Vettel relieved Webber escaped injury

Webber's car was launched into the air after hitting the back of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus, and landed upside down before righting itself and sliding into the tyres at high speed.

"Most important today is the fact that Mark had quite a big shunt and the fact he is fine," said Vettel, who led the race throughout. "It shows the cars are safer and safer but shows there is still a risk.

"Seeing the pictures, the most important fact is that Mark is fine. For some people they miss the attraction and they say this time in F1 compared to 30 years back is boring and nothing happens, but on days like this you get reminded that the speeds are high and when things go wrong they can go spectacularly wrong."

Vettel had a relatively uneventful race at the front, apart from minor contact with Lewis Hamilton at the first corner, from which both escaped damage.

"Braking for Turn 1 I had no reason to do anything stupid, I saw Lewis was quite late on the brakes, tried to give as much room as I could," said Vettel. "Once you set your brakinng point you can't relax, it was getting quite close, there wasn't much I could do to go further on the left.

"I thought we touched, I felt the hit but couple of corners I felt there was nothing wrong with the car. I thought he hit the inside kerb a bit and maybe got a jump. It was closer than I expected, closer than I wanted, but after that I was very happy with the car, able to pull away, and managed a very good gap at the time."

He relieved that he did not lose his lead when the safety car came out for Webber's accident, as the pace car did not emerge from the pits until after he had passed, so he was able to stay up front even though both of the field pitted a lap earlier.

"I was a bit afraid when I saw the SC boards on the main straight because obviously 20 seconds earlier and not able to react, I didn't know where the guys were behind me," Vettel said.

"I thought maybe they could get a stop for free but it worked out pretty well and we managed the situation very well."

Vettel then had a further scare when he ran wide at the restart, but he fended off Hamilton and then gained a clear lead once the McLaren was penalised for its safety car infringement.

"The restart was tough," said Vettel. "I had big lock up and was trying to defend and was probably a bit too late. I had a bit of a front right flat spot after that but when I knew Lewis had a drivethrough then I adjusted the pace and tried to bring the car home."