Sebastian Vettel refused to buckle under pressure as he held off a late charge from Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix to claim his fourth win of the season.
The defending World Champion's latest win sees him stretch his lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship to 41 points ahead of the McLaren driver.
Unlike in previous races where Vettel could manage the race from the front, today the World Championhad to fight hard, without KERS for the latter part of the race. Jenson Button claimed the final podium place with Mark Webber fourth and Fernando Alonso fifth.
Race Report
It was bright and windy at the Circuit de Catalunya track with bright sunshine and an ambient temperature of 27C with the track at 35C.
Grid: 1.Webber, 2.Vettel, 3.Hamilton, 4.Alonso, 5.Button, 6.Petrov 7.Rosberg 8.Massa, 9.Maldonado 10.Schumacher, 11.Buemi, 12.Perez
Start: With a long run down to the first turn, KERS energy would be important and Lotus's Heikki Kovalainen was going to be hard-pressed to keep hold of P15 without it. The big question was - would Red Bull be able to use theirs after Sebastian Vettel lost his in qualifying?
Fernando Alonso has had some very poor starts this year, but in Barcelona when the red lights went out, he produced the start of the season, drilling his Ferrari down the inside of polesitter Mark Webber into the apex of Turn 1 and the lead. Webber tried to close him out, but left a gap at least a 150 Italia wide and Alonso went through it.
At the same time that Mark's attention was pre-occupied with Alonso on the inside, he found Sebastian Vettel cruising round him on the outside and he was down to P3. Lewis Hamilton held position in P4 but was slow through the first turns. However P5 on the grid, Jenson Button, had a nightmare start and dropped back behind the two Mercedes, Petrov and Felipe Massa after getting too much wheelspin off the line.
Michael Schumacher got a good start and was immediately ahead of Massa and Rosberg but couldn't find a way past Petrov
Lap 1 Positions: 1.Alonso, 2.Vettel, 3.Webber, 4.Hamilton, 5.Petrov, 6. Schumacher, 7.Rosberg, 8.Buemi, 9.Massa, 10.Button, 11.Perez,12.Alguersuari, 13.Maldonado, 14.DiResta.
What became immediately apparent at the start of the race was that the top four were beginning to break away from Petrov in P5. What was also immediately obvious was that cars wouldn't be able to use the DRS wing to much effect down the start/finish straight.
Massa had got back past Buemi after the Toro Rosso driver's great start and on Lap 4 Button got past the Swiss driver to take P9. Petrov had opened up a gap in front of Schumacher and now Michael gathered a train of Rosberg, Massa and Button. Because the three following cars could all use their DRS on the straight this effectively held them in position till tyre wear began to take effect.
At the front, Alonso's supreme start meant that neither Red Bull had been able to clear off into the distance and they were held in a four-car train. By Lap 8, fourth place man Lewis Hamilton had over 11 seconds on the following Petrov and two seconds covered the front four.
On Lap 9 it all began to change as Sebastian Vettel dived for the pitlane and the first of what would be four tyre stops. He exited the pitlane just behind Jenson Button but on fresher tyres was soon past. In fact Lap 10 of the Spanish Grand Prix showed that Sebastian Vettel could really put moves on when he wanted to as he cleared Button, Massa, Rosberg and then Schumacher in the space of one lap.
It could have been important, as a lap later and Webber and Alonso were both in for their first pit-stops (on a four-stop strategy) and when the Spaniard exited the pits he found himself still in the lead. Lewis came in a lap later and managed to jump up to P3 ahead of Webber.
The positions on Lap 12 were: 1.Alonso, 2.Vettel, 3.Hamilton, 4.Webber, 5.Button (not stopped), 6.diResta (not stopped), 7.Schumacher, 8.Trulli (not stopped), 9.Kovalainen (not stopped), 10.Petrov, 11.Rosberg
Button appeared to be going longer than the front runners and when he pitted on Lap14 it was clear he had the option of going for a three- or four-stopper. He'd already made up places leapfrogging Petrov and Rosberg in that stop and was straight onto the tail of Michael Schumacher and past him using superior traction. Thus he'd pitted from P5 on Lap 14 and was back into P5 by Lap 15.
There was an ocean of time between Button in P5 and Mark Webber in fourth place twenty-seven seconds down the road. At this point of the afternoon a podium finish for the McLaren driver seemed a very unlikely prospect, but it was like the Tour de France when one rider goes off the front of the peloton to try and catch a breakaway group. Button started to close down the group in front on his fresher tyres, knowing that he had one less stop to make.
On Lap 18 Vettel was in again for tyres, followed a lap later by Alonso and Webber. This time round Vettel was able to take the lead off Alonso. Lewis Hamilton was able to stay out much longer and even put in a Fastest Lap on Lap 20. When Lewis came in for his second stop on Lap 23 he'd taken second place off Alonso demoting the Spaniard to third with Webber holding fourth.
