Webber leads Hamilton home

Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton gave the Silverstone crowd reason to cheer with a battling second place.

Aussie claims third win of the season as team-mate suffers puncture

Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix on Sunday as Lewis Hamilton gave the 120,000-strong Silverstone crowd reason to cheer with a battling second place. The Australian's victory, his third of the season, was a comfortable one in a race the Red Bull team had been expected to dominate. Their weekend was not completely perfect though as Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel suffered a puncture on the first lap of the race. The German driver, who had claimed pole position on Saturday using a new front wing taken from Webber's car - an act which provoked claims of favouritism by the team towards Vettel - dropped to last place before coming through the field to finish seventh. Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg claimed the final podium position behind Hamilton, while Jenson Button underlined McLaren's improvement following their woes earlier in the weekend by climbing from 14th on the grid to finish fourth ahead of Williams driver Rubens Barrichello and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi. Vettel was followed home by Force India's Adrian Sutil, with Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Williams' Nico Hulkenberg claiming the final points.

Unhappy

Webber was clearly unhappy after the events surrounding Saturday's qualifying session, although he appeared to turn the situation to his advantage at the lights by taking the lead into Copse and forcing Vettel out wide onto the kerb. Webber edged further ahead into the Becketts complex but Vettel's right rear tyre then suddenly deflated during the sequence of corners, sending him through the run-off areas as he fought for control. With television replays suggesting that Hamilton's front wing clipped Vettel's right rear tyre at the first corner, the German pitted for a replacement and dropped down to 24th place. Vettel's misfortune immediately opened up the race though, with Hamilton in second sticking with Webber during the opening laps as they pulled away from Renault's Robert Kubica in third, Rosberg, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Barrichello, Schumacher and Button, already up to eighth in a car he described as "undriveable" on Saturday. Although Webber and Hamilton were pulling clear of the field, it was also the case that the Red Bull was edging away from the McLaren and Webber held a 3.5-second lead by lap 16. Hamilton pitted the following lap and retained his second place, immediately ahead of his team-mate, who had climbed to third as those cars ahead of him made their stops. Webber, meanwhile, comfortably retained his lead after stopping one lap later. Lap 20 brought a differential failure for Kubica, who had earlier been mugged by Alonso for sixth place - the Spaniard taking to the grass at Vale corner and picking up a drive-through penalty in the process - while Button finally made his stop two laps later, the world champion falling to fifth. Webber led Hamilton by over five seconds at half-distance but that counted for nothing just as soon as the safety car came out on lap 28 after Pedro de la Rosa's Sauber lost parts of its rear wing - the Spaniard's car having been touched by Sutil's on the start-finish straight. Racing resumed three laps later and Webber immediately pulled clear of Hamilton once more. With Alonso forced to serve his penalty, Button was now up to fourth behind Rosberg while, further back, Sutil passed Schumacher for seventh and the recovering Vettel went past both Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari to take 11th.

Tricky customer

Vettel had the bit between his teeth now and finally got back in a points-paying position on lap 38 after Vitaly Petrov's Renault ran wide at Luffield. He picked off Hulkenberg on the following lap before Schumacher was dispensed with on lap 41. Sutil proved a trickier customer though and with the leading positions settled, the battle between the two Germans became the highlight of the closing laps. Time and again Vettel probed for a way past but Sutil proved more than capable of defending - until the second-to-last lap. Because of the safety car intervention, Alonso lost around a dozen places when he took his penalty and ended another miserable afternoon in 14th place - the fastest lap he set at the very end of the race surely bringing little in the way consolation. Team-mate Massa, meanwhile, finished one place behind having been forced to pit on the opening lap for a puncture after he and Alonso touched. The Brazilian made another unscheduled stop on lap 40 after a spin at Stowe corner. Hamilton now holds a 12-point lead over Button in the drivers' championship, with Webber back up up to third ahead of Vettel. Meanwhile, McLaren lead Red Bull by 29 points in the constructors' standings.

Result

1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1hr 24mins 38.200secs, 2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:24:39.560, 3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:24:59.507, 4 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:25:00.186, 5 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:25:09.656, 6 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) BMW Sauber 1:25:10.371, 7 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:25:14.934, 8 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:25:19.132, 9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:25:19.799, 10 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Williams 1:25:20.212, 11 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Force India 1:25:20.659, 12 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:25:25.827, 13 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:25:37.574, 14 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:25:40.585, 15 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:25:45.689, 16 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 at 1 Lap, 17 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 at 1 Lap, 18 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing at 2 Laps, 19 Karun Chandhok (Ind) HRT-F1 at 2 Laps, 20 Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) HRT-F1 at 2 Laps Not Classified: 21 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 44 Laps completed, 22 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) BMW Sauber 29 Laps completed, 23 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault 19 Laps completed, 24 Lucas di Grassi (Bra) Virgin Racing 9 Laps completed
World Championship Standings
Drivers: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 145pts, 2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 133, 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 128, 4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 121, 5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 98, 6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 90, 7 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault 83, 8 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 67, 9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 36, 10 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 35, 11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 29, 12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) BMW Sauber 15, 13 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Force India 12, 14 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 7, 15 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 6, 16 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 3, 17 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Williams 2, 18 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) BMW Sauber 0, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 0, 20 Karun Chandhok (Ind) HRT-F1 0, 21 Lucas di Grassi (Bra) Virgin Racing 0, 22 Bruno Senna (Bra) HRT-F1 0, 23 Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) HRT-F1 0, 24 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 0, 25 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 0
Manufacturers: 1 McLaren 278pts, 2 Red Bull 249, 3 Ferrari 165, 4 Mercedes GP 126, 5 Renault 89, 6 Force India 47, 7 Williams 31, 8 BMW Sauber 15, 9 Scuderia Toro Rosso 10, 10 Lotus F1 0, 11 HRT-F1 0, 12 Virgin Racing 0