Sebastian Vettel secured his fourth consecutive pole position (the seventh this season) as Red Bull Racing continued to dominate the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

The speed advantage from the RB6 was highly impressive and that flexible front wing fitted to the Renault-powered car has caused many rivals – in particular McLaren – to complain.

Vettel’s pole lap around the 2.722-mile Hungaroring was one minute, 18.773 seconds, a superb performance as it breaks the previous lap record held by Michael Schumacher. Mark Webber lines up alongside his team-mate on the front row, but with a margin of 0.419 seconds.

But when compared to its nearest challenger, the Ferraris, the advantage was highly significant. A full second slower to the flying Red Bulls!

Controversial German Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso qualified in third ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa. The Spaniard’s best lap in Q3 made him the only non-Red Bull driver to dip below the one minute, 20 seconds target all weekend.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes were next up with Vitaly Petrov producing his best-ever qualifying result with seventh. In doing so, the Russian out-qualified his Renault team-mate Robert Kubica by a single position.

Another impressive performance was Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa with Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams completing the top ten.

As for the current world champion Jenson Button, the McLaren driver will start in a disappointed P11. Yet again, he complained about the loss of grip despite the MP4-25 was quite reasonable in the final practice session leading up to qualifying.

At least Button is ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. The pair had a difficult session although the seven-time world champion suffered the most with only P14 for Mercedes GP.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi will start the Hungarian Grand Prix down in P18 after being baulked by Bruno Senna’s Hispania at Turn 14 on his final qualifying lap. After entering the pitlane, Kobayashi appeared to have ignored an instruction to stop at scrutineering, although the Japanese driver denied he had done anything wrong.

In the battle of the new Formula One teams, Timo Glock achieved Virgin Racing’s third ‘pole position’ against Hispania and Lotus. The German will start the race in P19, while Sakon Yamamoto had his most convincing performance since returning to Formula One. Even though he qualified last (P24), he was just five hundredths of a second slower than his Hispania team-mate Bruno Senna.

Qualifying times from the Hungaroring:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:18.773
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:19.184
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:19.987
4.  Massa          Ferrari                1:20.331
5.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:20.499
6.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:21.082
7.  Petrov         Renault                1:21.229
8.  Kubica         Renault                1:21.328
9.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:21.411
10. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:21.710
11. Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:21.292
12. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:21.331
13. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:21.517
14. Schumacher     Mercedes               1:21.630
15. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:21.897
16. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:21.927
17. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:21.998
18. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:22.222
19. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:24.050
20. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.120
21. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:24.199
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:25.118
23. Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:26.391
24. Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:26.453

Fernando Alonso took his second victory of the season despite the Ferrari team instructing Felipe Massa to let the Spaniard by during the German Grand Prix.

Even though team orders have been banned in Formula One following deliberate ‘race fixing’ by the Scuderia in the past (case in point: Austria 2002), it is ironic that the Italian-based squad adopted this route to secure a one-two result.

As for Sebastian Vettel, who started his home race in pole position, the Red Bull driver was unable to recover from a poor start and had to settle with third at the flag.

The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished in fourth and fifth respectively while Red Bull’s Mark Webber took sixth.

At the start, Felipe Massa made a superb getaway from third on the grid to lead into Nordkurve. For Sebastian Vettel, he focused too much on preventing Fernando Alonso to get by and that mistake allowed Massa to sweep around the outside and into first place.

The trio ran in close company initially, before the red cars started dropping the Red Bull following the pit stops.

Alonso immediately seemed quicker on the harder compound Bridgestone, closing right onto his team-mate’s gearbox and drawing alongside on the back straight as they lapped Bruno Senna and Timo Glock on lap 20.

But then Massa lifted his pace and started pulling away, setting several new fastest laps and opening up a 3.4-second lead.

This did not last though as the double world champion responded by setting some fastest laps of his own thereby reducing the gap back down to under a second. On lap 47, Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley told his driver that “Fernando is faster than you” and asked him to confirm he ‘understood’. A lap later, Massa lifted off after the hairpin and Alonso accelerated past on the straight to take the lead, denying a Massa victory on the first anniversary of the horrific Hungaroring crash that ended his 2009 season.

