The complete 2010 European GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday AM

The weekend started with a battle between Nico Rosberg and the two McLarens, and it was the Mercedes that came out on top in first practice as Rosberg made the most of the F-duct and pipped Lewis Hamilton by 0.164 seconds.

His team-mate Michael Schumacher was still learning the Valencia track in eighth, as Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa completed the top five ahead of the Red Bulls.

The only incident of the morning was a short red flag after Bruno Senna's Hispania shed a wing mirror, which was then messily shattered across the track by Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso.

The session saw the return of test drivers for the first time in a few events, as Adrian Sutil handed his Force India to Paul di Resta, and Christian Klien took over Karun Chandhok's Hispania - at least until he had to park it with gearbox problems.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

To the home crowd's delight, it was Fernando Alonso who led the way in the afternoon, beating Sebastian Vettel by just 0.056s.

It was a good session for Red Bull as Mark Webber completed the top three ahead of morning pacesetter Rosberg.

This time the red flag came courtesy of Massa, who spun and stalled, leaving his Ferrari broadside across the course.

Saturday Practice

There were some glimpses of Red Bull's qualifying pace during the final free practice session, particularly when the teams switched into prime-tyre, light-fuel mode in the last 10 minutes, but much of the hour was all about Alonso.

The Ferrari driver, revelling in the package of updates the Scuderia had bolted to the F10 chassis, appeared to have much the measure of Vettel and Webber. That was until the Australian ominously posted two 'purple' sectors on the time sheets while still on the harder Bridgestones, only to abort his lap in the third.

In a hectic end to the session, however, it was as if Red Bull simply couldn't contain its speed any longer and Vettel burst through to set the pace on his final lap. That time denied Renault's Robert Kubica who explored the rather generous limits of the R30s blown-diffuser to end the session second.

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-5

It took him five races, but Vettel finally returned to the top of the timesheets in a qualifying session, despite an error on his first Q3 run. On his final run, however, he made perfect use of the pace of the RB6 to finish almost a tenth clear of Webber and four ahead of the rest.

2. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-4

This time, the Australian had to concede Vettel had been better at a track he described as a "Tesco car park". Even so, Red Bull showed worrying (for its rivals) pace on a circuit that was not supposed to suit its car, which qualified with the F-duct for the first time.

3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-3

The McLaren driver admitted he was not expecting to finish so high up the grid after struggling for pace in previous sessions. But as it was, Hamilton put in another great effort to flatter his car, which had no updates for the Valencia weekend.

4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-3

Although he failed to get close to the front row, Alonso praised the updates introduced by Ferrari for this race. Fourth was not bad at all considering the problems the team is having with the softer tyres, although unfortunately for him he would start from the dirty side of the road in a race where the start is the only realistic moment to overtake.

5. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-6

Massa was also pleased with the performance of the F10 following the introduction of the updates, although the Brazilian felt a better result was possible. Massa said in Q3 he was unable to prepare his tyres properly because of the traffic.

6. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-0

Once again, Kubica was on top form in qualifying, although there were people expecting him to fight for a better spot following his showing in practice. Nonetheless, the Pole was happy with his performance and hopeful that there was more to come from Renault.

7. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-6

The world champion endured a disappointing day after having to settle for a place on the fourth row of the grid. Button claimed fourth place was possible, but he conceded a driving error on the final corner show him lose vital time.

8. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-6

Despite not being able to use the F-duct because of height issues, Hulkenberg put on one of his strongest qualifying sessions of the year. Ironically, the young German finished with the exact same time as his team-mate despite having to ditch the blown rear wing.

9. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

While the Brazilian was pleased with the team's performance, he said a better result could have been possible had he not been hampered by problems warming up his brakes in Q3. Nonetheless, Barrichello was upbeat about Williams's form and aiming to finish in the top six on Sunday.

10. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-9

Despite having the dubious honour of now being the only driver yet to outqualify his team-mate, Petrov put on a strong showing on Saturday. In the end he was less than four tenths off on-form Kubica, so he had reasons to be happy about his pace.

11. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-1

Buemi was left with mixed feelings despite his strongest qualifying effort of the year. On the one hand he was pleased with his pace, but the Swiss felt it was possible to go into Q3 had he not being slowed down by Barrichello on his final qualifying run.

12. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

After praising the team's updates on Friday and claiming that Mercedes was now closer to its rivals, Saturday was a slap in the face for Rosberg and his team. The German said there was simply no more pace to extract from the car, and was baffled by its lack of speed.

13. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-2

Sutil admitted he was expecting a much better result following the promise of practice, where the team had been quite strong. But in Q2, the German saw his car's grip level go down significantly and he had to cope with severe understeer.

14. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

Like Sutil, Liuzzi complained about the lack of grip in the afternoon following a promising morning. The higher temperatures made the Italian struggle too and he completed a disappointing day for Force India.

15. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-7

Schumacher had to fend off critics after his race in Canada, where he had qualified in 13th, so qualifying in 15th in Valencia did not help matters. Granted the Mercedes was way off the pace, but the German still finished four tenths behind Rosberg. All in all, another day to forget.

16. Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-4

All things considered, de la Rosa was a happy man, despite Sauber's evident lack of pace around the streets of Valencia. The Spanish driver admitted he had extracted the maximum from his car and so was pleased with his day in spite of the gap to the front.

17. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-7

The Spaniard had to concede his team-mate had simply done a better job than him after struggling to match his pace. After finishing nearly a second off Buemi's pace, Alguersuari was at a loss to explain his lack of speed following a better morning.

18. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-5

Kobayashi was extremely disappointed to be the man to join the newcomers in going out in Q1. The Sauber driver admitted he was expecting more from the Option tyres, but when he switched to them he found no extra grip. On top of that, he had flat-spotted his softer tyres and was unable to drive the car properly.

19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-4

A chassis change made Trulli very happy, the Italian claiming it was a new start for him following his recent struggles with the car. He did a good job to outqualify Kovalainen, his only benchmark as the moment, as Lotus seems to be in no man's land - too quick for the other two new teams and too slow to challenge the established ones.

20. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-5

After a couple of good practice sessions, Kovalainen was not so comfortable with his car in qualifying. The Finn admitted he had to battle with the handling of the Lotus, losing out to Trulli but way ahead of any of the other new cars.

21. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-8

Di Grassi was delighted to finally outqualify Glock in Formula 1 machinery. Even so, there was little reason for happiness at Virgin, over a second slower than the Lotus duo and not too far away from the Hispania cars.

22. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-1

Glock was left lamenting his tyre choice and a driving error during his final run, in which he claimed he lost half a second and thus a position to his team-mate. The German conceded using the Option tyres was not the right choice, with the Primes significantly quicker for him.

23. Karun Chandhok, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-6

The Indian was pleased to escape the final spot on the grid, even though the Hispania cars never looked fast enough to challenge the Virgin machines. By outpacing team-mate Senna, Chandhok put an end to a streak of five races in a row being the slowest driver in qualifying.

24. Bruno Senna, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-3

Unlike his team-mate, Senna was not happy with his day's performance after finishing at the bottom of the times. The Brazilian admitted the track had improved, but he failed to get a good lap together, an error on his final run cost him dearly.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:38.324   1:38.015   1:37.587
 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:38.549   1:38.041   1:37.662
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.697   1:38.158   1:37.969
 4.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:38.472   1:38.179   1:38.075
 5.  Massa          Ferrari               1:38.657   1:38.046   1:38.127
 6.  Kubica         Renault               1:38.132   1:38.062   1:38.137
 7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:38.360   1:38.399   1:38.210
 8.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:38.843   1:38.523   1:38.428
 9.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:38.449   1:38.326   1:38.428
10.  Petrov         Renault               1:39.004   1:38.552   1:38.523
11.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:39.096   1:38.586
12.  Rosberg        Mercedes              1:38.752   1:38.627
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:39.021   1:38.851
14.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:38.969   1:38.884
15.  Schumacher     Mercedes              1:38.994   1:39.234
16.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.003   1:39.264
17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:39.128   1:39.458
18.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:39.343
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.658
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:40.882
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.086
22.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:42.140
23.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:42.600
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:42.851

All Timing Unofficial

THE RACE

Valencia wasn't supposed to provide much in the way of intrigue for fans or joy for Red Bull. In the end, it delivered an abundance of both.

Red Bull's delight came in two very different flavours, though: the jubilation of victory as Sebastian Vettel steadied his shaky title bid by winning for the first time since Sepang, but also happiness and relief that Mark Webber was able to clamber calmly from the remains of his car after a ferocious accident caused by contact with Heikki Kovalainen.

