The complete 2011 Spanish GP review

PRACTICE

Practice one

Mark Webber declared his intentions for the weekend very early on with a 1m25.142s lap on Friday morning that put him a second clear of even his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

They were one-two in the opening session, with Nico Rosberg's Mercedes next up, Fernando Alonso fourth for Ferrari, and Sergio Perez's Sauber an eye-catching fifth.

In a rather uneventful session, little else happened except Pastor Maldonado's Williams slewing off into the Turn 12 gravel and beaching itself just before the wall.

Practice two

Webber led the way again during the afternoon, though there was no repeat of his earlier enormous cushion as this time McLaren's Lewis Hamilton got within 0.039s of the Australian during soft tyre runs. Hamilton was clearly happy enough on that tyre, but Pirelli's new hard did not impress him - the Briton leading the criticism of the revised compound, which he regarded as "a disaster".

Vettel and Jenson Button completed the Red Bull/McLaren formation at the front, with Alonso fifth for Ferrari. His team-mate Felipe Massa paid a quick visit to the gravel, as did Hispania's Vitantonio Liuzzi, but otherwise the day passed with little incident.

Practice three

Webber seemed assured of a clean sweep of fastest practice times on Saturday morning, as he led the way by about a second on both hard and soft tyres, while Vettel looked unlikely to even get out of the garage as the team worked to rectify an electrical problem.

But in a moment that must have been a little galling for Webber, Vettel needed just a single flying lap to shoot straight to the top spot and beat his team-mate by 0.084s.

Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes, albeit 1.3s off Red Bull's pace, and just ahead of the two McLarens and the sister Mercedes of Rosberg.

Alonso was a depressed ninth, struggling with both a lack of pace in his car and later a gearbox glitch.

But the man with most to frown about after final practice was Nick Heidfeld. A cracked exhaust caused a dramatic fire on his Renault, and left the team facing a huge race against time to try and get the charred car into shape for qualifying.

QUALIFYING

For the second year in a row, the Australian secured pole position at Barcelona, ending his team-mate's run of first places on Saturday. Understandably, Webber was pleased, although his mood did not seem to be that of a man on top of the world. He knew he had to turn pole into a win on Sunday, and he knew it would not be easy.

2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-1

Vettel's run of poles may have come to an end in Spain, but the world champion did not seem too bothered by it. The German had to complete qualifying without KERS, so finishing 0.2s off Webber was a good effort.

3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-1

Hamilton did a good job with what he had, but the Briton had to concede that what he had was not good enough to get near the Red Bulls on Saturday. This time, however, the gap suggested the Red Bull duo were untouchable in the race too, so Hamilton was keeping expectations in check.

4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-0

Alonso's lap was little short of a miracle both in his, and his team's eyes, the Spaniard managing a perfect round of the circuit to jump up to fourth when no one expected it. The Ferrari driver admitted he would not have been able to repeat the lap even if given 20 attempts.

5. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-4

Button was happy with his performance on Saturday, admitting his car was getting better and better after every lap. Just 0.030s separated him from his team-mate Hamilton, and only Alonso's superb effort got him off the second row of the grid, which at least meant starting from the clean side of the track.

6. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-1

The Russian driver continued to be one of the positive surprises of the year, once again putting on a very good performance to secure a place on the third row of the grid. His Renault performed better on Saturday than on Friday, and Petrov made good use of it to set himself up for a strong race.

7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-0

Rosberg conceded that Red Bull and McLaren were out of reach, but the German was still confident of fighting with Ferrari in the race despite a low-key showing in qualifying. The Mercedes driver saved a set of soft tyres and was left much more confident about his race chances.

8. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-5

Once again, Massa had no response to Alonso's pace, the Brazilian finishing a whole second behind the Spaniard. Massa said he never felt comfortable with the balance of his car and so ended the day disappointed with his performance.

9. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-3

Even though he did not leave any new tyres for the race, Maldonado's performance was a boost both for him and for his Williams team. Understandably, the Venezuelan rookie was delighted with his first Q3 effort, but a points finish was the only objective for the weekend.

10. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-5

Despite finishing behind his team-mate Rosberg again, Schumacher's pace looked decent throughout the weekend, and only a problem with KERS stopped him from a better result. The German went for a run on hards in Q3, hoping some of his rivals would do the same. It wasn't the case, and Schumacher did not even bother to complete the lap.

11. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-1

Buemi was a happy man on Saturday, having extracted pretty much all the performance from his Toro Rosso. On top of that, he could choose his strategy freely and admitted he was pleased to not have made it into the top 10 shoot-out.

12. Sergio Perez, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-2

Despite his solid effort, and despite finishing ahead of team-mate Kobayashi, the Mexican admitted he was not particularly happy with his day. Perez said his final lap had not been good, as he had been unable to get the best from the set of new soft tyres.

13. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-4

Alguersuari was satisfied with his showing, although finishing half a second behind Buemi was nothing to write home about. The Spaniard said the new updates were working fine in the high-speed corners, but he struggled with the car in the slower part of the circuit.

14. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-3

Kobayashi was upbeat about the progress made by Sauber thanks to the new aero package introduced in Spain, but the Japanese driver's chances were ruined when one of the Force Indias had problems in front of him, making him waste his final run.

15. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-0

There was a lot of joy at camp Lotus, as the team took another step towards the front thanks to the big upgrade package that made its debut in Spain. Kovalainen outpaced the Force Indias on merit, even though the Mercedes-powered cars had decided to sacrifice qualifying.

16. Paul di Resta, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-1

Di Resta was adamant that his position did not reflect the car's performance, despite Force India deciding to revert to the old-spec aero package after Friday's running. The Brit compromised his qualifying in order to save two sets of soft tyres, a decision that could be crucial given the bigger gap between tyres now.

17. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-4

Like di Resta, Sutil only ran with the prime tyres in qualifying, leaving all his softs for the race and highlighting even more that the grid-deciding session is not what it used to be anymore. The German also used the old spec aero package from Saturday.

18. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-5

Given the circumstances, Trulli had to be happy with his position on the grid. The Italian was again hit by gearbox problems during the session, meaning he could only complete one run at the very end of Q1. Even so, he still managed a solid effort.

19. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-2

Barrichello was convinced that he could have been in the top 10 with his team-mate, but a gearbox problem put an early end to his hopes. The Brazilian could not complete another run and went out in Q1, although he at least saved a set of soft tyres for Sunday.

20. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-2

Although he struggled on Friday to get the right set-up for his car, Glock was pretty happy with his speed in qualifying, even though he was still in no man's land. The German was left worried about his first set of tyres did not work properly, but the second run was better and he finished the day rather happy.

21. Tonio Liuzzi, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-0

Hispania brought some upgrades to Spain, and Liuzzi felt they were a step forward as he finished around half a second behind the fastest Virgin and ahead of D'Ambrosio. So the Italian was pleased with his day and left hopeful there was more to come from his team.

22. Narain Karthikeyan, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-5

Yet to outqualify his team-mate this season, Karthikeyan was just a tenth slower than Liuzzi at Barcelona. The Indian admitted he had struggled with the new updates on Friday and Saturday, but things got better for qualifying and he did a decent job.

23. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-3

It was not a good day for the Belgian driver, who made the grid by just two tenths of a second. After feeling good on Friday, he was unable to find the same kind of pace on Saturday and, on top of that, he suffered a hydraulic problem that meant he could only complete one run.

