Valencia: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the European Grand Prix on Sunday, dominating from the pole in a race that saw teammate Mark Webber walk away from a spectacular crash.
Vettel won his second grand prix of the season, completing 57 laps of the Valencia street circuit ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
"It's good to get a lot of points, it's good for the championship and I'm very pleased with today. The guys can be extremely proud," Vettel said.
Webber emerged unhurt after a collision with Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus flipped his car early in the race.
"The most important fact is that Mark is fine," Vettel said. "On days like this you get reminded that still the speeds are extremely high and, if something goes wrong, it can go terribly wrong so I think the most important thing is that he's fine."
Hamilton finished second in Valencia for the third time, after overcoming a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car.
Hamilton leads the standings with 127 points, ahead of defending champion Button on 121. Vettel jumped two places to third on 115.
The result consolidates McLaren's lead at the top of the constructors' championship with 248 points, ahead of Red Bull on 218.
"It's very, very positive to be leading both championships, for myself and Jenson," Hamilton said. "The results clearly show the effort that we've been putting in. It's great that we're now getting the results that we deserved."
Rubens Barrichello of Williams, who won at Valencia last year, finished fourth and Renault's Robert Kubica was fifth.
Local favorite Fernando Alonso of Ferrari placed ninth after starting fourth on the grid and he was furious about the handling of the safety car issue afterward, saying the race had been "manipulated."
Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who has six European Grand Prix wins, had his worst race of the season, finishing 16th after starting from 15th place. His Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was 12th.
Track temperatures reached 113 degrees as the third Grand Prix held in Valencia got under way on the harbor site built for the 2007 America's Cup.
Hamilton had warned it could be a spectacular race and his forecast looked correct as his front wheel touched Vettel's rear wheel while making an early bid to pass the German. Vettel held firm and Ferrari's Alonso and Felipe Massa tucked in behind Hamilton in third and fourth.
"We touched for a moment, I broke my front wing, so I was very fortunate to be able to keep up the pace," Hamilton said.
A poor start by Webber saw him drop down the field to ninth by the third lap.
The Australian's race ended six laps later when he crashed into the back of Kovalainen while trying to work his way back up the field. Webber's Red Bull was sent somersaulting through the air before landing and crashing into the street circuit's tire barrier at high speed.
The front section of Webber's car came away from the chassis and there was substantial damage to the Lotus, although the driver stepped out of the car unhurt.
Kovalainen also retired from the race due to the damage to his car.
The safety car was called out before the race resumed.
Vettel was comfortably in the lead, with Hamilton trying to close the gap. With Kamui Kobayashi over 10 seconds behind the front pair by lap 21, the rest of the field was bunched up behind, leaving Vettel and Hamilton to battle it out.
Despite a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car after Webber's accident, Hamilton held onto second place after the obligatory pit stop.
"I managed a very good gap," Vettel said. "When I knew that Lewis had to get the drive-through I could adjust the pace and try to bring the car home."
Alonso was unhappy that Hamilton's penalty was not more severe in what turned into a disappointing day for Ferrari. Both its drivers lost places from where they started on the grid, despite the team introducing some much-hyped improvements to their cars for the race. Massa finished 14th.
"This race was to finish second," Alonso said. "Then with the safety car I would have finished where I finished in ninth, and Hamilton in eighth. But here, when you do the normal thing, which is respecting the rules, you finish ninth, and the one who doesn't respect them finishes second."
The next race is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 11.
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