And while the race was never a Canada-style topsy-turvy epic feast of overtaking, it did produce more passes and a lot more incident and controversy than Valencia's previous two grands prix.

With fairly uniform strategies expected and scant chance of overtaking on-track, it was always possible that the race would be decided on the opening lap - and sure enough the field launched themselves headlong at the opening corners like 24 men who knew that if they didn't gain places in the next two miles, they probably weren't going to all afternoon.

Lewis Hamilton got the best start from third and immediately swept past Webber for second. His momentum took him up to leader Vettel as well, and he edged alongside the Red Bull into Turn 2. Vettel tried to give him space without ceding the place, Hamilton tried to stay out of the way without totally giving up on the pass, and the result was brief contact that kicked the Red Bull sideways and smashed some chunks from the McLaren's front wing.

Once out wide being passed by Hamilton, Webber was hung out to dry by the Ferraris too, and Fernando Alonso then had some determined looks at Hamilton for second as the McLaren got back up to speed following its clout and Hamilton tried to figure out if he could live without a new wing. He did enough to fend Alonso off and then set off after Vettel.

Webber's descent wasn't quite over yet, as he then ended up in a three-abreast moment with Jenson Button and Robert Kubica from which he came out emphatically worst - dropping back behind not only the McLaren and the Renault, but both Williams as well.

Aware that he wasn't going anywhere from ninth on this track without being a bit radical, Red Bull brought Webber in for his sole stop on lap seven. He rejoined clear of the battling Virgins, but behind Heikki Kovalainen, who was comfortably leading 'class B' after his Lotus team-mate Jarno Trulli received damage to both ends of his car during the first corner shoulder-barging. Within two laps Webber was lining up a pass on the Lotus as they approached Turn 12 - but it ended with him hitting the rear of the green car and shooting skywards.

The flying Red Bull crashed through an advertising board overhanging the track, landed heavily upside down on the corner apex and then flipped onto four wheels, before careering at worrying speed across the run-off area and deep into the tyre barriers, while the Lotus was fired into the opposite wall. Hearteningly Webber was soon chucking the steering wheel and cockpit protection out and then calmly extricating himself. He was unhurt, and the analysis of exactly what had happened could begin.

"Going down the back straight he went a little bit to the left, so I thought 'maybe he's going to let me go'," said Webber. "Sometimes it's happened before that when you catch those guys they don't put a fight up. Then he went back to the right, so I thought 'Okay, he's going to fight'.

"I was in the slipstream, I looked to the left, then he went back left, and then as soon as I looked right, he braked. It was so far before the braking point..."

Kovalainen confirmed that he had been doing his best to fend the Red Bull off, and laid the blame squarely with Webber.

"I was defending my position, I moved once, and he ran up the back of me," said the Finn.

The incident - or more precisely, the safety car it prompted - transformed the race for everyone else.

The leaders were just getting to the start straight when the yellow was called, and Vettel passed the pit exit before the pace car growled out on track. He would have to complete a full lap at the prescribed speed before he could pit, but with everyone else forming up in line or pitting already, he didn't lose his lead.

However Hamilton and the safety car were neck and neck, the McLaren appearing to hesitate a little as if Hamilton was pondering the protocol, before he acclerated past and followed Vettel. But as replays would show, the safety car reached the crucial marker line on track slightly ahead, so the pass had been illegal.

"Literally as I got to the safety car line I saw that the safety car was pretty much alongside me," said Hamilton. "I thought I had passed it, so I continued."

The following Alonso and Felipe Massa had to tuck in behind the Mercedes road car - and Hamilton's failure to do likewise left Ferrari and its drivers enraged.

The worst part for Ferrari was that its duo were the last drivers who had travelled too far to dive straight into the pits as the safety car came out. With pretty much everyone from Button down diving in for tyres, by the time the deeply unlucky Ferraris had trundled around for a full lap behind the safety car and then made their own stops, they were down to a disastrous 10th and 17th.

It was a rather nightmarish yellow for Mercedes too. Nico Rosberg had made his stop a lap earlier, but got no advantage from this as everyone else was able to dive in so quickly and without catching the safety car first. Michael Schumacher stayed out initially, then came in a lap after the leaders. The thinking was that with the field still not quite formed up in line, he might not lose too many places, but as he accelerated out he was greeted by a red light and had to wait while the entire field came past before he was released.

"As the leaders had not been picked up, Michael was waved through and that gave us a golden opportunity to make his pit stop," said Ross Brawn. "In our view, the regulations are clear that the exit light should not go red until the line of cars has formed behind the safety car, and we would like the FIA to look into this. There was no line formed and over 18 seconds between Hamilton and [Kamui] Kobayashi when Michael came in."

Speaking of Kobayashi, Sauber was trying something a little different and left the Japanese driver out on track. That meant he was elevated to third behind Vettel and Hamilton when it came to the restart.

Vettel very nearly threw it all away at the green, outbraking himself into the final corner and having to adopt a rather rallycross-esque style to get onto the pits straight, but he did it effectively enough that Hamilton didn't get a chance to pounce.

McLaren soon ordered Hamilton to turn down his fuel setting and conserve the car for a late-race attack - an instruction that was swiftly rescinded when the stewards gave him a drivethrough penalty for passing the safety car.

But crucially for Hamilton, the punishment was not announced until lap 24, and by that time he had a 12s cushion back to Kobayashi in third. He made the most of the three laps he was allowed before taking the drivethrough, got the gap up to 14s and managed to come back out still ahead of the Sauber. Punishment served, no places lost... Somewhere back in the midfield traffic, Ferrari's rage increased...

Hamilton was soon closing the gap to Vettel, although it increased again when he spent a while trapped behind the entertaining battle that Bruno Senna and Timo Glock were having over 20th. It ended when the Virgin went around the Hispania at Turn 17 but turned across a bit prematurely, slicing its right rear wheel and deranging the Hispania's front wing - though it was for ignoring blue flags that Glock was later penalised.

In the final laps Hamilton started gaining dramatically on Vettel. But any hopes of a grandstand finish were extinguished when Vettel set a new fastest race lap and announced to Hamilton that he had pace in his pocket should he need to use it. And so six (at times rather messy) races on from his last visit to the top spot of the podium in Malaysia, Vettel became a winner again, and in the process moved back up to third in the championship, 12 points behind Hamilton - and with some potential Red Bull strongholds beckoning on the calendar. Vettel's title bid was, finally, firmly back on track.

It was Button who eventually joined Vettel and Hamilton on the podium, but he only popped up to third in the last four laps, as Sauber kept Kobayashi out until lap 53 before his stop. He managed the long stint brilliantly - never looking under much pressure from Button and actually keeping respectably close to Hamilton as well.

"Kamui was absolutely amazing," declared his boss Peter Sauber. "The lap times which he put in while he was in third were stunning. They prove how much potential there is in this car."

Also moving up when Kobayashi finally pitted were Rubens Barrichello, Kubica and Adrian Sutil into fourth through sixth places. Kubica had lost out slightly in the pitstops as Renault had been preparing for Vitaly Petrov at the moment the safety car came out, so had to scrabble to get its lead driver's tyres out instead. That dropped him behind Barrichello, and when his efforts to pass at the restart failed, he had to follow the Williams for the rest of the afternoon, as last year's Valencia winner delivered by far his new team's best result of a tricky 2010. Sutil chased them home after a mid-race pass on Sebastien Buemi.

Behind them, Kobayashi's involvement in the race hadn't quite finished yet. He had rejoined ninth, behind Alonso - who had passed Nico Hulkenberg's Williams (later to retire with an exhaust problem) on the restart lap then got trapped behind Buemi and Sutil. The double champion was mounting a final all-out effort to overtake the Toro Rosso, but instead found Kobayashi - revelling in brand new soft tyres - diving past him. The Sauber wasn't done yet either, going on to steal seventh with Buemi at the very last corner of the race.

All of which left Alonso ninth at the flag, and still very, very unhappy over the Hamilton/safety car incident and the way it had been handled: "We were one metre behind Hamilton - we respect the rules, we don't overtake under the yellow, and we finish ninth and he finishes second..."

Ferrari's last hope was that the stewards were investigating a total of nine drivers - including Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil and Buemi - for exceeding the permitted speeds while heading to the pits under the safety car. They were all found guilty but the five-second penalties awarded made little difference to the results. The top six were unchanged, and being elevated to eighth at Buemi's expense was less than Alonso had hoped for from the investigation.

