Webber leads from start to finish

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Mark Webber has run his race just like he did in qualifying yesterday by consistently being the fastest. He led from start to finish and didn't worry about the guys behind him. Lewis Hamilton went of in the last lap, allowing Alonso to be second and Vettel, despite late car worries third.

Although there was some chance of rain, the sky is slightly clouded but there is no rain expected during this race.

As the lights went out, Webber took a solid start, followed by Vettel. Directly behind them there was also little change, but Massa moved up from 9th to 7th. Rubens Barrichello made the best start as he gained 6 places to 12th position.

Bruno Senna on the other hand is out of the race after only 2 corners while De La Rosa had a puncture and came into the pitlane to change tyres. Heikki Kovalainen saw his race end early as well despite high hopes of an increased pace with the Lotus updates.

Jaime Alguersuari moved up to 9th, jumping many cars in the first straight. He is obviously in a slower car than Kubica, and is losely followed by the yellow Renault in the next string of laps. Kubica is facing a problem here as it's fairly difficult to pass at this circuit.

Tonio Liuzzi is the first to make a stop. He takes the harder tyre on lap 13 and rejoins the race just ahead of Buemi after having trouble to get back up to speed after his stop.

2 laps later Schumacher and Massa are in, followed by Rosberg. The latter saw his stop ruined by the automatic pitstop light system as it went green with the right front still not bolted on correctly.

Vettel had a poor stop as well and eventually lost his second place to Hamilton right when the latter came out of the pitlane 2 laps later. A Virgin car disrupted both their normal racing lines and Vettel went of the run-off area, making it unable for him to defend his second place.

6 laps later Button is still right behind Michael Schumacher after several failed attempts to pass the German along the outside of turn 1. Felipe Massa is closing on Button as well.

On lap 25 the three come across some traffic, first they pass Trulli without trouble, but with Chandhok Massa messes up the corner and slightly touches the HRT car, breaking the left front wing endplate of his Ferrari.

On lap 31 Chandhok is in the pitlane for a new frontwing after breaking it in a duel with Sebastian Buemi, but half a lap later he's out of the race with a technical problem.

At the halfway mark, Mark Webber is comfortably in the lead, 11 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Vettel is only 2 seconds behind, followed by Alonso a further 5 seconds down. Michael Schumacher is 5th with a gap of 23 seconds ahead of him. Jenson Button and Felipe Massa are both on his tail but the German is defending his position superbly.

On lap 51, Rosberg has finally managed to pass Barrichello and moves up to 15th place. Nico did a second stop and had since been blocked behind the Williams. Rosberg had been adjusting his front wing and brake bias for more than 10 laps before gaining just a single position, still far from a points finish.

On lap 55, Vettel moves through the gravel in turn 7 and comes in for new tyres just after that. The German got a fresh set of soft tyres, replacing his worn primes. The problem initially looked similar to his problem in Australia but it could simply have been a front puncture.

2 laps later Vettel is told to be easy on the braking and be extremely careful as his brakes are about at the end of their life and might give in any time. A further 2 laps late, Vettel is ordered to slow down even more and is now mostly braking by going off the throttle far ahead of a corner and just shifting down. The German is fortunate to have a margin of 20 seconds to Michael Schumacher, so it is a matter of making it to the finish.

Lewis Hamilton is in an even worse position as he suffers a left front puncture halfway through turn 3, leaving him no chance to stay on track. The McLaren went of into the tyre barriers, handing Alonso second place and Vettel moving back up to third.