Vettel occasionally trimmed the Scuderia’s advantage during the German Grand Prix and a late push got the Red Bull driver onto Massa’s tail, but he was unable to overtake.

Despite the straight-line speed advantage, the McLarens were never fast enough to fight for the podium and finish only in fourth and fifth. Nevertheless, the drivers still head the championship standings.

For Mark Webber, the Australian had to nurse his Renault-powered Red Bull amid worryingly high oil consumption.

A lap down, Renault’s Robert Kubica beat the Silver Arrows to seventh, with Nico Rosberg getting ahead of Michael Schumacher during the pit sequence after a good start from the elder German had earlier swapped their positions.

Renault got both cars in the points as Vitaly Petrov took tenth, while both Williams lost ground on the opening lap and could not recover into the points, despite Nico Hulkenberg waiting until lap 34 before pitting.

Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa also tried a bold strategy, running 51 laps on the hard set of Bridgestone before changing to the soft tyre, but his plan for a late charge backfired when he hit Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus, breaking the front wing and taking the Finn out of the best of division two of Formula One, who had been running ahead of Timo Glock’s Virgin Racing up to then.

Other teams in trouble were Toro Rosso and Force India, who both saw both their cars damaged in first-lap incidents – in Toro Rosso’s case after Jaime Alguersuari crashed into the back of Sebastien Buemi at the hairpin.

Yet again controversy played a part in Formula One with Ferrari issuing team orders to let Alonso through. The sport’s reputation is put on the line once again and we shall see if the race stewards will exclude the red cars from the result following this action.

Following hours after the chequered flag, the race stewards have fined Ferrari $100,000 and for bringing the sport into disrepute. The results from Hockenheim will stand. See the comments for the latest updates.

Race results from Hockenheim, 67 laps:

1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h28:38.866
2.  Massa         Ferrari                    +4.196
3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +5.121
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +26.896
5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +29.482
6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +43.606
7.  Kubica        Renault                    +1 lap
8.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
10. Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
11. Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
12. Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
13. Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
14. De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
15. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
16. Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +2 laps
17. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +2 laps
18. Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +3 laps
19. Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:15.824

Not classified/retirements:
Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth               58 laps
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              51 laps
Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth                 20 laps
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               4 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           2 laps

World Championship standings, round 11:

Drivers:
1.  Hamilton     157
2.  Button       143
3.  Vettel       136
4.  Webber       136
5.  Alonso       123
6.  Rosberg       94
7.  Kubica        89
8.  Massa         85
9.  Schumacher    38
10. Sutil         35
11. Barrichello   29
12. Kobayashi     15
13. Liuzzi        12
14. Petrov         7
15. Buemi          7
16. Alguersuari    3
17. Hulkenberg     2

Constructors:
1. McLaren-Mercedes          300
2. Red Bull-Renault          272
3. Ferrari                   208
4. Mercedes                  132
5. Renault                    96
6. Force India-Mercedes       47
7. Williams-Cosworth          31
8. Sauber-Ferrari             15
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

Next race: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring. July 30 – August 1.

Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim by a margin of two thousands of a second from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Alonso had looked the favourite for top honours, as he was the fastest in both Q1 and Q2. He was still out in front in the early part of Q3 with Vettel only 0.034 seconds adrift.

On the final qualifying runs Vettel found a further couple of tenths and set a lap time around the 2.842-mile circuit with one minute, 13.791 seconds to displace the Spaniard from pole. The double world champion looked set to beat his rival’s time but fell short by the smallest of margin in the last sector.

Despite the setback, Alonso should be satisfied by the improved pace in the F10 and with team-mate Felipe Massa starting in third, Ferrari is beginning to regain lost performance when compared to Red Bull Racing and McLaren.

British Grand Prix winner Mark Webber lines up in fourth after making a mistake on his final qualifying run – running wide at Nordkurve (Turn 1).

As for the McLarens, Jenson Button outqualified his team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.06 seconds to take fifth. The British pair will form row three on the Hockenheim grid.

