Webber wins Spanish GP

Mark Webber on the podium in Spain. Photo: AFP

Mark Webber won his first F1 race of the season in Spain. Mark lead a brilliant race from Start to finish. Right from the start Mark came under threat from his team mate on one side and Lewis Hamilton on the other side. Mark managed to hold both off to exit turn1 ahead.

For the first part of the race it looked to be a bit of a procession with the order of the top5 grid positions not changing for several laps. The turning point of the race happened when a slow pit stop for Vettel cost him vital time to Hamilton and he exited the pits into the path of the McLaren driver and a backmarker. Vettel was pushed wide at turn1 and lost position as a result, putting Hamilton into P2.

“We knew it was along run to the 1st croner here” said Webber “..it was very tight into turn 1 but then just settled down into a rythm”.

Alonso put in a very solid drive but in the end hand 2nd place handed to him on the final lap when a front left puncture forced lewis hamilton into the tyre barriers and out of the race. Alonso was extatic in front of his home crowd who were all on their feet cheering him on as he crossed the line to claim second.

Lewis Hamiltons crash was also good news for Sebastian Vetel who caught a lucky break to nurse his car home and claim the final spot on the podium.

Vettel was not happy post race “A lot of things went wrong today.” he said. “we had to wait in the pit box for the Ferrari to drive past so we lost a lot of ground then a possition.”

Vettel’s day went from bad to worse with less then 15 laps remaining int he race he lost his breaks and was forced to pit. His brake problem only got worse and in the end he was not braking at all, instead he was using the aero of the car and downshifting to slow him. He was very lucky to even finish the race and the fact he was able to come away with a podium place was an astonishing effort.

Rubins however had the un-sung drive of the day by making up 9 spot. Rubins started the race down in 18th place after a dismal qualifying, however he fought hard to finish the race in an impressive 9th place.

Back markers proved to be an issue in this race with several incidents involving lap traffic threatened the positions of some lead drivers.

Mark Webber now enters the title race and gave RedBull the Vital points boost it needs in the constructors race.

The full race results are below: