Sebastian Vettel won his second Grand Prix and Red Bull’s first with a sensational drive in treacherous conditions, dominating from start to finish to run out a 11-second winner from team-mate Mark Webber, making it a Red Bull 1-2. So treacherous were conditions that the race was started behind the safety for the first eight laps, from when Vettel pulled clear, his win never truly in doubt.
A second safety car period mid-way through the race bunched the field up again, but Vettel was unfazed and drove peerlessly, which included a brilliant overtake manoeuvre on Jenson Button just before the Briton pitted for the second time.
Finishing third was Jenson Button who drove faultless yet again, albeit with the Brawn lacking the ultimate pace to the Red Bull, while team-mate Barrichello finished fourth. Fifth went to an impressive Heikki Kovalainen, who raced from 12th on the grid, ahead of a quick but erratic Lewis Hamilton who overcame numerous spins and off-track excursions to take sixth.
Rounding out the points-scorers were Timo Glock and Sébastien Buemi, with Force India’s Adrian Sutil losing on his first points finish when he aquaplaned off from sixth on lap 51.
And here are the results;
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 56 | Winner | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 14 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 56 | +10.9 secs | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 56 | +44.9 secs | 5 | 6 |
| 4 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 56 | +63.7 secs | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 2 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 56 | +65.1 secs | 12 | 4 |
| 6 | 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 56 | +71.8 secs | 9 | 3 |
| 7 | 10 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 56 | +74.4 secs | 19 | 2 |
| 8 | 12 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 56 | +76.4 secs | 10 | 1 |
| 9 | 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 56 | +84.3 secs | 2 | |
| 10 | 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 56 | +91.7 secs | 8 | |
| 11 | 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 56 | +94.1 secs | 15 | |
| 12 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 56 | +95.8 secs | 11 | |
| 13 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 56 | + 106.8 secs | 17 | |
| 14 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 55 | +1 Lap | 20 | |
| 15 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 55 | +1 Lap | 7 | |
| 16 | 8 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 53 | +2 Laps | 16 | |
| 17 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 50 | +6 Laps | 18 | |
| Ret | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 43 | +13 Laps | 14 | |
| Ret | 3 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 20 | +36 Laps | 13 | |
| Ret | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 18 | +38 Laps | 6 |
Great drive again by the “next-gen schumi”
… Also i’m really sad for Sutil. It was his 2nd dramatic crash. Remember last year’s Monaco, There Raikkonen hit him at last 4 or 3 laps remaining. I hope he will score some points soon. And BMW! What a incidentful race.:(…And if Ferrari continues like this. We will not miss the empty seats of Super Aguri. Also i think that Hamilton is not a capable driver with a slow car then others. He pushes so hard and makes mistakes. Even Kovalainen was better than him. But i’m not sure, perhaps there are some other factors.
For sure Hamilton doesn’t have the best car anymore and it seems he is still not aware of it. He pushed like crazy, so he finished his tires very early while Kova behaved better to his tires. So it’s all about the car and setup..