The penalties did cost Pedro de la Rosa his first point for Sauber though, as he fell from 10th to 12th, behind Rosberg and the delayed Massa.

Jaime Alguersuari gained a few places from the post-race shuffle to end up 13th, as Vitaly Petrov and Tonio Liuzzi were among the safety car infringement crowd and were put back to 14th and 16th. Petrov had lost ground at the start, while Liuzzi had to queue behind Sutil in the pit rush. In the final classification they sandwiched the hapless Schumacher, who came away with the second-fastest race lap after taking on several new sets of tyres (which was worth a try as nothing else was getting him any higher up the order). On a day when the 'new Schumacher' revitalised his title challenge, the original had the worst finish of his whole Formula 1 career...

RACE RESULTS

The European Grand Prix
Valencia, Spain;
57 laps; 310.080km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h40:29.571
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +     5.042
 3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    12.658 *
 4.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +    25.627 *
 5.  Kubica        Renault                    +    27.122 *
 6.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +    30.168 *
 7.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +    30.965
 9.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    32.809
 8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    36.299 *
12.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    44.382
14.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    46.621
10.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +    47.414 *
15.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    48.239
11.  Petrov        Renault                    +    48.287 *
16.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    48.826
13.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +    50.890 *
17.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +     1 lap
18.  Chandhok      HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
19.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps **
20.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
21.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +    4 laps

* 5 second penalty for exceeding safety car lap speed
** 20 second penalty for ignoring blue flags

Fastest lap: Button, 1:38.766

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth            50 *
Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth               9
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             9


World Championship standings, round 9:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Hamilton     127        1.  McLaren-Mercedes          248
 2.  Button       121        2.  Red Bull-Renault          218
 3.  Vettel       115        3.  Ferrari                   165
 4.  Webber       103        4.  Mercedes                  109
 5.  Alonso        98        5.  Renault                    89
 6.  Kubica        83        6.  Force India-Mercedes       43
 7.  Rosberg       75        7.  Williams-Cosworth          20
 8.  Massa         67        8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10
 9.  Schumacher    34        9.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
10.  Sutil         31
11.  Barrichello   19
12.  Liuzzi        12
13.  Buemi          9
14.  Kobayashi      7
15.  Petrov         6
16.  Alguersuari    3
17.  Hulkenberg     1

All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

Despite Valencia being - on paper - a McLaren-friendly track, the team was on the back foot having not brought any upgrades on a weekend when most of its main rivals had new parts to play with.

Even so, Hamilton qualified third with a slightly messy lap, while similar small errors left Button seventh on the grid. Hamilton jumped Webber at the start then attacked Vettel, sustaining minor wing damage from contact but getting it replaced at his stop.

He was penalised for overtaking the safety car, but with Kobayashi bottling up the rest of the pack after the caution, Hamilton was able to take the drivethrough without losing a place and retained second to the flag.

Button got up to fifth at the start, could dive straight into the pits as the safety car was called so gained more places, then picked up third when Kobayashi finally stopped. Subsequent 5s penalty for going too quickly under yellow made no difference to his result.

Mercedes

Total disaster despite the car looking quick in Rosberg's hands in practice. The puzzling lack of qualifying speed continued, leaving Rosberg 12th and Schumacher 15th on the grid.

Schumacher had a better run through the messy first lap but his race fell apart during the safety car, where he had to wait at the pit exit while the whole field went past. Various tyre stops and passes of backmarkers later, he had a career-worst 15th place finish.

Rosberg pitted early but didn't gain places as everyone else changed tyres under the safety car straight afterwards before he had caught the pack. He nursed his brakes all race and was a quiet 12th, which became 10th when others were penalised.

Red Bull

With its F-duct working well now, Red Bull took another front row sweep in qualifying, with Vettel on pole ahead of Webber for the first time in a couple of months.

Vettel led away from the start and controlled the race throughout, finally taking his second win of the year.

Webber had a slow start then got repeatedly wrong-footed on the first lap, ending up ninth. He pitted early then hit Kovalainen's Lotus and had a frightening aerial crash.

Ferrari

Alonso was quickest on Friday, when Massa caused a red flag with a spin. They qualified fourth and fifth but expected to be faster in the race.