Robert Kubica will start the German Grand Prix in seventh ahead of Rubens Barrichello – who is proudly wearing a T-shirt saying he is faster than The Stig off Top Gear!

The two Nicos of Hulkenberg and Rosberg will line up in ninth and tenth respectively.

For Michael Schumacher, competing in Mercedes GP’s home race and in front of his passionate fans, the seven-time world champion could only manage P11. Schumacher would have taken part in the top-ten shootout, but was knocked out in the final moments of Q2 by Willi Weber’s protégé Hulkenberg.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi was another driver to miss out in going through to Q3, as the Japanese held a top ten place for most of Q2 before a mistake on his final run meant he was shuffled back to P12, still only 0.066 seconds from the top ten.

Force India had a very tough qualifying session. Adrian Sutil will take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change following a practice failure but could only manage P14 nevertheless, while Vitantonio Liuzzi caused a seven-minute stoppage when he spun out of Sudkurve in Q1 and smashed into the pit wall, leaving him P22 on the grid. He was unhurt, although his Force India was heavily damaged – and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock was lucky to avoid a flying wheel detached in the crash.

Lotus had another one-two in the battle of the new Formula One teams competing this season, with Jarno Trulli ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, but Glock had been ahead of them until his Virgin had a mechanical problem. His team-mate Lucas di Grassi fared worst of all, unable to run in qualifying at all due to gearbox problems.

Qualifying times from Hockenheim:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:13.791
2.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:13.793
3.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:14.290
4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:14.347
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:14.427
6.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:14.566
7.  Kubica         Renault                 1:15.079
8.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:15.109
9.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:15.179
10. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:15.339
11. Schumacher     Mercedes                1:15.026
12. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:15.084
13. Petrov         Renault                 1:15.307
14. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:15.467
15. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:15.550
16. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:15.588
17. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:15.974
18. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:17.583
19. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:18.300
20. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:18.343
21. Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:18.592
22. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:18.952
23. Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:19.844
24. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         no time

Mark Webber took his third Grand Prix victory of the season with a great drive at Silverstone. This was payback time for the Australian following the team’s bias to Sebastian Vettel over the new front wing design.

Lewis Hamilton put up a brave fight in challenging for the lead but ultimately the speed of the RB6 meant he had to settle for second in the McLaren. Despite that he still leads the drivers’ championship with 145 points.

Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg was able to fend off Jenson Button in the late stages of the British Grand Prix to take third. For the reigning world champion, this was a solid performance despite starting in P14.

And what about pole sitter Sebastian Vettel? Well, the Red Bull Racing front wing controversy certainly didn’t help but his chances of winning at Silverstone was ruined by a first lap puncture, caused by a light contact with Lewis Hamilton’s front wing endplate. Despite losing ground over that right-rear puncture, the German was able to recover from lost ground thanks to a safety car to finish in seventh position.

Yet again the controversy over the decision made by the race officials meant Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished in P14. The Spaniard was left frustrated despite making a pass on Robert Kubica at Club corner but the race stewards believed he cut the corner and was given a drive-through penalty for his punishment. If Fernando conceded that race position back to the Renault driver immediately (Robert would later drop out with a differential problem), he wouldn’t have to suffered that penalty and would have recorded a points finish.

As for Felipe Massa, he was unlucky to suffer a puncture after making contact against his own Ferrari team-mate! The wheel-banging incident occurred at Becketts following Alonso’s slow start off the grid. Still finishing in P15 was not the ideal result for the Scuderia.

A safety car period caused by a contact between Adrian Sutil’s Force India and the Sauber of Pedro de la Rosa, left chunks of the latter’s rear wing deposited on various straights. This caution period was a lifeline for Vettel, who had made little progress up to that point, but then started carving through the traffic with a series of spectacular passes, including one on Michael Schumacher.

Passing Adrian Sutil proved a tougher challenge for the Red Bull driver and it took many laps before Sebastian muscled his way pass to take seventh on the penultimate lap.

