Alonso       157
4.  Button       149
5.  Hamilton     146
6.  Massa         74
7.  Rosberg       56
8.  Schumacher    42
9.  Petrov        34
10.  Heidfeld      34
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         24
13.  Buemi         12
14.  Alguersuari   10
15.  Di Resta       8
16.  Perez          8
17.  Barrichello    4
18.  Maldonado      1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          426
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          295
3.  Ferrari                   231
4.  Mercedes                   88
5.  Renault                    68
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
7.  Force India-Mercedes       32
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
9.  Williams-Cosworth           5

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 9-11.

икони

Sebastian Vettel maintains Red Bull Racing’s excellent qualifying form with yet another pole position, this time at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps.

The championship leader achieved his eighth pole of the season with a time of one minute, 48.298 seconds, to denied McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton from the top spot by a margin of four tenths of a second.

After setting the fastest time in two of the practice sessions at the Belgian Grand Prix, Mark Webber had to settle with third, with Felipe Massa once again out-qualifying his Ferrari team-mate to take fourth.

But the major talking point in this wet/dry qualifying session was a bizarre incident involving the Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton in Q2.

As track conditions rapidly improved and the lap times turned inside out, Hamilton banged his wheels with Maldonado going through the Bus Stop chicane as the McLaren completed a flying lap just as the chequered flag was out.

That moment elevated Hamilton to the top of the leader board but on the slowing-down lap, Maldonado appeared to retaliate for the contact on the run out of La Source, sideswiping the McLaren, which then needed minor impromptu repairs for the start of Q3.

Unfortunately the second McLaren of Jenson Button was out following the late-Q2 scramble, leaving the winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix down in P13 on the grid.

The end of Q3 was a similar topsy-turvy as the circuit began to dry out. Felipe Massa was able to take advantage of the improve track condition to out qualify his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso for only the second time this season as they took fourth and eighth respectively.

Nico Rosberg put his Mercedes in fifth, while Jaime Alguersuari continue to impressive with an excellent sixth for Toro Rosso.

But the real hero of qualifying was Bruno Senna. The Brazilian was drafted in to replace Nick Heidfeld and despite not driving since Abu Dhabi last season, he was quick throughout qualifying and in the end, recorded the seventh fastest time on his debut for Renault. That’s three positions ahead of team-mate Vitaly Petrov, who shares row five with Sauber’s Sergio Perez.

Rosberg was the only Mercedes in the top ten as his team-mate was out even before setting a flying lap… Twenty years after making his Formula 1 debut in the Jordan – in which he qualified a superb seventh – Michael Schumacher’s anniversary weekend went dramatically downhill when his Mercedes shed a right-rear wheel on its out-lap at the start of Q1 and crashed heavily on the approach to Rivage, leaving the seven-time world champion at the tail end of the field.

Neither Williams made it beyond Q2, with Rubens Barrichello in P14 and Maldonado initially in P16. A five-grid penalty was given to the latter hours after qualifying for causing a collision and so Maldonado will start the race in P21. Adrian Sutil lines up P15 after crashing his Force India on the way out of Eau Rouge while holding fifth in Q2. A red flag was required while the debris was cleared up.

That completed a miserable qualifying session for Force India as a spin on his final Q1 run had already left Paul di Resta down in P17. With Schumacher and di Resta both missing the cut, Heikki Kovalainen made it to Q2 for Team Lotus and will start in P16.

Qualifying times from Spa-Francorchamps:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m48.298s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m48.730s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m49.376s
4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m50.256s
5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m50.552s
6.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m50.773s
7.  Bruno Senna           Renault              1m51.121s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m51.251s
9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m51.374s
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m52.303s
11.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   2m04.692s
12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       2m04.757s
13.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     2m05.150s
14.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    2m07.349s
15.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 2m07.777s
16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        2m08.354s
17.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 2m07.758s
18.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        2m07.773s
19.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      2m09.566s
20.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      2m11.601s
21.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    2m08.106s*
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         2m11.616s
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         2m13.077s
24.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             no time

107% time: 2m10.339s

*Five-place grid penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton at the end of Q2

Jenson Button celebrated his two hundredth Grand Prix with victory in a wet/dry Hungarian Grand Prix.

