Sunday, June 26, 2011

2011 Formula 1 : Vettel takes the sixth win of season

Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7 race winner, Fernando Alonso (ESP), Scuderia Ferrari, F-150 Italia 2nd position and Mark Webber (AUS), Red Bull Racing, RB7 3rd position

VALENCIA, Spain : June 26, 2011 - Sebastian Vettel returned to winning ways with his sixth win of the 2011 season in a European Grand Prix that failed to deliver much in the way of action, but still secured a place in the F1 record books.


2011 F1 - European Grand Prix winner - Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7

All 24 cars that started the race were still running at the finish, marking only the fourth time that an F1 race has been completed without a retirement while the race also had more classified finishers than any other in the history of the sport.

Aside from that, Valencia 2011 will be remembered for little other than another masterclass from defending champion Vettel, who made a solid start to retain the lead when the lights went out and was then able to control proceedings from the front to extend his championship advantage to 77 points – the equivalent of more than three race victories.

Vettel gradually pulled away from team-mate Mark Webber through the opening laps of the race as the Australian found himself defending against the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso – the Spaniard having made up a place at the start to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.

Having said prior to the race that he was confident of challenging for a place on the podium, Hamilton's hopes all but ended at the start as his slow getaway also allowed Felipe Massa to jump ahead, with the Brazilian briefly holding third going into turn two before slotting in behind Alonso as the field headed into turn three.

As Vettel continued to lead, Webber came under increasing pressure from Alonso but despite maintaining his position in the first round of stops, the Australian was powerless to stop Alonso diving down the inside at turn twelve on lap 21 to move into second place, sending the Spanish crowd into raptures.

Alonso wouldn't stay ahead for long however as Red Bull's decision to bring Webber in for his second stop a lap earlier helped him jump back into second. The pair then ran together, with Vettel a few seconds down the road, until the final round of stops when Alonso jumped back ahead having been able to run three laps more on his soft compound Pirelli tyres.

While Vettel motored on to victory, any chance Webber had of completing a 1-2 for Red Bull came to an end when he was told to short-shift thanks to a gearbox problem in the closing laps and dropped back from the Ferrari as a result.

Vettel's margin of victory at the end was some 10.8 seconds over Alonso, while Webber came in more than 16 seconds further back in third place.

After his tardy start, the race would prove to be a low-key affair for Hamilton who ran fifth through the opening stint before getting ahead of Massa at the first round of stops when the Brazilian ran longer than the cars around him. The pair then maintained position through to the finish, albeit well down on the leaders with Hamilton 45 seconds behind Vettel and Massa six seconds further back.

Jenson Button meanwhile had an even less eventful race than team-mate Hamilton as he finished a lonely sixth, with his chances ending early on when he became stuck behind the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Although he eventually got ahead of the German, the leaders had been able to break away and Button was never in contention to repeat his Canadian victory of a fortnight earlier, with a KERS failure also playing a part in him finishing a minute down on the winner.

Rosberg would take the chequered flag in seventh place as the final driver on the lead lap, with Jaime Alguersuari matching his best F1 result to date in eighth. The Toro Rosso driver had dropped out of qualifying in Q1 on Saturday afternoon but made a two-stop strategy work to his advantage while the majority of the field pitted three times to work his way up the order and then saw off the challenge of Adrian Sutil's Force India through the closing laps.

Sutil and Nick Heidfeld then completed the top ten with Sergio Perez falling less than seven seconds shy of turning a one-stop strategy into a points scoring finish – the Mexican ultimately failing in his gamble after a series of slow lap mid-way through the race before he made his one and only stop.

Rubens Barrichello was the first Williams home in twelfth ahead of a huge battle for 13th that saw Sebastien Buemi fend off the challenge of Paul di Resta, Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi.