24. Nick Heidfeld, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-4

Renault faced a race against time to get Heidfeld's car ready after his fire in final practice. As it was, however, it proved to be impossible and so the German had to watch qualifying from his garage.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   
 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m20.981s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m21.181s   + 0.200
 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m21.961s   + 0.980
 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m21.964s   + 0.983
 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m21.996s   + 1.015
 6.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m22.471s   + 1.490
 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m22.599s   + 1.618
 8.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m22.888s   + 1.907
 9.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m22.952s   + 1.971
10.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes
11.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m23.231s   + 1.691
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m23.367s   + 1.827
13.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m23.694s   + 2.154
14.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m23.702s   + 2.162
15.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m25.403s   + 3.863
16.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercede  1m26.126s   + 4.586
17.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercede  1m26.571s   + 5.031
18.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m26.521s   + 3.561
19.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m26.910s   + 3.950
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m27.315s   + 4.355
21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m27.809s   + 4.849
22.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m27.908s   + 4.948
23.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m28.556s   + 5.596
24.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              No time

THE RACE

Though Fernando Alonso traditionally plays it very cool when he talks about the emotional advantage of racing at home, there was little doubt that his excitement over hustling the Ferrari to fourth in qualifying owed at least something to the fact that he'd pulled off his mega-lap in front of his countrymen.

In the opening yards of the race he certainly drove like a man with the roars of a nation spurring him on as well, for as the Red Bulls swarmed around each other on the run from the line, Alonso stuck his Ferrari in the tow of both, settled on the inside after some high-speed decision-making, and then squeezed down a gap that barely seemed to exist to take the lead of a race for the first time this year.

He was as pragmatic as ever: "Barcelona offers you the opportunity of 600 metres of slipstream, so you can overtake thanks to that. A start like this at Monaco you keep fourth."

In between being surprised at being passed by a Ferrari - "I didn't understand where Fernando came from" - Sebastian Vettel managed to come out on top of the Red Bull battle by going around the outside of Mark Webber, whose pole became third place even before the first corner.

Lewis Hamilton tucked his McLaren in behind the leading trio, and they began to run away as a quartet, quickly leaving the rest of the pack behind.

Given the events of recent races, you wouldn't have expected Alonso to last long in the lead, for DRS has made it tough for anyone in a slower car to keep a rival at bay. But at Barcelona, the trick wing wasn't as unstoppable as it has been elsewhere, and there would be no easy breezing past the Ferrari - partly due to the DRS zone positioning not seeming quite as generous to the overtaker as it had been in China and Turkey, but also because Alonso's car was relatively strong out of the final chicane and on the straights. The Red Bulls and Hamilton clearly had better fast-corner performance, but that wasn't helping them overtake.

So Alonso stayed ahead. He even kept the lead through the first round of pitstops. Vettel kickstarted these among the leaders by coming in on lap nine, hoping to jump Alonso with a quick out-lap. But he emerged into heavy traffic, and though his lap was a spectacular one (he passed Jenson Button into SEAT, Felipe Massa at La Caixa, and then got the DRS working to dismiss Nico Rosberg on the pit straight), those passes were too time-consuming to let him unleash his full speed advantage, and the Ferrari rejoined ahead again, with the leaders reverting to their previous formation.

While enjoying himself a great deal in the lead, Alonso knew it couldn't last.

"It was great, a great experience to lead the race for the first time this year, in front of my people," he said. "I enjoyed the first 20 laps of the race, even if there was a lot of pressure from behind.

"You have to use your strategy, your KERS, everything in the right place to defend the position and I enjoyed, I really enjoyed, those laps.

"But I was thinking in the pitstops there is nothing you can do, stop one lap early they will overtake you, if they stay out they will overtake you. The only possibility is stopping the same lap as they were doing but, because I had three or four cars behind me, you cannot do that with all the cars - so I had no big hopes for winning."

And as he predicted, his race began to unravel at the second stops. By the time Vettel took on his second set of tyres on lap 18, the leaders were sufficiently far ahead for the champion to get a traffic-free out-lap and easily jump Alonso when he and Webber pitted a lap later.

The Ferrari's lack of pace was such that you could pass it either with an earlier or a later pitstop. Hamilton went for the latter, running four laps further and vaulting both Webber and Alonso to move into second.

