2011 Spanish Grand Prix Results
For the eighth race of the season, teams left North America and headed back to Europe. The European Grand Prix is held on the Valencia Street Circuit in Spain. Sebastian Vettel showed his prowess again as a world-class driver and clinched his sixth Grand Prix race this season in Valencia. Podium finishes were, Vettel in first place, followed by Fernando Alonso in second and Mark Webber in third place. It was a nice 1-3 finish for team Red Bull.
Drivers were happy to move from rainy Canada to sunny skies in Spain! Practice and qualifying sessions luckily were uneventful. Surprisingly, all 24 drivers qualified – in fact, this was the first time in F1 history where there were no retirements, no non-starts, no non-qualifiers and no race penalties. Vettel went from strength-to-strength and qualified in first place, followed by team mate Webber and, Hamilton, Alonso and Massa. This was Vettel’s seventh pole position in eight races and his 22nd career pole position!
The Spanish fans, as always were eager to see a Spaniard win and Fernando Alonso did give Vettel a run for his money. Vettel basically went from pole position to win, in a race that was termed ‘dull’ by race insiders. Hamilton was driving a ‘safe’ race, probably a good choice after being lambasted in Canada for his reckless driving. Although first place seemed to be clinched by Vettel off the bat, second place was up for grabs. The home-crowd was 100% behind Alonso, cheering him on, as he battled for second place with Webber. After the last pit-stop, Alonso was able to clinch the second place finish from Webber, who finished third. This gave the home crowd something to cheer.
This European Grand Prix was only the fourth time in F1 history that all drivers finished the race. Even in the heat in Valencia, there were no retirements. There were some minor problems, such as a small tussle between Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari and Jenson Button’s Kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) breaking down – but no retirements. Michael Schumacher continues to be in the back of the pack, with a 17th place finish in Valencia. This is turning out to be an embarrassing season for this ex-world champion.
Vettel is becoming unstoppable! With his win at the European Grand Prix, he widens his lead over second place Jenson Button in the Drivers’ Championship standings to 77 points! He is becoming almost uncatchable, with 11 more races to go. Button and Webber are now tied in second place with 109 points, followed by Lewis Hamilton with 97 points and Fernando Alonso with 87 points. The battle for first place might almost be over, but the battle for second place remains fierce.
For the Constructors’ Championship standings, Red Bull rakes in the points with a 1-3 finish in Valencia, giving them a total of 295 points and an 89 point lead over second place McLaren, with 206. Ferrari remains in third place with 129 points. The remaining teams all are way below the 100 point mark. Three teams still have zero points: Lotus, Virgin and HRT-Cosworth.
Full Race Results
- Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault) 1:39:36.169s
- Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) +10.891s
- Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) +27.255s
- Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) +46.190s
- Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +51.705s
- Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) +1:00.065s
- Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +1:38.090s
- Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) +1 lap
- Nick Heidfeld (Renault) +1 lap
- Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) +1 lap
- Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) +1 lap
- Vitaly Petrov (Renault) +1 lap
- Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) +1 lap
- Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Cosworth) +1 lap
- Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Renault) +2 laps
- Jarno Trulli (Lotus-Renault) +2 laps
- Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) +2 laps
- Jerome d’Ambrosio (Virgin-Cosworth) +2 laps
- Vitantonio Liuzzi (HRT-Cosworth) +3 laps
- Narain Karthikeyan (HRT-Cosworth) +3 laps