Red Bull’s Mark Webber took his first victory of the 2010 campaign after a dominant drive from pole position in Barcelona on Sunday. The Australian was uncatchable from the off and cruised to the finish when his main challenger Lewis Hamilton was ruled out two laps from the end after a left-front puncture, handing second place to local hero Fernando Alonso.

Webber’s victory marks the first of 2010 to come from pole position and was never truly in doubt from the very start of the race. He was able to fend off fellow front-row starter and team-mate Sebastian Vettel, slowly building a lead to the German over the course of the first stint. When Vettel was the first of the front-runners to pit on lap 16 from second place, Webber had built a four-second advantage and it was about to grow further.

Vettel was delayed by two seconds from leaving his pitbox to allow Alonso and Button pass by, and a clean pitstop by Lewis Hamilton a lap later handed second place to the Briton, immediately doubling Webber’s lead to a comfortable 9 seconds. With clear air in front and little pressure from behind, Webber gradually opened the gap further to a maximum of 16.4 seconds on lap 48 before guiding his car to the finish.

However, there was drama aplenty to come for those behind in the closing 15 laps as second and third-placed men Hamilton and Vettel both ran into problems. Firstly, Vettel encountered a brake problem which forced a second pitstop and dropped him down to fourth behind Alonso, and then two laps from the finish Hamilton speared across the gravel at turn 9 following a front-left tyre failure, costing the Briton a certain podium finish and 18 points.

That promoted Fernando Alonso to second place after a race in which he was unable to challenge the frontrunners despite a tremendous speed advantage with Ferrari’s F-duct. He would likely have been challenged by McLaren’s Jenson Button had the Briton not wound up behind Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher after a slow pitstop. Despite numerous half-chances at turn 1, Button was unable to slip by and instead had to fend off Ferrari’s Felipe Massa to secure fifth.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil was best of the rest in seventh place after taking advantage of a great first lap, while Robert Kubica had to settle for eighth after losing out to the German’s impressive getaway. Rubens Barrichello scored two more points for Williams while Barcelona-born Jaime Alguersuari took the final point in the Toro Rosso despite incurring a drive-through penalty mid-way through the race after colliding with HRT’s Karun Chandhok.

Webber’s 25-point haul from today’s win promotes him to fourth in the championship standings, 17 points behind Jenson Button who continues to lead despite finishing just fifth. Fernando Alonso climbs to second, three points adrift, while Sebastian Vettel gains a place to third, ten points behind. McLaren continue to lead Ferrari and Red Bull in the constructors’ title, with 6 points separating the top three.

Here are the full results;