The positions on Lap 24 were: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Alonso, 4.Webber, 5.Button (one stop), 6.Schumacher (one stop), 7.Rosberg (one stop), 8.Petrov (one stop), 9.Buemi (one stop), 10.DiResta (one stop), 11.Massa
Button stopped for the second time on Lap 30 and while Alonso and Webber had taken on harder tyres, Button had gone for the Options which were worth up to two seconds a lap. A lap earlier Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso had come in together and almost had a coming together in the pitlane. The Red Bull had got away early and the Ferrari was released almost into his path - the pair cruised down the pitlane side by side with Alonso on the blue hache marks but centimetres in front.
When they got out on track Alonso had the advantage and held his place into Turn 1. Webber clearly had a faster car but equipped with the same hard tyres and the same age of tyres, couldn't get past. Behind them, Button closed up.
On Lap 34 Vettel pitted and Hamilton followed suit the next lap. At this stage of the race the front two had rapidly formed their own breakaway, while Webber and Vettel fell back into the clutches of Button - who had stopped one time less, but was proving the theory correct, that the Option was two seconds quicker than the Prime.
Mark Webber could clearly have gone faster if he'd found a way past Alonso, and unlike his team-mate in the lead, Webber had a working KERS. On Lap 34 Mark Webber scrambled past Alonso into Turn 10 but ran in too deep and Alonso craftily nipped back past him into Turn 11.
However neither were safe from the rampaging Jenson Button who still had the slower Prime tyre to run. He got round Webber on the outside into Turn 1 using the DRS on Lap 36. Webber resisted him, despite the strategy imbalance and they bumped tyres but continued. Such was Button's pace that he was up to and past Alonso by Turn 11 of the same lap.
The positions on Lap 37 were: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Button (two stops), 4.Alonso, 5.Webber, 6.Schumacher (two stops), 7.Rosberg (two stops), 8.Petrov (two stops), 9.Massa, 10.Buemi (two stops).
All was not well with Felipe Massa, gear slection problems sending him into a spin on Lap 38 and ultimate retirement on Lap 59.
Fernando Alonso pitted for more hard tyres on Lap 40 and when Webber kept on going, it meant that the Ferrari driver was unlikely to better his P5 position. Button, now in third, was significantly slower than the front two who were in a race of their own separated now by less than two seconds. On Lap 42 Vettel's advantage was just 1.2 seconds.
The closeness of the front two put extra pressure on the final pit-stops. Vettel came in on Lap 48 and Red Bull produced a textbook turnround, while McLaren were 0.6 slower a lap later. They were half a minute in front of third place Jenson Button.
Hamilton came out behind Vettel and began to put in great times on his fresh tyres. Heikki Kovalainen had gone off the road on Lap 50 and when Hamilton, Button and Webber passed the waved yellows at that spot they all put in their fastest sectors of the race so far. In fact Mark Webber reduced the Fastest Lap to 1:27.187 that lap. After the race the stewards asked them to come to the office to explain, but ultimately no sanction, other than a reprimand, was made.
The positions on Lap 50 when the top eight had made their final stops were: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Button, 4.Webber, 5.Alonso, 6.Schumacher, 7.Rosberg, 8.Massa, 9.DiResta, 10.Heidfeld, 11.Petrov.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were trading fastest laps and personal bests at the front and the gap varied between a second and 0.6 in the final thirteen laps of the race, but although Hamilton could deploy KERS and the DRS, such was the traction and speed advantage of the Red Bull through the final high speed corner that the McLaren couldn't get anywhere near the car in front until the final 100 metres of the straight.
A few times Hamilton was close enough to have a look and Vettel had to cover, but that was as close as it got. Behind them, Mark Webber put on a sustained charge to close down the gap to Jenson Button to as little as 2.3 seconds. But On Lap 63 (of 66) his tyres started to go off and he eventually came home twelve seconds behind the Brit.
Vettel took the win and became the 20th person out of 21 to win the Spanish GP from the front row of the grid. Button made it a McLaren 2-3 with a determined drive recovering from a disastrous start. Mark Webber came home in fourth, a poor result for a polesiting car whose KERS was working; the Aussie suffering from being stuck behind Alonso for too long.
Alonso was a distant and lapped fifth, Michael Schumacher came home sixth in front of his team-mate for a change - though that was helped by Nico Rosberg's rear wing and his radio both failing. Despite all that Rosberg was only 0.8 behind him at the flag.
Nick Heidfeld drove a great race from the back of the grid to take P8 ahead of a feisty performance from Sergio Perez in P9 and a remarkable comeback for Kamui Kobayashi who had to pit with a puncture on Lap 1 and claimed the final point.
FH
Results
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h39:03.301
02. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 0.630
03. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 35.697
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 47.966
05. Alonso Ferrari + 1 lap
06. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
07. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
08. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap
09. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 2 laps
17. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 2 laps
18. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
20. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
21. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
Not classified/retirements:
Massa Ferrari 60
Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 49
Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 29