While at the front, Mark Webber delivered the masterclass with victory at Silverstone. Hamilton managed to tag along until the pit-stops, but thereafter the Australian was unstoppable, setting fastest laps whenever required and leading by six seconds before easing off at the end.

Rosberg returned Mercedes GP to the podium with a solid run to third, despite losing a barge board when sweeping round the outside of the yet-to-stop Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. The German finished just ahead of Button, who surged through from P14 to fourth thanks to a great opening lap and staying out much longer than most before his single tyre change.

Rubens Barrichello gave Williams another top five finish, with Kamui Kobayashi following the Brazilian to the chequered flag awarding the Sauber team their best result of the year.

So a fantastic result for Mark Webber. Even though the Australian was miffed over that front wing change, this was sweet poetic justice over the team preferring the number one driver Sebastian Vettel. His victory at the British Grand Prix means he now jumps into third in the standings with 128 points, 17 behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton and only five from Jenson Button. In the constructors’ standings, McLaren still leads with 278 over Red Bull Racing’s 249 and Ferrari’s 165.

Race results from Silverstone, 52 laps:
1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           1h24:38.200
2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +1.360
3.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +21.307
4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +21.986
5.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +31.456
6.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +32.171
7.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +36.734
8.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +40.932
9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +41.599
10. Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +42.012
11. Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +42.459
12. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +47.627
13. Petrov        Renault                    +59.374
14. Alonso        Ferrari                    +1:02.385
15. Massa         Ferrari                    +1:07.489
16. Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +1 lap
17. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +1 lap
18. Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
19. Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
20. Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:30.874

Not classified/retirements:
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           45 laps
De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari               30 laps
Kubica        Renault                      20 laps
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              10 laps

World Championship standings, round 10:

Drivers:
1.  Hamilton     145
2.  Button       133
3.  Webber       128
4.  Vettel       121
5.  Alonso        98
6.  Rosberg       90
7.  Kubica        83
8.  Massa         67
9.  Schumacher    36
10. Sutil         35
11. Barrichello   29
12. Kobayashi     15
13. Liuzzi        12
14. Buemi          7
15. Petrov         6
16. Alguersuari    3
17. Hulkenberg     2

Constructors:
1. McLaren-Mercedes          278
2. Red Bull-Renault          249
3. Ferrari                   165
4. Mercedes                  126
5. Renault                    89
6. Force India-Mercedes       47
7. Williams-Cosworth          31
8. Sauber-Ferrari             15
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

Next race: German Grand Prix, Hockenheim. July 23-25.

Sebastian Vettel took his fifth pole position of the 2010 season following a dominant performance at Silverstone. The speed of the Red Bull RB6 was impressive and with Vettel taking pole with a lap time of one minute, 29.615 seconds the young German is looking in good shape in repeating his 2009 victory.

Red Bull Racing locked-out the front row once again with Vettel taking the top honours while team-mate Mark Webber having to settle for second position, just 0.143 seconds down. The battle between the pair was the highlight of the session as they traded the fastest sector times around the 3.666-mile circuit.

The closest challenger to the charging Red Bulls was Fernando Alonso. Even though the double world champion was left frustrated to be caught behind Rubens Barrichello’s Williams on his last Q3 run, the Ferrari driver was still able to hold off crowd favourite Lewis Hamilton to third.

For the 2008 British Grand Prix winner, racing in front of the passionate home crowd, the McLaren driver could only manage fourth despite the team abandoning the exhaust-blown diffuser following Friday’s practice sessions.

The new upgrade caused problems to the MP4-25’s floor, which affected the aerodynamics due to the excessive heat. So the Woking-based team decided to drop this new update and revert back to the old set-up. That lost time in adapting the cars for the British drivers cost significant performance and this was especially true for Jenson Button.

The reigning world champion will start his home Grand Prix in a disastrous P14. Jenson was later interviewed that his car was ‘undriveable’ and was a lost to explain why its grip had suddenly disappeared in Q2, leaving him on row seven.

For the Silver Arrows, this was a better qualifying performance than Valencia with Nico Rosberg taking fifth place – 0.8 seconds and five positions clear of Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher.