McLaren could have had a one-two finish, with Lewis Hamilton leading the majority of the Grand Prix, but a tyre strategy misjudgement and a drive-through penalty ruined Hamilton’s race.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel had to settle for second position, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Hamilton.

The race began on a damp track with all twenty-four drivers on the intermediates. Starting in second, Hamilton was in aggressive mood and immediately focused his attention on passing Sebastian Vettel for the race lead. The duel between the pair was quite exciting.

The lead finally changed on lap five, when Vettel ran wide at Turn 2 and Hamilton breezed past and pulled away, soon extending a four-second lead over the championship leader, who was at least able to drop Button at this stage.

Laps 10 to 13 saw all the leaders decide the track was ready for slicks, and coming in one lap sooner than Vettel paid off for Button, who made the most of this warmer tyres and greater confidence to take second place into Turn 2.

Mark Webber pulled off the same manoeuvre on Alonso for fourth at the same time. The Ferrari had lost ground through Turn 1 on the opening lap, and then charged back up the order despite two minor trips off track.

The relatively serene middle phase of the race saw Hamilton holding a comfortable gap over Button, who had a similar five-second advantage back to Vettel, while Webber fended off Alonso ten-second behind them.

Alonso decided to make a relatively early third pit-stop and take another set of option (super softs), while all the other leaders except Hamilton switched to the prime (softs) at this point.

That burst of pace allowed Alonso to jump both Red Bulls during his rapid laps before they pitted, though the Pirellis began to wear out and he lost third to Vettel again.

Hamilton adopted the same strategy as Alonso, which left him looking very vulnerable to Button, but in the event the return of the rain rendered these tactics rather irrelevant.

The sudden shower hit on lap 47, causing Hamilton to spin at the chicane. He tried to rejoin as quickly as possible, but could not prevent his team-mate taking the lead. As he rotated around, he forced Paul di Resta off the track and that move ultimately earn Hamilton a drive-through penalty.

With the rain increasing, Button slipped up at Turn 2 four laps later, allowing Hamilton back into the lead. Button retaliated on the following lap and briefly regained first place on the pits straight, only to go wide again at Turn 2 as the top spot was exchanged yet again.

While all this was going on the McLaren drivers were in discussion with the pit wall on whether to switch to intermediate tyres. Initially, the team told both to come in which would have meant Button queueing behind Hamilton.

But as the lap neared an end the team decided not to bring Button in. Hamilton, struggling to hear his instructions with a faulty radio, did pit for intermediate tyres.

This was a big mistake as the brief shower was gone, and he was soon back in for slicks. His drive-through penalty for nearly wiping out Paul di Resta followed; dropping Hamilton down to sixth and leaving his McLaren team-mate clear to take the chequered flag.

The 2009 champion briefly came under pressure from last year’s champion, but had the speed to pull away again and clinch his second Grand Prix victory of the season.

With Webber also switching to intermediates unnecessary, Alonso regained third, which he held despite a quick late spin.

Hamilton battled back to fourth ahead of Webber, with Felipe Massa recovering from an early spin to take sixth.

Kamui Kobayashi tried to go the full distance on just a two-stop strategy and held seventh heading into the closing stages, albeit with a massive queue of cars chasing his Sauber.

The plan did not work, and he had to pit for fresh set of Pirellis after tumbling down the order, as Paul di Resta came through to seventh and Sebastien Buemi turned P23 on the grid into an eighth place for Toro Rosso.

Nico Rosberg finished in ninth position in the remaining Mercedes as team-mate Michael Schumacher was forced to retire with a gearbox issue.

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari survived a clash with Kobayashi to take the final point with tenth.