After his best drive since coming out of retirement in Montreal, Michael Schumacher could only trail in down in 17th having lost time when he was forced to pit again immediately after his first stop when he touched Petrov's Renault at turn two. A poor start to the race saw Pastor Maldonado drop towards the rear of the field and the Williams driver never really recovered as he finished 18th, while Heikki Kovalainen was best o f the newcomers in 19th ahead of Lotus team-mate Jarno Trulli.

Timo Glock, Jerome D'Ambrosio, Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan rounded out the field.

Race result : 2001 Formula 1 - European Grand Prix

































































































































































































Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1
1
Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault
57
1:39:36.169
1
25
2
5
Fernando Alonso Ferrari
57
+10.8 secs
4
18
3
2
Mark Webber RBR-Renault
57
+27.2 secs
2
15
4
3
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
57
+46.1 secs
3
12
5
6
Felipe Massa Ferrari
57
+51.7 secs
5
10
6
4
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
57
+60.0 secs
6
8
7
8
Nico Rosberg Mercedes
57
+98.0 secs
7
6
8
19
Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari
56
+1 Lap
18
4
9
14
Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes
56
+1 Lap
10
2
10
9
Nick Heidfeld Renault
56
+1 Lap
9
1
11
17
Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari
56
+1 Lap
16
12
11
Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth
56
+1 Lap
13
13
18
Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari
56
+1 Lap
17
14
15
Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes
56
+1 Lap
12
15
10
Vitaly Petrov Renault
56
+1 Lap
11
16
16
Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari
56
+1 Lap
14
17
7
Michael Schumacher Mercedes
56
+1 Lap
8
18
12
Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth
56
+1 Lap
15
19
20
Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault
55
+2 Laps
19
20
21
Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault
55
+2 Laps
20
21
24
Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth
55
+2 Laps
21
22
25
Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth
55
+2 Laps
23
23
23
Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth
54
+3 Laps
22
24
22
Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth
54
+3 Laps
24



2011 Formula 1 : Drivers championship standings

















































































































































































Pos Driver Nationality Team Points
1
Sebastian Vettel German RBR-Renault
186
2
Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes
109
3
Mark Webber Australian RBR-Renault
109
4
Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes
97
5
Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari
87
6
Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari
42
7
Nico Rosberg German Mercedes
32
8
Vitaly Petrov Russian Renault
31
9
Nick Heidfeld German Renault
30
10
Michael Schumacher German Mercedes
26
11
Kamui Kobayashi Japanese Sauber-Ferrari
25
12
Adrian Sutil German Force India-Mercedes
10
13
Jaime Alguersuari Spanish STR-Ferrari
8
14
Sebastien Buemi Swiss STR-Ferrari
8
15
Rubens Barrichello Brazilian Williams-Cosworth
4
16
Sergio Perez Mexican Sauber-Ferrari
2
17
Paul di Resta British Force India-Mercedes
2
18
Pedro de la Rosa Spanish Sauber-Ferrari
0
19
Jarno Trulli Italian Lotus-Renault
0
20
Vitantonio Liuzzi Italian HRT-Cosworth
0
21
Jerome d'Ambrosio Belgian Virgin-Cosworth
0
22
Heikki Kovalainen Finnish Lotus-Renault
0
23
Timo Glock German Virgin-Cosworth
0
24
Pastor Maldonado Venezuelan Williams-Cosworth
0
25
Narain Karthikeyan Indian HRT-Cosworth
0


2011 Formula 1 : Team - Manufacturers' Championship Standings






























































Pos Team Points
1
RBR-Renault
295
2
McLaren-Mercedes
206
3
Ferrari
129
4
Renault
61
5
Mercedes
58
6
Sauber-Ferrari
27
7
STR-Ferrari
16
8
Force India-Mercedes
12
9
Williams-Cosworth
4
10
Lotus-Renault
0
11
HRT-Cosworth
0
12
Virgin-Cosworth
0


[Source : F1, Supersport ZA, CRASH.NET]

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