Vettel dominates in Valencia

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has won the European Grand Prix, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finishing second and Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber third.

McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were both slow away at the start of today’s 57-lap European Grand Prix.

On the grid it was the same one-two-three as last year, with the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber on the front row, with Hamilton third.

But after the first two turns Hamilton had been passed by both the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, whilst from sixth on the grid Button dropped a place behind Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

After three laps reigning champion Vettel had opened up a 2.2secs lead over Webber, with Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Button and Rosberg all within 8.7secs.

On lap six Button was being held up by Rosberg as the German dropped five seconds behind fifth-placed Hamilton, but Button made his move into turn two to grab sixth.

Out in front, Webber was holding the gap to Vettel to two seconds but then on lap seven lost 0.6secs to fall 2.7secs off the pace, with Alonso, Massa and Hamilton behind him all within four seconds.

On lap 10 a mistake from Massa in running wide was almost enough to allow Hamilton through but the Brazilian just did enough to keep the 26-year-old at bay.

Nick Heidfeld, running in 10th place in his Renault, was the first of the front-runners to change tyres, swiftly followed by 12th-placed Rubens Barrichello in his Williams.

Hamilton then made his move onto fresh rubber at the end of lap 12 along with Rosberg and Force India’s Adrian Sutil who was in ninth.

The move was a good one from McLaren as Hamilton only lost two places and was pitched back into clear air.

From second place Webber followed a lap later, and then after 14 laps it was the turn of Vettel and Alonso to take on a new set of soft tyres, as did Button, Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta in his Force India.

On his return to the track, though, Schumacher’s front wing was run over by the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, forcing him to pit again for a new nose.

Leading for one lap, Massa then made his stop at the end of the 15th, and he proved to be the big loser in the opening round of stops as he lost a place to Hamilton.

After 17 laps the top four of Vettel, Webber, Alonso and Hamilton were covered by just 5.6secs, with Massa a further 5.6secs behind and Button another 8.3secs adrift.

Alonso managed to take second with the aid of DRS into turn 12 of lap 21 to the delight of the Spanish fans, having climbed all over the back of Webber's Red Bull for a handful of laps.

After looking into the incident involving Schumacher and Petrov, the stewards decided no further action was necessary.

With Hamilton’s tyres dropping off at a rapid rate of knots, the Briton was forced to pit earlier than expected for a second time at the end of lap 24, taking on another set of soft tyres.

The stop cost Hamilton another two places, falling in behind Massa and Button in sixth place before setting consecutive fastest laps on 26, 27 and 28, only to then be told to look after his tyres by his engineer over the in-car radio.

Webber then made his second stop on lap 28, with Alonso following a lap later and then Vettel and Button after 30 laps, while Massa came in after 31.

Webber had managed to leapfrog Alonso on strategy, with the 34-year-old Australian lying second after 32 laps, 1.8secs behind Vettel and 1.7secs ahead of the Spaniard, with Hamilton 12 seconds down.

Hamilton then began to pay the price for not looking after his tyres, losing sometimes up to two seconds per lap on the leaders, dropping to 21 behind Alonso after 37 laps.

Five laps later Hamilton and Webber pitted for the third time, taking on the slower and new-for-this-race medium compound.

It was another three laps before Alonso pitted, and this time it was the Spaniard who was able to leapfrog Webber back into second.

Vettel switched to the medium rubber at the end of lap 47, leaving him 10 laps to the finish.

With nine to go Vettel had opened up an 8.6secs gap to Alonso, with Webber 2.2secs behind the double world champion, whilst Hamilton was all on his own in fourth.

Vettel eventually cruised home by 10.8secs from Alonso, with Webber a further 11.6secs down the road.

In taking his sixth win from eight races this season Vettel now has a 77-point lead over Webber and Button, with Hamilton 89 points down after he was forced to settle for a distant fourth.

Massa and Button came home fifth and sixth, with Rosberg seventh ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in his Toro Rosso, Sutil and Heidfeld, with Di Resta 14th, in a race in which all 24 cars finished.

EUROPEAN GP RESULT: 1 Vettel 2 Alonso 3 Webber 4 Hamilton 5 Massa 6 Button 7 Rosberg 8 Algersuari 9 Sutil 10 Heidfeld 11 Perez 12 Barrichello