Joining Rosberg on row three is Renault’s Robert Kubica, with the Brazilians of Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello taking the fourth row in the Ferrari and Williams respectively.

As for Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa, the Spaniard qualified his best-ever position with ninth.

The Force India of Adrian Sutil will start in P11 with team-mate Tonio Liuzzi in P15, but the Italian could face questions over impeding Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams.

In the battle of the second division of Formula One, the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock had a close duel for the top spot among the new teams, eventually won by the Finn again, although the margin to the established midfield teams was back up to two seconds.

Bruno Senna’s replacement driver at Hispania, Japanese racer Sakon Yamamoto will start last in the British Grand Prix, but the gap to his team-mate Karun Chandhok was a respectable 0.4 seconds. It will be fascinating if Yamamoto can keep up the pace with 52 laps around the fast, flowing Silverstone circuit come race day.

Qualifying times from Silverstone:
1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:29.615
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:29.758
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:30.426
4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:30.556
5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:30.625
6.  Kubica         Renault                1:31.040
7.  Massa          Ferrari                1:31.172
8.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:31.175
9.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:31.274
10. Schumacher     Mercedes               1:31.430
11. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:31.399
12. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:31.421
13. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:31.635
14. Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:31.699
15. Petrov         Renault                1:31.796
16. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:32.012
17. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:32.430
18. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:34.405
19. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:34.775
20. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:31.708*
21. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:34.864
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:35.212
23. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:36.576
24. Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:36.968

*Docked five places due to impending Nico Hulkenberg during Q2

???????

Sebastian Vettel took his second victory of the season in a dramatic European Grand Prix in Valencia. Lewis Hamilton put in a brave fight for McLaren with second position and even a drive-though penalty for overtaking the safety car was unable to affect his determination to beat the Red Bull. Team-mate Jenson Button finished in third but he is one of nine drivers to be investigated by the race stewards during the safety car period.

As for Mark Webber, this was a race to forget. The Australian made a poor start and was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton and both Ferraris into the Turn 2. At the end of the opening lap, the Red Bull was down in ninth while team-mate Vettel was resisting the pressure from Hamilton at the front.

Hamilton’s run off the line was so good he was able to get partially alongside Vettel into Turn 2, where firm contact was made, sending the Red Bull slightly sideways and taking a chunk from the McLaren’s front wing, though both continued ahead of Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Button.

Unable to make progress around the twisty street circuit, Webber made an early pitstop at the end of lap seven, where he lost a few more seconds as his left-front wheel proved stubborn.

That lost time put the Australian behind Heikki Kovalainen and as he tried to pass the Lotus three laps later he went flying over the back of the car on the fast approach to the Turn 17 hairpin.

The Red Bull wiped out an advertising board hanging over the track before landing upside down, rolling back onto its wheels and ploughing into the tyre barriers – though remarkably Mark climbed out unscathed.

With the safety car called, most drivers from fifth-placed Button back immediately dived into the pitlane, while the top four continued. Vettel was already past the pit exit by the time the safety car emerged, but for Hamilton he was not so fortunate. After a moment’s hesitation, he accelerated past but having passed the relevant safety car line across the track, that meant the McLaren would later be penalised for overtaking the safety car.

Vettel and Hamilton were therefore able to rejoin first and second, while the Scuderias were caught behind the safety car and fell down to P10 and P17 – leaving the team furious.

Fortunately for Hamilton, Sauber decided not to call in Kamui Kobayashi under the yellow and he jumped up to third. So while the top two charged clear at the restart – which saw Vettel hold the line despite outbraking himself and sliding through the final corner – the Sauber bottled up the rest of the pack. By the time race control awarded Hamilton his drive-through penalty, he had enough of a gap over Kobayashi to take the penalty without losing a position. A remarkable job.

Hamilton started carving into Vettel’s lead setting purple sector times around the Valencia street circuit. His progress was superb although the Virgin of Timo Glock and Bruno Senna’s Hispania held him up momentarily. The pair were fighting over track position and shortly afterwards making contact. But Vettel had the advantage and was able to resist Hamilton’s charge with a new fastest lap five laps from the chequered flag.