Vettel and Hamilton then scampered away, while Webber remained trapped behind Alonso. When they changed onto the hard tyre - something Alonso in particular had been dreading - at their third stops, they started falling back towards Button. The McLaren driver had tumbled down to 10th with a first lap he described as "an absolute disaster", featuring both a poor start and less than ideal positioning at Turns 1 and 3, but committed himself to a three-stop strategy while those ahead stuck with four.

That meant that at half-distance he was on soft tyres at a time when Alonso and Webber were on hards, which enabled Button to make very light work of them as he used DRS to storm around the outside of the Red Bull into Turn 1, then dived inside the Ferrari at La Caixa.

"They had been fighting for about 40 laps, I think, so to come up and overtake them within one lap and then pull away was a lot of fun..." said Button.

Just before that, Webber had finally managed to pass the Ferrari at La Caixa, only to slide very slightly wide, allowing Alonso to slice back ahead into the next corner. But at the final stops, Alonso would have to admit defeat. Webber stayed out a full eight laps longer than the Ferrari before going for his second set of hards and rejoined with an 8s cushion over the car he had been staring at all afternoon. Alonso's pace then faded so dramatically that he ended up a lap down at the finish - "we were slow with the soft and very, very slow with the hard..." - while Webber set off to try and catch Button for third but would prove unable to.

At the front, the tension never relented. Not helped by a KERS that was, yet again, only intermittently cooperative, Vettel simply could not get away from Hamilton in the second half of the race. And though the Briton was left awestruck by some elements of the Red Bull's performance, he was surprised to find that in general his car was quicker than the machine that had blitzed everyone else by 1s per lap in qualifying.

"I think our raw speed was... we were faster," said Hamilton in slight amazement. "If I was able to get past I think I would have been able to pull away. I was really losing quite a lot through the high speed corners but nevertheless, they are quicker through certain corners and we were quicker through some others, so it was almost balanced."

Vettel admitted that he was really feeling the pressure as Hamilton stayed glued to his tail through the final two stints.

"Going into the last 10 laps I was feeling a bit like China," he said. "I felt my tyres going away and I was praying the same thing would happen to Lewis, as he was catching up.

"He seemed to be so much quicker, especially in the last sector, so he was always getting into the DRS zone, so he could use his rear wing on the straights.

"It was really close. Then, thankfully, in the last two laps I think I got quite a good run in the last sector and enough to make it stick. On top of that we had sometimes KERS on, sometimes KERS off. I was playing around with the buttons and the brake distribution so it wasn't an easy race and obviously McLaren and Lewis especially gave us a very, very hard time.

"It is quite a big relief when you cross the line or you open onto the main straight and you know there is the chequered flag, and we made it."

His final winning margin was just 0.6s. It had been an enthralling race at a track not known for such things, and for Vettel to be put under so much pressure was highly encouraging for McLaren in particular. But one fact could not be overlooked: for all the dramas and tension, Vettel had won yet again, and his championship lead crept up to 41 points over Hamilton. Formula 1 2011 is featuring an exciting brand of dominance, with so much action and intrigue it's easy to forgot that one man is doing the vast majority of the winning. But while the close racing will surely go on all year, the title battle probably won't.

The leaders' pace was such that everyone from Alonso backwards was lapped. Michael Schumacher was 'best of the rest', gaining ground with a very strong first lap and then resisting team-mate Nico Rosberg all the way, the younger German not helped by an inoperable DRS.

They were nearly caught by Nick Heidfeld at the finish, as the Renault flew up the order after its Saturday disaster. Getting the hard tyre out of the way in a long first stint allowed Heidfeld to sprint on the softs for the rest of the afternoon, and he certainly made the most of it.

Sauber tried something a bit different: Sergio Perez changing to hards as early as lap seven, and Kamui Kobayashi doing likewise as soon as he picked up a puncture on the first lap. That meant they were free to charge on softs long before half-distance, and the tactic paid off as they flew past their hard-shod rivals to take ninth and 10th, Perez ahead and scoring his first F1 points.

