Vettel revives title-bid with Valencia win

VALENCIA: Sebastian Vettel revived his title challenge when he cruised to his second win of the season and the seventh of his career in a dramatic European Grand Prix.

The German controlled the race from start to finish on a day when his Red Bull teammate Australian Mark Webber survived a horrific 300 kilometres per hour crash in which his car flipped upside down.

It was Vettel’s first win since the Malaysian Grand Prix and his Red Bull team’s first since the Monaco Grand Prix when Webber was victorious.

He came home ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton who was second, despite being given a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car, with his McLaren teammate and fellow Briton Jenson Button third.

“It’s about time I won from pole. We’re back on track,” said Vettel. “It wasn’t easy and we didn’t expect to be that strong but we were able to come through it in the end. When I got the message that Lewis had to go to a drive-through I was able to back off. It’s good to get a lot of points, good for the championship. The most important thing is that Webber is fine. I asked on the radio and I’m glad he’s okay.”

The result enabled Vettel to jump back into the title race in which Hamilton stayed on top with a lead of six points ahead of Button and the young German in third place.

Rubens Barrichello finished fourth for Williams ahead of Pole Robert Kubica of Renault and German Adrian Sutil of Force India, who was sixth.

A dazzling drive, notably a late surge including two fine passing moves, took Japanese Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber to seventh ahead of Swiss Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso and two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who finished a disappointed ninth in front of his home crowd.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2010.