Sebastian Vettel has picked up his sixth victory from eight races in 2011 by winning Sunday’s European Grand Prix in Valencia, comfortably leading home local favourite Fernando Alonso and team-mate Mark Webber. Second Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari enjoyed another eighth place as all 24 cars finished for the first time.
Once again, temperatures were up in Valencia on Sunday for what is Europe’s first weekend since the official start of summer. With ambient readings of 28°C (82°F), the track already reached temperatures of 45°C (113°F) when the red lights went out at two o’clock.
A clean start brought no incidents, with the pair of Ferraris enjoying lightning getaways and both challenging Webber for second place. Towards the back of the field, a rocket start for Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus allowed the Finn to contend with a number of midfield cars.
With Vettel pulling out an immediate lead of over two seconds, Jenson Button made the most of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes by shooting his McLaren up the inside of Turn 2 on the sixth lap. The 2009 Champion, who experienced a quiet afternoon, remained ahead of the German for sixth and seventh places, not being able to make the most of Felipe Massa for a top five slot. The Brazilian, incidentally, was fortunate not to lose significant ground after a left-rear wheel problem in the pits.
The second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher ran into Vitaly Petrov’s’ Renault exiting the pits on the 15th tour. With a broken front wing, the seven-time World Champion – who finished fourth last time out in Canada – was forced to coast back in before finishing the race in 17th position. As Petrov also dropped down the field, team-mate Nick Heidfeld salvaged something for the Enstone-based squad by picking up the final point in tenth.
An inspired strategy by Alguersuari allowed the Catalan to collect four points for the second time in two weeks. From 18th on the grid, the Toro Rosso driver overhauled team-mate Sébastien Buemi and a selection of other rivals by pitting twice as opposed to the general three-spot plan; using the new Medium compound tyre and forced to defend from Adrian Sutil for the final handful of laps, the Barcelona man was clearly delighted with his result.
At the sharp end, Vettel was only headed during the pit-stop period, with Felipe Massa also enjoying a brief time at the front of the 57-lap race. After overtaking Webber in a brave attempt at Turn 12 on Lap 21, Alonso lost second at the second round of stops before retaking the place as the Australian – self-admittedly – pitted too early third time round.
Not only has Vettel now become the first driver in Formula 1 history to finish in either first or second place across the opening eight races of a season, but Valencia 2011 also marks the first time all cars have finished since Italy 2005 and that 24 competitors have taken the chequered flag.
Vettel hails ‘faultless’ weekend
Sebastian Vettel was overjoyed after taking his sixth win of the season in Valencia on Sunday, leading home Ferrari rival Fernando Alonso and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber who dropped off in the closing stages due to a gearbox problem. The reigning Champion’s lead never looked under threat after a strong start from pole position, with the German going on to describe his weekend as ‘faultless’.
"Maybe from the outside, at least for myself, it looked like a boring race," Vettel explained. "But I enjoy it so much when it’s between you and the car every single lap, and of course I had some pressure from behind at various times because the strategy was a little bit different from Mark and from Fernando.
"Sometimes they were pitting earlier, sometimes later and even though I had a gap before the stop I came out of the garage and they were quite close again. I was pushing hard but judging the tyres, trying to imagine what the end of the stint could be like, trying to foresee the strategy.
"For some reason I enjoy this track, last year I had a very sooth weekend and again this year from beginning to the end. The team has done a phenomenal job preparing the car, even though we come here every year and we say ‘this might be tricky’ because this track maybe isn’t 100 percent made for us, with no real fast corners.
"But still, we managed to put everything together and it was faultless this weekend so I’m very happy with the result."
Webber: My fault I lost second place
Mark Webber was blaming nobody but himself after losing second place to Fernando Alonso in Sunday's European Grand Prix. Having been passed by the Ferrari on Lap 21, the Australian was able to move ahead at the second round of pit-stops. However, Webber then fell back to the final podium spot as the third and final stops took place.
“I think we should have, but in the end we didn’t,” the Red Bull driver said in the post-race press conference when asked if he could have finished second today.
“It was a good race with Fernando and was probably my best race of the year, to be honest. We tried to go as fast as possible and manage the tyres.
“It was my fault, basically – I was worried about Fernando coming underneath me around the stops and it was not known how the Medium tyres would perform. I lost out and it was my fault to miss second today, as Fernando stayed out longer.
“At the end the gearbox was playing up, but we had a massive gap back to the McLarens so we were able to coast to the end.”
The British Grand Prix, Round 9 of 2011, will be staged at Silverstone in a fortnight’s time
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