Normal service resumes in F1 as defending world champ Sebastian Vettel stormed to a convincing victory at the European GP. The young German started from pole, had an untroubled lights to flag victory, and bagged the Valencia race’s fastest lap with 1:41.852. Home boy Fernando Alonso was a distant second for Ferrari, 10.89 seconds behind Vettel. Red Bull’s other driver Mark Webber completed the podium.
Behind them were Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Canadian GP winner Jenson Button in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Mercedes GP Petronas’ Nico Rosberg scored points with seventh, 10 places ahead of teammate Schumacher, who clashed with Petrov to incur an extra stop for a wing.
The other top ten finishers are Jaime Alguersuari (great drive with just two stops, he started 18th), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Lotus Renault GP’s Nick Heidfeld. Three of them were a lap down.
Vettel’s chasers never had a look at victory after he stormed away from the get go. Webber held on to second till lap 22, when Alonso, who had been putting great pressure on the Aussie, finally overtook him under DRS. Both were on three-stop plans, and Webber retook second after the second round of stops, when he pitted before Alonso.
In the third round, Webber again pitted first, this time for the slower medium compound tyres. Alonso stayed out awhile more (three laps) on his worn softs and managed to jump Webber when he came out of the pits for the final time.
It was a relatively quiet afternoon for Hamilton after the past few races, and he never really found the pace to challenge the front men. It was similarly uneventful for Button, whose KERS went faulty. Most did three, Alguersuari made two work, but Sauber’s Sergio Perez failed to convert his weird one-stop strategy into points – he was 11th.
Team Lotus finished 19th and 20th with Heikki leading Jarno, the same position they started with. Interestingly, all 24 cars finished, and no one retired.
Vettel is fast running away with the title. With this latest victory, he is on 186 points, 77 ahead of Button and Webber. His team has an equally comfortable 89 point lead over McLaren in the constructors’ table. Anyone who wants to have a say better rise up fast, otherwise it’s going to be Sebastian Vettel, two time world champion, in no time!
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Haiyo….RedBull domination makes F1 boring…please ban engine mapping,hot blowing diffuser and of course,RedBull’s flexible wings…F1 spectator sick with that trick!! ;p
It’s good to see the French and German makers competing against each other!!
That is moronic… blame the other engineers on all other teams for not being smarter than Adrian Newey.
In 1988, McLaren’s Senna-Prost combo won 15 out of 16 races. Do you call that boring or legendary? Only a pathetic half-assed fan like you would call it boring.
It’s easy to make f1 interesting again…gave back F1’s traditional hirarchy-Mclaren vs Ferrari!!!
I know after GP Silverstones, RedBull will be like BrawnGP at 2009,
‘A SEASON WONDER’!!!!!
cant wait to see Mclaren’s 2011 innovation that can leaves ferrari & RB 1-2 secs perlap…RB will be DUSTED!!!
what a LuLzz..
gave back F1?s traditional hirarchy-Mclaren vs Ferrari?
are you watching some looney tune charity race series?
No lullz stupid…
This is only way to makes f1 interesting again…why just lets a ‘DRINK COMPANY’ to dominate anyway…redbull drink do not make ur snail car go faster…just let true car makers like Ferrari & Mclaren make their way ;-p
Don’t understand the logic. If a drink company is not worthy of dominating F1… and you are saying that that is the problem in F1.. then what about the time when Williams utterly dominated F1? They don’t make cars..and even McLaren? which was not an auto company until recently.
Were you aware that F1 existed long before 1999? Certainly decades before you prized Mclaren vs Ferrari ‘hierarchy’.. Ferrari was in fact not competitive for many years…
And lets not even forget the Benetton domination era driven by one familiar name.. one M Schumacher.. sound familiar? Hope you know what company Benetton was.. and Ferrari & Mclaren were languishing further back..
Congratulations buddy for now realizing that F1 is a whole lot more than 10 years old!
@ignoramus. Just wait & see…after GP british,i think the traditional hierarchy will be back on-track…Mclaren HIDE their 2011’s innovation until GP silverstones,just intentionly let Vettel lead the championship…
Mclaren is 2011’s contructor champion and Hamilton win their 2nd tittle in 2011…no doubt
The thrill of 1988 was because of the Prost vs Senna rivalry rather than Mclaren’s dominance. Both raced like ‘real men’ or at times like real assasins. Cars also had much more mechanical grip making spectacular overtaking moves possible.
Many of the moves between them would probably see them get banned in today’s modern dull and sterile F1
To be fair, when Senna-Prost dominated 1988, they were fighting each other. Right now, only Vettel is winning while Webbo is flapping in the wind like a fool!
To make F1 great again, firstly make cars simple again. The best years of F1 was when cars were simple and drivers were real men, not some sponsor-packaged humanoid.
And secondly, get rid of the dull racing circuits like Valencia, Singapore, Bahrain and the like! The only dull track that should be allowed on the calendar is Monaco, and only because it has heritage and once in a while some exciting racing does occur there.
Like i said earlier…SV & RB makes f1 super-boring…majority says that,although bernie as usual opposed that ;-p
http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7010029/Bernie-Vettel-dominance-not-boring -PLANETF1
F1 results quite monotonous these day…. Vettel….
kinda miss Red Schumacher vs Silver-Black Mika Hakkinen times…
kinda agree with you
they really need to learn from Akademi Fantasia on how to make things more suspens
lol
Vettel will be the new youngest double world champion.
Have to say I missed the ‘Dull-encia’ race and find myself quite alright just looking race results online. Was there anything is the race I should not have missed??
the only thing that ruin abit vettel’s march to the title last season was webber’s driving. this year webber seems more compose and know his place, the second driver.
Nothing special about this race. Watched the last 5 laps and i immediately switched channels minutes later. Pls scrap this Dullancia otherwise ppl will be put into their pillows soon!
i didn’t watch it…what’s the point….
i rather watch motogp then this boring f1 .. nobody take over car for first place… only long driving race..
i did watch motogp 125cc race, zulfahmi khairuddin starts last at 35 but finished 14 in damp condition, very good ride from him, paultan should highlight this
Paultan is a ‘CAR’ blog…not a ‘MOTORCYCLE’ blog…please take note ;-p
paultan now became a commercial blog not individual blog that he started years ago, any auto related stuff is acceptable, intersting news can attract more visitors
paultan should probably assign someone just to monitor motorsport.. but then again.. paultan is an automotive site, not a motorsport site. Still.. things like Le Mans 24 should have been high on priority because it’s very closely tied to the automotive industry.. more so than F1!
Congratulations to Vettel! Here the new Hero born same level as Schumi!!
Good job Vettel. Put a big shame into the giant Ferrari Racing….
Do you think these cars are easy to drive? They don’t have electronic assists such as Traction Control System (TCS), and Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) any more. That’s why some of them are always locking up the brakes. An average person would spin out in every corner if he/she tries to drive the F1 car today. Apart from that it’s hard enough with 7 gears to change and there are almost countless controls on and off the steering wheel, including the new DRS and KERS. For some the brake bias is near the left leg, my goodness.
I have the F12010 game, it’s fantastic and the cars are not easy to drive at all with all assists off just like what they’re driving.
You should try Live For Speed BMW F1 no assists, it’s ALOT harder
This is starting to get boring. Maybe F1 should use Super GT’s weight ballast ruling to stop one driver from dominating a season and make racing much more interesting.