European Grand Prix 2010

Yesterday was a fine day to be a German sports fan. Not only did England get predictably obliterated in the World Cup match, but Germany scored another victory over England thanks to Sebastian Vettel, who triumphed over the English McLaren pair of Hamilton and Button who joined him on the podium. It may have been a far closer contest than it was however, with more safety car confusion earning Lewis a drive-through penalty. Despite that, home hero Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari team were galled at the fact said penalty didn't actually cost Lewis any track position. To make matters worse, the F1 fraternity were forced to look on with raised eyebrows at how little impact the updates for the cars in red had seemingly made.
That was first alluded to with a somewhat lacklustre 4^th on the grid for the Spaniard, with stable-mate Felipe Massa one place behind, and good friend Hamilton one ahead. The front row however fell not for the first time entirely to Red Bull – Vettel secured Pole number 4 of the season, less than a tenth of a second ahead of the sister car of Mark Webber. Kubica lined up in a solid 6^th place, whilst both Mercedes languished. Rosberg could only muster 12^th place, Schumacher a miserable 15^th.
As the pack got away, the man on the move immediately was Hamilton – he catapulted his way past Webber's RB6, before launching an attack on Vettel's similar machine. The pair indeed made slight contact midway round the first lap as Hamilton made a hopelessly optimistic lunge up the inside of Vettel which he thought better of a tad late. The damage sustained however was minimal, and Lewis comfortably held second from that point onwards. Webber made a solid enough getaway, but his lines through the opening sequence of turns seemed questionable as Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Kubica, Button and both Williams cars poured past in fairly quick succession to leave the erstwhile championship leader in 9^th place at the end of Lap 1.
Things were scarcely about to improve for him either. He opted for an early pit stop on lap 8, and rejoined the action firmly amongst the new-team cars over which he enjoyed a huge speed advantage. This fact was made clear as day as he drew to the back of Kovalainen's Lotus in a battle for 17^th place at turn 12, only to launch straight over the rear of the Finn's car, flipping over in mid-air, landing and ploughing into a tyre barrier at 200mph. Miraculously, both men emerged completely unscathed: a testament to the strength and safety of modern F1 cars.
This mother and father of all crashes inevitably brought out the safety car. This where the controversy occurred – whilst race leader Vettel easily cleared the safety car as it came onto the track, Hamilton held his speed, before seemingly hesitating and falling a fraction behind the safety car as it crossed the line. He then sped back up to pass it, which clearly contravened the rules. The thing that got Ferrari's metaphorical knickers in a twist was the fact Alonso and Massa were then forced to slow down behind the safety car, whilst Hamilton continued at green flag pace to complete the remainder of the lap before making his pit stop.
This left Vettel at the head of the pack, from the somewhat jammy Hamilton, Kobayashi who had yet to stop, Button, Barrichello and Kubica, who conceded places in the pitstops. Alonso was spat out from the stops in a lowly 10^th place to the dismay of his adoring Spanish fans, with Massa down in 15^th having lost even more time being forced to queue behind Alonso in the stops. Ferrari's de facto number one made his anger very clear at what he considered to be nothing short of downright cheating from Hamilton over the radio, and sure enough the stewards began to investigate the incident. Only 15 laps after the offence was committed did Hamilton receive his drive through punishment, and the Briton had already pulled out enough of a gap from Kobayashi's Sauber to ensure the punishment actually cost him zero track position. It did however effectively destroy any hope of challenging Vettel out front.
It was an utterly spirited drive from Kobayashi, displaying for the first time since Abu Dhabi last year exactly why Peter Sauber chose him to pilot one of his cars over the likes of Nick Heidfeld and Giancarlo Fisichella. Not only did he repel Button to maintain 3^rd to his late pitstop, but he was actually able to extend a small advantage over the reigning champion. When he finally made his stop 4 laps from home, he did fall to 9^th position, but using his fresh rubber he skilfully negotiated his way though Alonso and Buemi to reach a creditworthy 7^th place in the race's dying moments.
Back to the head of the field, there was simply no challenging Vettel who duly crossed the line for his second win of the season, whilst Hamilton's 2^nd place finish ahead of Button's 3^rd place ensured the former extended his championship lead over the latter. Barrichello took William's finest result of the year in 4^th ahead of Kubica's Renault, whilst Sutil completed the top 6 ahead of Kobayashi, Buemi, a visibly fuming Alonso and Rosberg, after another fairly dire outing for the Mercedes team.
Whilst it was probably too much to ask for Valencia to actually produce much overtaking, the race did at least provide intrigue in the way of a rather hair-raising incident for motorsport's favourite Aussie, and the ensuing hullabaloo regarding a certain Mr. Hamilton and the Safety car. No matter how much Ferrari whine though, the fact remains: their car simply isn't fast enough. Fernando is beginning to lose touch with the championship leaders, and any aspirations of a third title really needs a shot in the arm before it's too late.