Sebastian Vettel Wins The 2010 European Grand Prix

The 2010 European Grand Prix took place at the picturesque Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. A harbor side street circuit, the circuit length is 5.419 kms. The race is 57 laps and the race distance is 308.883 kms.

The circuit is unique in that the cars race over Valencia's canal at one section. They do this by using a swing bridge specially built between the north and the south marina areas. This makes for a visually stunning race experience.

Qualifying for this F1 race took place on the Saturday, with Vettel taking the pole position. His team-mate, Mark Webber, secured second spot in the qualifying sessions.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes garnered third spot. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso took fourth position on the grid, while Jenson Button took fifth spot in qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso pushed Sebastian Vettel hard as the race began. However, the wily Vettel maintained his front-running position on the opening lap and settled into a driving groove.

This sustained him in top spot until the end of the race. Essentially, the racing was amongst the rest of the pack as they jockeyed to secure valuable points.

Australia's Mark Webber did not have the same good fortune as his Red Bull team-mate Vettel. First off, he had a bad start to the race.

He dropped from second spot on the grid to ninth spot very early on. The worst was still yet to come.

On the eighth lap after his pit stop, Webber ran into the back of Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus. Webber's car flipped backwards and subsequently landed upside down.

It proceeded to flip back on its wheels, and then slammed into a tire wall. Webber, amazingly, emerged from the accident unhurt.

The race continued after the safety car came out, with Lewis Hamilton in second, still trying to hunt down Vettel. Kamui Kobayashi of BMW Sauber moved into third place. This was a result of him not making a pit stop as others did when the safety car came out.

Kobayashi held onto this position until there were only four laps to go. However, he finally had to make a stop for new tyres.

This allowed the ever-present Jenson Button to move into third spot. He held this position until race end. This gave McLaren-Mercedes and their drivers Hamilton and Button a two-three finish and significant Championship points.

Vettel's victory is his second of this Grand Prix season. He earned 25 points for finishing first in this year's European Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton gained 18 points and Jenson Button scored 15 points.

Rubens Barrichello of Williams drove a strong race and secured fourth position and 12 points. He was one of several other drivers who received a post-race five-second time penalty for their speed on their pit stop in-laps behind the safety car according to social media like stumbleupon - Robert Kubica of Renault was again consistent and he earned 10 points for his fifth-place finish.

Adrian Sutil of Force India continues to mature as a Grand Prix Driver. He finished in sixth spot and received 8 points. He started the race in position13 and made significant gains to end up in the points. For the 2010 Grand Prix season points go to the top 10 finishers.

Staring the race in position 18, Kamui Kobayashi eventually ended up in seventh spot. He earned six points for his efforts. This was disappointing considering he held down third spot for part of the race.

Eighth spot went to Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who earned four points. This was also disappointing for Alonso, as he held down third at one point in the race. He lost time in the pits when he was forced to stay behind the medical car as it exited the pits.

Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso finished ninth and earned two points. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP held down the tenth and final position. He received one Championship point.

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, Rosberg's team-mate, is still looking for his first Formula 1 GP win for 2010. He finished in fifteenth position in Sunday's European Grand Prix.

With nine races in the books, Lewis Hamilton still leads the World Championship with 127 points. Jenson Button is close behind with 121 points. Sebastian Vettel is now in third spot with 115 points.

Mark Webber, despite his misfortunes, remains in the hunt for the Championship. He has 103 points, good for fourth place. Fernando Alonso sits in fifth with 98 points and will be hoping to close the gap in the weeks to come.
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