Their early third and fourth places were lost when deeply unfortunate timing meant the safety car came out just in front of them both, which meant a very slow lap back to the pits while most of the rest of the field were getting their tyre stops out of the way.

Alonso rejoined 10th, while Massa had to queue behind him and fell to 17th. They could make little progress on the tight track, with the fuming Alonso later losing a place to Kobayashi on fresh tyres. Once the post-race penalties had shaken out, they ended up an unhappy eighth and 11th.

A return to form saw both Williams qualify in the top ten - and on equal times too, though Hulkenberg was given eighth ahead of Barrichello.

They swapped places while charging forward on the first lap. Good pit work then saw Barrichello fifth after the safety car, which became a season-best fourth (despite a safety car infringement penalty post-race) once Kobayashi pitted.

Hulkenberg was ninth after the yellow, having queued behind Barrichello in the pits. He was overtaken by Alonso after the restart but was set for a point until a late exhaust failure.

Kubica was a factor in the top six all weekend, although Valencia didn't quite deliver the giant-killing Renault might have hoped for given its strong practice pace.

Both cars reached Q3, with Kubica starting sixth and Petrov 10th, although a slow getaway and scruffy first lap dropped the Russian into the midfield. He finished 11th, but that became 14th when he was one of those penalised for going too fast back to the pits.

Kubica was penalised too, but didn't lose any positions. He had battled with Button and Webber on the first lap, but ended up still in sixth. His pitstop was slow as the crew had been ready for Petrov until the safety car emerged, which meant he took the restart behind Barrichello and stayed there, ending up fifth.

After strong practice times, Sutil and Liuzzi were baffled to find themselves only 13th and 14th on the grid. They had better pace in the race though, and a good start, the right strategy in the safety car period and a quick pitstop meant Sutil was eighth after the restart. He later passed Buemi, picked up another place when Kobayashi stopped, and then held sixth despite a penalty for speeding back to the pits.

Liuzzi was delayed when he had to wait behind Sutil in the pits. His post-race penalty was a little more costly as he dropped from 14th to 16th.

Buemi took a strong 11th on the grid and nearly reached Q3 - feeling sure he would've been there had he not been held up by Barrichello. He was a top ten factor all race but rued small slips that let Sutil and Kobayashi - the latter at the final corner of the race - overtake him, which turned a potential sixth into eighth. He then lost another place to Alonso when given a post-race penalty.

An uneventful and disappointing weekend for Alguersuari, who started 17th and finished 13th.

A change of chassis saw Trulli back on form and he qualified 'best in group' in 19th. But first corner contact forced long pitstops for repairs and then a lonely drive to 21st.

But the big news for Lotus was the massive accident in which Kovalainen was involved, as Webber vaulted him while trying to climb back through the field early on. Having been used as a launchpad, the Lotus had to retire too.

Another weekend at the back for Chandhok and Senna, though they were again quite close to Virgin's pace. Both ran ahead of Glock in the race too, but Senna lost his front wing when the German turned in early while overtaking him, which left him 20th.

Glock then hunted down and passed Chandhok for 18th, but the Indian regained the position when his rival was penalised for ignoring blue flags.

Some way off Lotus's pace and not far enough ahead of Hispania for comfort, this was not a great weekend for Virgin speed-wise, but it saw a good result. Di Grassi was pleased to outqualify Glock for the first time, and he was ahead in the race too after a brilliant early battle. He went on to finish as top new team driver in 17th.

A flat-spotted tyre forced Glock to pit out of sequence and he then had to try and pass the Hispanias, but picked up a puncture in a tangle with Senna - who he still got ahead of as the incident also broke the Hispania's nose. Glock then charged up to Chandhok and grabbed 18th on the last lap, only to drop a place when penalised for ignoring blue flags.

More struggles in qualifying, where de la Rosa and Kobayashi were only 16th and 18th, but a superb pace.

Not pitting behind the safety car thrust Kobayashi into third place, where he quite happily fended off Button and chased Hamilton until finally pitting on lap 53 - by which time he was far enough clear of the midfield to emerge ninth.

Armed with fresh tyres and his characteristic boldness, he then put brilliant moves on Alonso and Buemi in the closing laps to grab seventh.

De la Rosa had a quieter race but moved up to 10th when Hulkenberg retired. However a penalty for going too quickly under the caution dropped him to 12th.