Red Bull has definitely turned a pole position into a race victory but instead of pole-starter Sebastian Vettel as you might expect, it was Mark Webber who did it after starting the race from second place. The Australian finished the rather exiting race ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso while third place went to Sebastian Vettel, after losing out no thanks to a drive through penalty.
More importantly, Webber is now the leader of the Driver’s Championship and that was made possible with Lewis Hamilton’s retirement, most likely due to a transmission problem. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari crossed the line in fourth place followed by Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa.
Jenson Button from McLaren finished in eight place while Kamui Kobayashi from Sauber managed to finish in the top ten and collect some valuable points after starting from 23rd on the grid. He was given a 5-place grid drop after failing to get into the FIA scrutineering garage during qualifying yesterday. The final point-paying position was taken up by Rubens Barrichello from Williams after making a sensational overtaking move on former Ferrari team mate Michael Schumacher who was the only Mercedes driver to finish the race.
Despite losing out to Virgin Racing in qualifying, Lotus managed to finish the race ahead of the Richard Branson-owned team. Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli finished in 13th and 14th places ahead of Virgin’s Timo Glock. Hispania’s Bruno Senna, Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi and Hispania’s Sakon Yamamoto filled 17th, 18th and 19th positions ahead of the retirees. The start of the race saw Sebastian Vettel keep his lead ahead of Alonso. Webber dropped to third but kept himself ahead of Massa.
The 70-lap race was anything but boring although there were very few overtaking moves. First up was the safety car situation on Lap 16 that was prompted by some debris on the track. The highlight of the day was the accident that took place in the pit lane. The Renault pit crew cleared Kubica to rejoin the race, but failed to notice Adrian Sutil’s oncoming Force India race car. Both cars collided and subsequently retired. At the same time Nico Rosberg lost his rear right wheel just a second or two after being released by his pit crew.
As the safety car was being brought in, Vettel who was running second following the pit stops had a huge distance between himself and Webber in front. With the huge gap, exceeding the minimum 10-car length rule, the stewards gave the German a drive through penalty which caused him to lose second place to Alonso. While performing the drive through Vettel made no attempt in keeping his frustrations to himself as he was carrying out the ‘universal’ hand gesture. Vettel later revealed that he was unaware of the safety car’s status at that point of time.
As mentioned Webber’s victory and Lewis Hamilton’s retirement handed the former the lead in the Driver’s Championship. He now has 161 points while Hamilton is second with 157 points. Frustrated Vettel is third with 151 points followed by Button with 147 points and Alonso with 141 points. Massa is quite far off with 97 points in sixth. Red Bull has taken over the Constructor’s Championship lead with 312 points. McLaren and Ferrari are behind with 304 and 238 points respectively.
Judging from Red Bull’s current performance it looks as though either Webber or Vettel will bag the driver’s crown along with the constructor’s title as well. This can only change if McLaren somehow improves dramatically or if Ferrari is able to do more damage. Formula 1 will now enjoy a 3-week long break before congregating again for the Belgian GP at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
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go lotus go !!!
its so nice to see webber’s face when he wins..
and mr.greedy vettel really shows temper on the podium which too much..
he doesnt need to hit the pole to show his unhappy..
whats wrong with schumacher? is 10th place really worth to danger rubens?
come on la schumacher,already old also want to play dirty?
these are not pro drivers attitude..even our lotus drove a clean race..
Quite a surprise to see that lately, the racing has turn into Red Bull vs Ferrari. The Mclaren and not to mention the Mercedes team seems going backwards?
fan,
Lotus drove a clean race cos they had no right to challenge
any team.
Just an irritating backmarker with nothing to prove except
being smoked.
How cleaner can Lotus get.?
Congrats to Mark. The Bulls were blazingly fast compared to the other teams. But sadly, Vettel’s youth and inexperience showed. And so did Michael’s desperation.
Yes Vettel seems to have attitude problem. Also he should have overtake Alonso since he is faster but he just can’t do it. Problem with his skills? Btw, the commentators aren’t helping the sports at all when they suggested that he should play safe and not risk trying to overtake Alonso. Already F1 is lacking overtaking excitements.
Back to the race, I think the pit should also partly be blamed. With so many people hanging around, somebody to take care of the regulations and let the drivers do the driving. And I personally don’t think Webber is such a good driver.
classic showdown between rubens and schumacher…….and yes schumacher should be penalized……
Penalty’s been given.
JPJ.. kasi tarik lesen Mat Schu.. orang tua tak elok dah memandu.. bahaya..
The red bull domination continues, and looks to me if this go on, Webber will be taking the driver’s title. Still the top 5 driver’s points is still too close and expect this to be a very tight championship race.
A job well done for Lotus as well, finishing ahead of Virgin and Hispania. A real shame of Yamamoto, the paid driver for Hispania who even lapped by the Virgin car of Di Grassi who has pitted more than Yamamoto. Even Karun Chandok is better than Yamamoto.
Shame on Micheal for pushing Barichello almost into the pit wall to prevent him from overtaking. As an experienced driver and team mates, he almost cause a massive accident. The stewards were right in punishing him 10 place down the grid for the next race.
what a close score!!!
5 drivers all within 20 points. 3 of them already world champions – alonso, hamilton and button.
things are looking more interesting.
just 7 years ago both alonso and button used to be at the tail end, alonso in minardi while button with british american racing, later known as Honda and now Mercedez GP.
hamilton was still in karting. what a difference now.
And Webber was in Jaguar.
pual, correction; webber started the race from 3rd lpos a. adious
Webber did start from second: http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2010/835/6770/
Yawn
go go webber!
Like what foreign press says – “Schumacher the villain, as he has always been.” “Schumacher’s return to formula one is one of the darkest chapters in the history of the sport.”