One of the most spectacular incidents of this highly eventful race befell Nick Heidfeld, whose Renault caught fire in the pit exit following a long stop, with a minor explosion on its left-hand side as the track marshals dealt with the blaze.

Formula One now enters its summer break. Despite winning a single race in the past four Grands Prix, Sebastian Vettel still leads the championship with 234 points. It’s going to be fascinating to see if McLaren and Ferrari can keep applying pressure to Red Bull in the second half of the championship.

Hungarian Grand Prix, 70 laps:

1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h43:42.337
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +3.588
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +19.819
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +48.338
5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +49.742
6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1:17.176
7.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
9.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
10.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
11.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
12.  Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
13.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +2 laps
14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +2 laps
15.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +2 laps
16.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +2 laps
17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +4 laps
18.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps
19.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +5 laps
20.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +5 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:23.415

Not classified/retirements:

Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault                56 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     27 laps
Heidfeld      Renault                      24 laps
Trulli        Lotus-Renault                18 laps

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel       234
2.  Webber       149
3.  Hamilton     146
4.  Alonso       145
5.  Button       134
6.  Massa         70
7.  Rosberg       48
8.  Heidfeld      34
9.  Schumacher    32
10.  Petrov        32
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         18
13.  Buemi         12
14.  Alguersuari   10
15.  Di Resta       8
16.  Perez          8
17.  Barrichello    4

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          383
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          280
3.  Ferrari                   215
4.  Mercedes                   80
5.  Renault                    66
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
7.  Force India-Mercedes       26
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
9.  Williams-Cosworth           4

Next race: Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps. August 26-28.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel earned his twenty-third career pole position for Red Bull Racing, denying McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to the top spot for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The margin between Vettel and Hamilton was really close – only 0.163 seconds – with Vettel’s lap of one minute, 19.815 seconds good enough to earn the champion pole at the Hungaroring.

Competing in his two hundredth Grand Prix, Jenson Button will start in third for McLaren ahead of the Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. This is the first time that Massa has out-qualified his Scuderia team-mate this season.

Last year’s winner Mark Webber could only manage the sixth quickest time, ahead of the Mercedes-powered cars of Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil and Michael Schumacher. As for Sergio Perez, the Sauber driver elated not to run in Q3 to save a set of option tyres for the race. Perez will start in tenth position.

There was a gap of almost two seconds from first to tenth with a couple of minutes of Q2 remaining, the result of which was that the top seven at that moment – led by Jenson Button – did not undertake second runs.

All of those drivers had done enough to make it into Q3, but behind them the order was constantly changing. Late laps for Sutil and Schumacher brought the Force India and Mercedes drivers into the top ten after the chequered flag had come out.

The biggest loser was Force India’s Paul di Resta, who was bumped back to P11. The Renaults of Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld were P12 and P14, split by Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, while Rubens Barrichello and Jaime Alguersuari were next up for Williams and Toro Rosso.

The star of Q1 was Heikki Kovalainen, who put his Lotus in an impressive P19 and just over 0.1 seconds behind Sebastien Buemi.

Behind Kovalainen were his team-mate Jarno Trulli, Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock and the Hispania drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo.

Even though Sebastien Buemi recorded the eighteenth fastest time, he will drop five places on the grid following his collision with Nick Heidfeld at the Nürburgring last weekend.

Qualifying times from the Hungaroring:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m19.815s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m19.978s
3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m20.024s
4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m20.350s
5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m20.365s
6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m20.474s
7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m21.098s
8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m21.445s
9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m21.907s
10.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       No time
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m22.256s
12.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m22.284s
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m22.435s
14.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m22.470s
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m22.684s
16.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m22.979s
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    No time
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m24.362s
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m24.534s
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m26.294s
21.  Vitantonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m26.323s
22.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m26.479s
23.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m24.070s*
24.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m26.510s

107 per cent time: 1m27.288s

*Five-place grid penalty

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.