Webber dominates from pole to post

Australian Mark Webber won the Spanish Grand Prix for rampant Red Bull yesterday after leading from start to finish at Formula One's most predictable circuit.

For the 10th year in succession at the Circuit de Catalunya, the driver who started on pole position took the chequered flag as winner.

After 66 laps in the Catalan sunshine, Webber crossed the line a massive 24 seconds clear of Ferrari's second placed Fernando Alonso.

"It was a fantastic result and I'm absolutely thrilled," he said after his third career win.

Spaniard Alonso, celebrating his first home race for the Italian team, inherited a crowd-pleasing runner-up position when McLaren's hard-charging Lewis Hamilton crashed out with a suspected suspension failure on the penultimate lap.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who had started on the front row alongside Webber, finished third despite suffering brake problems.

Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher was fourth, the best result so far of the 41-year-old's comeback season, with McLaren's Jenson Button unable to find a way past and forced to settle for fifth.

Webber's win lifted him up among the leading contenders in the drivers championship still led by Button on 70 with Alonso now second on 67. In the constructors' title race, McLaren lead with 117 and Ferrari are second on 116 after five of the season's 19 races.

Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth, Germany's Adrian Sutil seventh for Force India and Poland's Robert Kubica eighth for Renault. Williams returned to the points with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in ninth place and local youngster Jaime Alguersuari took the final point for Toro Rosso at his home track.

The biggest challenge Webber faced, after holding off Vettel's attempts to squeeze past at the start, was keeping alert as he lapped in splendid isolation and headed for a seemingly inevitable triumph.

Webber was the fourth different winner in five races.

The 33-year-old Australian, starting from his third pole position, made the most of that advantage to hold his place in the crush on the opening lap, resisting all attacks at the first corner, and streaking clear of the field.

It was his first win since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix after he had become the first Australian victor since Alan Jones in 1981 when he claimed his maiden win in Germany – and will have injected priceless belief in his bid to challenge for the championship.

Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren looked certain to finish second until he suffered a puncture on his penultimate lap of the 66-laps contest and crashed off the track, his front left wheel almost wrenched off his car.

This gave Alonso his second place and also enabled Webber's Red Bull team-mate German Sebastian Vettel to take third despite having to take an additional pit-stop in the closing stages after he had gone off into a gravel trap.

These late rare incidents were among very few to punctuate what turned out, predictably, to be a largely processional race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

It was a flawless exhibition drive by Webber at the front of the field, proving again that the Red Bull cars are the standard-setters this season, but several other men suffered frustrating afternoons.

German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes slumped from eighth to 12th on the opening lap and then struggled to make any impact. He was embroiled in the battle among the tail-enders among whom Italian Jarno Trulli of Lotus finished as the best of the new teams.

DRIVERS’ STANDINGS
1. Jenson Button    (Britain)    McLaren    70 points
2. Fernando Alonso    (Spain)    Ferrari    67
3. Sebastian Vettel    (Germany)    Red Bull    60
4. Mark Webber    (Australia)    Red Bull    53
5. Nico Rosberg    (Germany)    Mercedes GP    50
6. Lewis Hamilton    (Britain)    McLaren    49
7. Felipe Massa    (Brazil)    Ferrari    49
8. Robert Kubica    (Poland)    Renault    44
9. Michael Schumacher    (Germany)    Mercedes GP    22
10. Adrian Sutil    (Germany)    Force India    16
11. Vitantonio Liuzzi    (Italy)    Force India    8
12. Rubens Barrichello     (Brazil)    Williams    7

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