Kobayashi kept Button and the rest at bay until finally making a single pitstop on lap 53, which handed McLaren its second podium position, ahead of Rubens Barrichello, Renault’s Robert Kubica and the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

The frustrated Alonso spent the final laps all over Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso but ended up losing eighth to Kobayashi as the Sauber rejoined on its fresh Bridgestone and dived past the double world champion with a lap to go. Kobayashi then chased down Buemi too and grabbed seventh at the very last corner.

But these positions may yet be subject to change, with the race stewards set to investigate whether Button, the Williams, the Renaults, the Force Indias, Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa exceeded the permitted speed on their way back to the pits under yellow.

After several hours following the chequered flag, the race stewards penalised Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi, Pedro de la Rosa and Vitantonio Liuzzi with five seconds penalties for exceeding the safety car-in lap time.

The penalties mean Fernando Alonso is elevated from ninth to eighth, as he overtakes Buemi, and Nico Rosberg gets the final point from Pedro de la Rosa, tenth in the race.

As for the Silver Arrows, this was a nightmare weekend. Nico Rosberg lost so much ground on the opening lap and by the end, he was classified in a disappointing P12. As for team-mate Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion suffered from a bad strategy call during the caution period and ending up P16 after multiple pitstops.

So Germany takes top honours ahead of the England in Valencia. An omen to the World Cup match taking place in South Africa?

Race results from Valencia, 57 laps:

1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h40:29.571
2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +5.042
3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +12.658
4.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +25.627
5.  Kubica        Renault                    +27.122
6.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +30.168
7.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +30.965
8.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +32.809
9.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +36.299
10. Rosberg       Mercedes                   +44.382
11. Massa         Ferrari                    +46.621
12. De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +47.414
13. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +48.239
14. Petrov        Renault                    +48.287
15. Schumacher    Mercedes                   +48.826
16. Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +50.890
17. Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
18. Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
19. Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +2 laps
20. Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
21. Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +4 laps

Fastest lap: Button, 1:38.766

Not classified/retirements:
Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth            50 laps
Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth               9 laps
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             9 laps

World Championship standings, round 9:

Drivers:
1.  Hamilton     127
2.  Button       121
3.  Vettel       115
4.  Webber       103
5.  Alonso        98
6.  Kubica        83
7.  Rosberg       75
8.  Massa         67
9.  Schumacher    34
10.  Sutil         31
11.  Barrichello   19
12.  Liuzzi        12
13.  Buemi          9
14.  Kobayashi      7
15.  Petrov         6
16.  Alguersuari    3
17.  Hulkenberg     1

Constructors:
1.  McLaren-Mercedes          248
2.  Red Bull-Renault          218
3.  Ferrari                   165
4.  Mercedes                  109
5.  Renault                    89
6.  Force India-Mercedes       43
7.  Williams-Cosworth          20
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10
9.  Sauber-Ferrari              7

Next race: British Grand Prix, Silverstone. July 9-11.

Red Bull Racing resumed their qualifying form with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber taking the front row at the Valencia street circuit.

Championship contender Lewis Hamilton will start the European Grand Prix in third, alongside home crowd favourite Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Initially it was Webber who held provisional pole going into the closing moments of Q3, but a superb lap from his team-mate push the German to top honours, the first time since Shanghai. His pole lap in the F-duct RB6 was one minute, 37.587 seconds. A difference of 0.075 seconds.

An error on his final qualifying run saw Hamilton unable to defend his provisional front row slot and he will start the race in third, just ahead of the Scuderias of Alonso and Felipe Massa respectively.

Both Renault and Williams got both cars into the top-ten shootout, with Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello setting identical times! Although Hulkenberg takes eighth over last year’s Valencia winner by virtue by setting his lap first. Robert Kubica takes sixth with team-mate Vitaly Petrov four places back.

