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]