Mark Webber Claims Comfortable Victory In Spanish Grand Prix

Red Bull's Mark Webber led from start to finish to claim victory in the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso prevented a Red-Bull one-two by beating Webber's teammate Sebastian Vettel to second position. Mercedes-Benz's Michael Schumacher finished fourth, his best result thus far in his comeback season.

Unlike the race in Malaysia, Webber defended his pole position against Vettel in the run-up to the first corner, after which he was able to pull away and lead comfortably at the front. “It was an important part of the race to get out of Turn 1 in the lead”, Webber explained. “It was quite tight into Turn 1, then I settled into a rhythm”.

“Today was a special day, no doubt about it and I'm very happy to capitalise on the pole position”, Webber added. “Collectively it has been a huge job by everyone at Red Bull. It was a sensational weekend, we had a faultless grand prix”.

However, Webber also had words of caution regarding upcoming races. “We know there are some very competitive cars at the front, in particular Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and with some pretty decent drivers as well”, he said, adding “There's a long, long way to go, so we're waiting to see how the cars perform at different venues—cars are pretty sensitive at different tracks”.

World champion Jenson Button of McLaren took fifth, putting him at the top of the driver's championship with 70 points, although Alonso, Vettel and Webber are closing in with 67, 60 and 53 points respectively. Ferrari's Felipe Massa ended up sixth, with Force India's Adrian Sutil in seventh and Renault's Robert Kubica in eighth.