As for Jenson Button, the defending world champion could only manage seventh for McLaren. For Mercedes, the silver cars enduring their worst qualifying session even after the troubles at Montreal. Nico Rosberg could only manage P12 after a dramatic brake-locking last lap. While team-mate Michael Schumacher was struggling and will start the race down in P15, his worst ever Formula One starts.

The Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi will share row seven. And it was an encouraging session for Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi, who grabbed P11 and came within 0.034s of sneaking into Q3.

Schumacher’s last-gasp Q1 escape meant it was Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi who ended up down with the new teams for the second event in a row. His team-mate Pedro de la Rosa was just two places ahead, with Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso splitting them.

Lotus remained on top among the tail end group, but this time the gap to the rest of the field was back up to 1.3 seconds. Jarno Trulli overturned team-mate Heikki Kovalainen’s recent superiority and led the battle of the new teams – and there was a change of form at Virgin Racing too, where Lucas di Grassi outqualified Timo Glock for the first time.

Qualifying times from Valencia:
1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:37.587
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:37.662
3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:37.969
4.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:38.075
5.  Massa          Ferrari               1:38.127
6.  Kubica         Renault               1:38.137
7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.210
8.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:38.428
9.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:38.428
10. Petrov         Renault              1:38.523
11. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:38.586
12. Rosberg        Mercedes             1:38.627
13. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1:38.851
14. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes 1:38.884
15. Schumacher     Mercedes             1:39.234
16. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari       1:39.264
17. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:39.458
18. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.343
19. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.658
20. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.882
21. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.086
22. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.140
23. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:42.600
24. Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:42.851

McLaren-Mercedes took its second successive one-two finish as Lewis Hamilton led home Jenson Button in an exciting Canadian Grand Prix, in which tyre wear played a major role on the race strategy.

Fernando Alonso put in a brave fight for the lead but traffic affected his progress and in the end, had to settle for third in the Ferrari. The Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber finished fourth and fifth respectively, with the former nursing a car problem and the latter struggling with grip on graining Bridgestone.

This was a race of tyre strategy and it was fascinating to see the difference in grip and durability in running the super-soft compared to the medium. In the case of Lewis Hamilton, he started the race on the super-soft and after switching to the medium, had the speed advantage and desire to take the chequered flag in style.

As for the Red Bulls, both Webber and Vettel opted the medium compound in the first stint in a bid that this Bridgestone tyre will be more durable, but in the race that all-familiar problem of graining occurred and in Webber’s case, he was losing grip and time (not help by traffic as well) that cost him track position.

Nico Rosberg recovered from being pushed back into the mid-field during a chaotic first lap to take sixth for Mercedes GP, ahead of Renault’s Robert Kubica, who had a wheel-banging battle with Michael Schumacher in the early stages that saw both take to the grass.

Schumacher’s tyre troubles affected him the most compared to the others, with the Mercedes stopping three times in the pits and was still lapping four seconds off the pace in the final stint… Sebastien Buemi passed him for seventh, and he was then caught by Felipe Massa.

The Brazilian and Tonio Liuzzi managed to tangle twice during the first two corners of the race, damaging both cars. After pitting for repairs, they charged back towards the points, only for Massa to lose his front wing when Schumacher defended his position aggressively with six laps to the flag.

Liuzzi then took up the challenge of trying to overtake Schumacher, who slid over the final chicane and banged wheels with the Italian more than once as he fought to maintain his position in ninth. On the last lap, Schumacher tumbled down to P11 as the Force Indias forced by to take the remaining championship points.

Other drivers hitting trouble on the opening lap were both Saubers and Vitaly Petrov. The Renault took to the grass on the run towards the first corner and ended up spinning into Pedro de la Rosa, damaging both cars, with Petrov also receiving a jump-start penalty. The second Sauber was soon heading for the pits too – Kamui Kobayashi sliding into the wall at the final chicane as he jousted with Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams.

In the battle of the second division of Formula One, Heikki Kovalainen took the honours for Lotus with P16 but alas his team-mate Jarno Trulli had to retire with mechanical problems. Karun Chandhok and Lucas di Grassi were the remaining drivers to be classified while their respective team-mates Bruno Senna and Timo Glock were forced to pull out from the race.