The man who lost out most from those make late surges on softs was Vitaly Petrov. He had run fifth at first but steadily lost ground as the race progressed and then had nothing to defend with in the closing stages, leaving him 11th. Felipe Massa, who had a particularly horrible time on the hards - even spinning mid-race - was set for a similar slump until he had to park in the gravel with a gearbox failure.

RACE RESULTS

The Spanish Grand Prix
Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;
66 laps; 307.104km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h39:03.301
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +     0.630
 3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    35.697
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    47.966
 5.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     1 lap
 6.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
 7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +     1 lap
 8.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +     1 lap
 9.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
11.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
13.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
14.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
15.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
16.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    2 laps
17.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +    2 laps
18.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +    2 laps
19.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps
20.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps
21.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:26.727

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Massa         Ferrari                      60
Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault                49
Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth                 29


World Championship standings, round 5:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       118        1.  Red Bull-Renault          185
 2.  Hamilton      77        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          138
 3.  Webber        67        3.  Ferrari                    75
 4.  Button        61        4.  Renault                    46
 5.  Alonso        51        5.  Mercedes                   40
 6.  Rosberg       26        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             11
 7.  Heidfeld      25        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
 8.  Massa         24        8.  Force India-Mercedes        4
 9.  Petrov        21       
10.  Schumacher    14       
11.  Kobayashi      9       
12.  Buemi          6       
13.  Sutil          2       
14.  Di Resta       2       
15.  Perez          2       

All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

Red Bull

Webber dominated on Friday, but found himself pipped by Vettel in final practice even though the German only got one flying lap in due to electrical problems. They were a second clear of the field, and it was the same story in qualifying, where Webber took pole and Vettel was second despite lacking KERS.

They swapped places off the line but were both jumped by Alonso. Vettel managed to get ahead of the Ferrari at the second stops, then resisted huge pressure from Hamilton to secure yet another win. Webber was trapped behind Alonso until the last tyre changes, and was jumped by three-stopper Button as a consequence, so finished only fourth.

McLaren

Hamilton got close to Webber on Friday afternoon but wasn't sure if that was deceptive or if McLaren's updates had really narrowed the gap that much. He qualified a long way off Red Bull pace in third, with Button slightly slower in fifth.

In the early laps Hamilton was at the tail of the very close four-car lead train behind Alonso, Vettel and Webber. Running longer at his second stop got him ahead of Webber and Alonso, and allowed him to chase down Vettel. He put plenty of pressure on the Red Bull but had to settle for second.

Button tumbled to 10th with a slow start and poor first lap, but fought back very well on a three-stop strategy, which saw him fly past Webber and Alonso and finish third.

Ferrari

Alonso was very disappointed with his car's performance at home, so was ecstatic when he somehow got the Ferrari up to fourth on the grid - far better than he had expected. Team-mate Massa struggled to eighth.

A superb start and first corner move then allowed Alonso to lead the first two stints, fending off the quicker cars of Vettel, Webber and Hamilton. But the Ferrari was just not fast enough, and lost out to Vettel and Hamilton at the second stops, was overtaken on-track by Button, and then dropped behind Webber at the last stops, ending up a lapped fifth.

Massa battled with the Mercedes and Petrov until having a horrible time on hard tyres (including a quick spin) and then retiring with gearbox failure.

Mercedes

Despite looking good in practice, Mercedes tailed off a little in Spain, with Rosberg saying he focused on race pace as he qualified seventh, and Schumacher hitting KERS trouble in Q3 so opting to run on hard tyres - though he called off his lap when he saw no one else was doing likewise.

A great start set Schumacher up for a run to sixth, and he spent most of the afternoon resisting pressure from his quicker team-mate, who was hampered by his DRS not working.

