Formula One: Sebastian Vettel wins at Valencia, Lewis Hamilton holds on to top spot
Sebastian Vettel continues to dominate the F1 2010 season as he stormed to victory at the Valencia Grand Prix, holding off a strong challenge from Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren’s Hamilton, who was leading the driver standings ahead of the race did well to bounce back despite getting a drive through penalty, but the German driver, was in no mood to surrender the lead.
Hamilton finished 2nd and his team mate Jenson Button managed to finish 3rd. Button too was handed a penalty; he was penalized by 5 seconds for a violation of safety car rules.
The safety car was brought on the tracks after Mark Webber was involved in a horrific accident, but thankfully he emerged unhurt from the incident.
Webber decided to take a pit-stop in the early stages of the race, in order to get away from the traffic which he had run into, as he had fallen to 9th place despite starting from 2nd on the grid. Webber lost several places as soon as the race started and could not recover.
The Australian driver suffered the accident while trying to overtake Heiki Kovalainen and hit the back of his Lotus car, Webber’s car went up in the air and crashed upside down.
Amazingly, Webber escaped without any serious injuries. Evidence of the amount of research and hard work being put in to modern day F1 cars.
Before that there already had been a small incident on the tracks, as Hamilton in an effort to go past Vettel at turn two clipped the left front wing of Vettel’s car. Hamilton’s car as a result suffered vibration in the early stages of the race, as the incident in question took place in the first lap.
Later on, when Webber’s car was involved in that dangerous crash, Safety cars were brought on which gave Hamilton time to have his car nose fixed without losing a place in the race.
Vettel made a smart move, when he managed to pass the pit-lane exit, just in time to avoid the safety cars.
Hamilton emerged right behind the safety cars, and in an effort to maintain his speed he ran them close, which got him a drive through penalty.
Hamilton though continued his pursuit of Vettel as soon as the safety cars exited. The 2008 Champion followed Vettel into the pits.
Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were 3rd and 4t’h respectively. When Webber’s accident took place, both had just made their way past the Pit entry as the safety cars came on, and they were right behind the Safety cars before making their pit stops in the next lap.
Button, at that time of the accident was in 6th position and went straight into the pits as soon as the race went under caution.
The decision from Button proved to be a wise one, as he emerged 4th, behind Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Kamui Kobayashi (who decided not to take the pit stop while the race was under caution).
Vettel and Hamilton, in a duel between themselves, stormed away from the pack. Hamilton was then made to serve the drive-through penalty that was just at the end of 27th lap. But he had created such a lead over Kobayashi that he served the time penalty and came back without losing his place.
Hamilton lost ground to Vettel. He did his best in the final 20 laps to get within touching distance, but the Red Bull was just too quick.
That is when Hamilton realized that he was not going to catch Vettel, as the German continued to roar on and led the race till the end. Vettel was delighted after winning his 2nd race of the season, and more amazingly on a track that was expected not so suit the Red Bulls.
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