Circuit de Catalunia celebrated the 20th Spanish Grand Grand Prix in the venue and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber cruised to victory by dominating both over local driver Fernando Alonso and his team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Starting the race from the pole-position after performing an unbeatable qualifying time in comparison to his opponents, Webber was faultless, leading comfortably the race from start to finish as no other driver could ever threat his pace.
Webber quoted after the race:
"After qualifying yesterday it was certainly a great position for us to start the Grand Prix in. We knew it was a long run to the first corner here and we had some pretty quick cars behind us in terms of top speed, so that was the very important part of the race to unlock that and get out of Turn 1 still in the lead. It was quite tight into Turn 1.
"We had a good battle going into there and then I just settled into a rhythm really into the first stint, looking after tires, making sure we got the option through as everyone is still learning, venue to venue, about how the tires might operate. We had a pretty good idea they would behave themselves, but you never know. We just made sure they were in pretty good nick and finishing the stint in a good fashion, which they did. Clean pit stop.
I had Seb (Vettel) with me at that stage and then after the pit stop I had Lewis (Hamilton) behind me and we just controlled the gap really. Looking after the car, engine, tires as still the Grands Prix are pretty long and the cars are built for a distance and you need to get the cars home.
The team has been incredible this week, getting the cars ready, long, long nights for the guys, an incredible amount of effort at the factory," he said. "Working on holidays, so collectively Renault and Red Bull have put a huge effort in. The driver did his little bit of work and in the end, it was a fantastic result, and I am absolutely thrilled."
Lewis Hamilton manage to overtake Vettel by closing German's racing line while Vettel was entering the circuit after his pitstop which was delayed when his team struggled to replace a wheel. The British champion looked set for a certain podium finish in the 2nd position, but a tyre puncture in the penultimate lap obliged him to run straight at the high-speed Renault turn and crashed on the tyre wall.
Hamilton's crash, made Alonso to move up unexpectedly to 2nd place as a reward for a calm and measured race in front of his home fans. Alonso had earlier taken advantage of Vettel's front-right wheel problem that obliged him to an extra pitstop. The German who was struggling against racing gremlins eventually back off the pace and finished the race in a well-satisfying 3rd position.
"A lot of things went wrong today. The start was okay, there was no chance to get past Mark and not worth taking the risk. It was quite slippery where he was so I didn't want to go around the outside. I was not quick enough. I struggled with the balance. Mark was in his own league today.
Michael Schumacher scored his best result of the season in 4rth, after a titanic champion duel with Jenson Button in the second half of the race. Just like Hamilton, Schumacher closed Button's racing line as the British was entering the circuit after a slow pitstop. The McLaren was all over the Mercedes into turn one for several laps, but Schumacher showed his experience, blocking the inside line and shepherding Button wide on every attempt. Button's tyres started to fade, and with them, the likelihood of making a move to overtake. In the end, Button was compromised with 5th position.
Felipe Massa who had also a quiet race, closed on the duelling Mercedes-powered pair but never looked like making a pass on Button. His car looked difficult to drive and at one point he slid into the rear of Karun Chandhok's HRT as he came up to lap it. Massa damaged his front wing but elected not to pit and in the end comfortably held onto position to finish sixth.
Adrian Sutil and Robert Kubica had relatively calm race too finishing 7th and 8th, while Rubens Barrichello finished 9th after recovering from his disappointing 17th-place qualifying performance. Jaime Alguersuari picked up the final point, driving a strong race at his home grand prix despite serving a drive-through penalty for tangling with Chandhok.
Strong performance also for Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi as the Japanese driver finished 12th showing his racing pace while chasing Renault's Vitaly Petrov in a GP2-like duel while his team-mate had another disappointing retirement in the early stage of the race.
Nico Rosberg was struggling like a fish out of water with a modified Mercede's car that was redesinged to fit Schumacher's driving stlye and ended up finishing a lap down in 13th place. A damage at the Williams' floor saw Hulkenberg going backwards in the positions and Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi were the only drivers to finish behind the German and while trying to stay out of the way of faster cars kept reminding Minardi's struggling pace during early 90s.