Renault

Petrov continued his strong form with sixth on the grid ahead of Rosberg, but Heidfeld didn't even get a chance to run in qualifying as an exhaust problem caused a dramatic fire on his car on Saturday morning.

Petrov looked good for plenty of points early in the race as he ran fifth, but his race pace simply wasn't there and he started falling back. Eventually as others surged forward on alternative strategies that let them finish on soft tyres, Petrov tumbled down to 11th.

Heidfeld moved in the opposite direction, getting his hards out of the way in the first stint then surging up the order on softs. He eventually took eighth, but was on course to pass both Mercedes had the race lasted a little longer.

Williams

Another dreadful weekend for Williams, though a breakthrough ninth on the grid for Maldonado was the highlight. A gearbox problem stranded Barrichello in 19th.

Maldonado lost ground with a bad start, and neither car had the pace or tyre kindness to achieve much after that, with a pitstop-hampering rear jack issue not helping. Maldonado fell to 15th, Barrichello got no higher than 17th.

Force India

Force India found that its upgrade package wasn't delivering the desired results yet in practice, so reverted to its old spec for the rest of the weekend. Knowing it lacked the pace to beat many rivals in a straight fight, it stayed on hard tyres for Q2 to save rubber and qualified 16th and 17th, di Resta ahead of Sutil.

Sutil started the race on hard tyres, while di Resta began with a very long stint on softs. That meant the Scot rose as high as fifth and the German was nowhere in the opening laps. In the end, though, they drifted back towards each other, finishing just 7s apart in 12th and 13th, di Resta in front.

Sauber

Once again, Sauber's strategies and charging drivers turned a low-key weekend into something pleasing come race day. Perez and Kobayashi qualified an underwhelming 12th and 14th, and the latter then found himself firmly last when he picked up a puncture in the first-lap dicing.

But both then got their hard tyres out of the way in early stints, allowing them to charge forwards on softs when others were on the slower rubber later. That tactic took Perez to ninth and his first F1 points, and Kobayashi to a 10th place that seemed highly unlikely on lap one.

Buemi and Alguersuari took 11th and 13th on the grid, and a good start gave the former a chance to dice with Massa and Button for a while in the top 10. Ultimately though the car was just not quick enough to hold on to a points-scoring position, and the Swiss driver fell away to finish 14th. Alguersuari struggled badly with tyre wear and was one of the few in the midfield to go for four stops, leaving him 16th.

A very encouraging weekend for pace and progress, even if the results were not that exciting in the end. Kovalainen got a Lotus in Q2 for only the second time ever, helped by both his team's upgrades and problems for Barrichello and Heidfeld. He then beat the Force Indias to 15th - but they had conserved tyres and Kovalainen was still a long way behind the Saubers and Toro Rossos. Trulli was 18th despite a Q1 gearbox problem.

In the early stages of the race the pair were right among the Williams, Saubers, Force Indias and Toro Rossos in pace terms, and staying out for a long time on their first set of tyres got both Lotus drivers into the top 10.

But their late-stint pace wasn't strong enough and they fell back after the stops. Kovalainen, who had picked up wing damage on lap one, eventually crashed out, while an exhaust gremlin slowed Trulli and he finished 18th.

More updates allowed HRT to close on Virgin, and both Liuzzi and Karthikeyan got ahead of D'Ambrosio in qualifying, helped by hydraulic issues for the Belgian. With Heidfeld ruled out by his fire damage, but meant no Hispanias at all on the back row...

Liuzzi had an early dice with Glock in the race then faded with handling and tyre worries before being stopped by a gearbox problem. Karthikeyan struggled to the finish in 21st and last with a burned back caused by a seat problem.

Still little sign of an upturn for Virgin. Glock managed 20th on the grid, got clear of Liuzzi after an early battle, and went on to finish a lonely 19th. D'Ambrosio only just made the 107 per cent cut in 23rd in Q1 following a hydraulic problem, then had a less eventful run to 21st in the race.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)