Webber leads in Barcelona

It was a case of as you were at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix as the top six on the grid retained their positions at the end of the opening lap of 66 at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

Into a head wind for the long run to the first corner, there was a degree of weaving, notably from Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull as he attempted to hold off McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Pole man Mark Webber comfortably held sway, followed by Vettel and Hamilton, then Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, reigning champion Jenson Button and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher.

One of the big winners was Felipe Massa in his Ferrari as he jumped two places from ninth to seventh, as well as the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari who made significant ground in going from 15th to ninth.

There were two early casualties as the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen failed to start due to a gearbox problem, whilst Bruno Senna ground to a halt on the opening lap for Hispania Racing.

Pedro de la Rosa also suffered on the opening lap as he sustained a puncture to his left rear, forcing him into the pits for a change, and obviously relegating him to the back of the 22-strong field.

After the first 10 laps Webber had increased his lead over Vettel to 2.8 seconds, with Hamilton doing his best to hang onto the young German as he trailed the 22-year-old by 1.4secs.

Alonso was a further 3.4secs adrift, followed closely by Button, Schumacher, Massa, the Force India of Adrian Sutil, Alguersuari and Renault’s Robert Kubica.

After an early stop of his own, Sebastien Buemi had dropped to 19th, but soon made his way past Virgin’s Timo Glock into 18th.

Behind the German came Karun Chandhok for HRT, the second Virgin of Lucas di Grassi and De la Rosa in his Sauber.

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