By winning the Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton now leads the drivers’ standings with 109 points, three ahead of Jenson Button and six over Mark Webber. In the constructors’ the McLaren team now heads the field with 215 over Red Bull’s 193 and the Scuderia on 161 points.

Race results from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 70 laps:
1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h33:53.456
2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +2.254
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +9.214
4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +37.817
5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +39.291
6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +56.084
7.  Kubica        Renault                    +57.300
8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
9.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
10. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
11. Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
12. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13. Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
14. Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
15. Massa         Ferrari                    +1 lap
16. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +2 laps
17. Petrov        Renault                    +2 laps
18. Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps
19. Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +5 laps

Fastest lap: Kubica, 1:16.972

Not classified/retirements:
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              50 laps
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               43 laps
De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari               31 laps
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 14 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               2 laps

World Championship standings, round 8:

Drivers:
1.  Hamilton     109
2.  Button       106
3.  Webber       103
4.  Alonso        94
5.  Vettel        90
6.  Rosberg       74
7.  Kubica        73
8.  Massa         67
9.  Schumacher    34
10. Sutil         23
11. Liuzzi        12
12. Barrichello    7
13. Petrov         6
14. Buemi          5
15. Alguersuari    3
16. Hulkenberg     1
17. Kobayashi      1

Constructors:
1. McLaren-Mercedes          215
2. Red Bull-Renault          193
3. Ferrari                   161
4. Mercedes                  108
5. Renault                    79
6. Force India-Mercedes       35
7. Williams-Cosworth           8
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari          8
9. Sauber-Ferrari              1

Next race: European Grand Prix, Valencia. June 25-27.

Lewis Hamilton scored his first pole position of the season with a thrilling qualifying session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. In doing so the 2008 world champion maintains his excellent qualifying form at this circuit and this result means he has ended Red Bull Racing’s dominance in qualifying with a superb lap in the McLaren.

The battle for pole was a tight conflict between Hamilton, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. Each of the drivers traded the top spot running different tyre compounds but it was Lewis who took the honours in the end with a time of one minute, 15.105 seconds. Moments later Lewis had to stop his McLaren as it was nearly out of fuel!

Championship leader Mark Webber will start the Canadian Grand Prix in second while team-mate Sebastian Vettel managed to record a decent lap time to take third after initially struggling in Q3. The young German had to abandon a lap when he went straight over the final chicane but held it together in the final run.

Fernando Alonso starts fourth for the Scuderia, ahead of Jenson Button while Tonio Liuzzi took a fantastic sixth for Force India. A great achievement for the Italian and the team.

Sharing row four is Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica, with Adrian Sutil and Nico Rosbeg completing the top ten.

The shock of the qualifying session was Michael Schumacher’s failure to get through into Q3. The Mercedes driver was only four-tenths adrift of team-mate Rosberg, but that translated to six positions in Q2, as Schumacher was edged outside the top ten in the final seconds and then made a mistake at the final chicane when trying to respond.

As the Williams of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, the pair improved to take row six, forcing Schumacher down to P13. The seven-time world champion will not be pleased with this low grid position.

The same can be said to the Sauber team. Both Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi was unable to find decent pace and were knocked out as early as Q1. The Japanese even had to fend off the flying Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, who was only two-tenths slower in the end as he beat team-mate Jarno Trulli by four-tenths in the new team pack battle.

Qualifying times from Montreal:

1. Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:15.105
2. Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:15.373
3. Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:15.420
4. Alonso         Ferrari                1:15.435
5. Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:15.520
6. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:15.648
7. Massa          Ferrari                1:15.688
8. Kubica         Renault                1:15.715
9. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:15.881
10. Rosberg        Mercedes              1:16.071
11. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:16.434
12. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:16.438
13. Schumacher     Mercedes              1:16.492
14. Petrov         Renault               1:16.844
15. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:16.928
16. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:17.029
17. de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:17.384
18. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:18.019
19. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:18.237
20. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:18.698
21. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:18.941
22. Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:19.484
23. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:19.675
24. Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:27.757