Sebastian Vettel led the Valencia Grand Prix from start to finish as he now claims third spot in the overall Drivers Championship. There were incidents from the start as the cars entered the first couple of corners second placed Mark Webber had somehow dropped to ninth already spelling the start of a disastrous day for him. Jarno Trulli of Lotus also lost out as he sustained damage that would put him three laps down on everybody else. Lewis Hamilton thought his race might've been over when he radioed in to say that he and Vettel and contacted and he could now feel vibrations but it turned out fine for him.
Mark Webber's race went from bad to worse as he pitted early on to make use of the soft tyres. As he was making his way back up to the grid he was faced with overtaking Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus. Webber somehow managed to over slipstream Kovalainen's car resulting in Webber driving up the back of Kovalainen's car before taking off and somersaulting before bouncing back on the track and crashing into the tyre wall. Miraculously Webber jumped out of the car unhurt whereas the car had little left of it, Kovalainen also had to retire at this point. This lead to a safety car and everyone decided now was a good time to pit, which it was unless you're Michael Schumacher who capped off his weekend by pitting in and then being made to wait in the pit lane before rejoining the pack at the back and finishing his race off in terms of getting points.
Controversy surrounded the safety car as Lewis Hamilton seemed to have overtook the safety car which meant he could gain a huge lead over Ferrari rivals Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa who were clearly unhappy as Hamilton was able to coast to a second place finish. The stewards did award Hamilton a drive through penalty and to Alonso's disgust it changed nothing to Hamilton's position, a crime should punished and Hamilton got away with it. However some were not so lucky as a post-race steward's inquiry judged Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichelo, Nico Hulkenberg (who later retired i the race anyway), Vitaly Petrov, Robert Kubica, Sebastian Buemi, Pedro De La Rosa, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil to have broke the speed limit during the safety and were awarded five second penalties which only really affected two drivers; Alonso was promoted to eighth with Buemi dropping to ninth and De La Rosa dropped out of the points as Rosberg was promoted to tenth. In a separate incident Timo Glock was awarded a twenty penalty for ignoring blue flags but again it didn't really matter for him as he finished out of the points.
So the result of the Formula 1 Valencia Grand Prix looks like this: 1. Vettel (Reb Bull), 2. Hamilton (McLaren), 3. Button (McLaren), 4. Barichello (Williams), 5. Kubica (Renault), 6. Sutil (Force India), 7. Koboyashi (Sauber), 8. Alonso (Ferrari), 9. Buemi (Toro Rosso), 10. Rosberg (Mercedes), 11. Massa (Ferrari), 12. De La Rosa (Sauber), 13. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), 14. Petrov (Renault), 15. Schumacher (Mercedes), 16. Liuzzi (Force India), 17. Di Grassi (Virgin), 18. Chandhok (HRT Cosworth), 19. Glock (Virgin), 20. Senna (HRT Cosworth), 21. Trulli (Lotus) Retired: Hulkenberg (Williams), Kovalainen (Lotus), Webber (Red Bull)
This result leaves Hamilton still first in the drivers championship on 127 with just a six point ahead of McLaren teammate Button. Vettel now leap-frogs Red Bull teammate Webber into third with 115 points as Webber has 103. Alonso sits fifth with 98 points so isn't out of it just yet but it's not looking good for the two-time world champion. As for the Constructors Championship McLaren have a thirty point lead over Red Bull going into the next Grand Prix which is at Silverstone.
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