Sebastian Vettel declared on the radio he is "back on track" after winning Sunday's European grand prix.
"Germany one, England nil," grinned third-placed Jenson Button, before leaving the FIA press conference to watch Germany score the first goal for real as the countries battle for World Cup survival in South Africa. With his win, pole sitter Vettel snatches third place in the world championship - behind both McLarens - from his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, who escaped unhurt from a frightening backflip crash. Caused by the Australian striking the rear of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus, the crash mirrored one during the earlier GP2 race, in which Josef Kral was hospitalised.
Some figures, including David Coulthard, slammed Kovalainen's decision to race Webber's much faster car, but Lotus technical boss Mike Gascoyne said on Twitter that the Finn was "pissed off with Webber". "For all those saying we should not have defended from Webber, when it is for position on track we race," Mike Gascoyne insisted. "Always." The race was also controversial for other reasons. Lewis Hamilton finished second after a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car, while Fernando Alonso did not make the illegal pass and finished just ninth. "It is really unfair, it is like no penalty," Fernando Alonso's race engineer Andrea Stella told the angry Spaniard by radio during the race. And nine drivers - Button, both Williams, both Renaults, both Force Indias, Sebastien Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa - are under investigation by the stewards for driving too fast on their pitstop in-lap while the safety car was out. If penalised, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi - finishing behind four of the investigated drivers - could be the big winner, after finishing seventh with an unique race strategy that saw him make a very late single pitstop. By performing impressive late-race passes on Fernando Alonso and Buemi, meanwhile, the Japanese also rekindled memories of his stirring late debut for Toyota last year. Grand prix of Europe - Classification 1 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull RB6-Renault) - 57 laps 2 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/25-Mercedes) - 5"042 3 - Jenson Button (McLaren MP4/25-Mercedes) - 7"658 4 - Rubens Barrichello (Williams FW32-Cosworth) - 20"627 5 - Robert Kubica (Renault R30) - 22"122 6 - Adrian Sutil (Force India VJM03-Mercedes) - 25"168. 7 - Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber C29-Ferrari) - 30"965 8 - Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso STR5-Ferrari) - 31"299 9 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari F10) - 32"809 10 - Pedro De La Rosa (Sauber C29-Ferrari) - 42"414 11 - Vitaly Petrov (Renault R30) - 43"287 12 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes MGP W01) - 44"382. 13 - Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India VJM03-Mercedes) - 45"890 14 - Felipe Massa (Ferrari F10) - 46"621 15 - Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso STR5-Ferrari) - 48"239 16 - Michael Schumacher (Mercedes MGP W01) - 48"826 17 - Lucas Di Grassi (Virgin VR01-Cosworth) - 1 giro 18 - Timo Glock (Virgin VR01-Cosworth) - 2 giri. 19 - Karun Chandhok (Hispania F110-Cosworth) - 2 giri 20 - Bruno Senna (Hispania F110-Cosworth) - 2 giri 21 - Jarno Trulli (Lotus T127-Cosworth) - 4 giri Fastest lap: Jenson Button 1'38"766 Retirements 8th lap - Mark Webber 8th lap - Heikki Kovalainen 49th lap - Nico Hulkenberg Drivers' world championship standings 1.Hamilton 127; 2.Button 121; 3.Vettel 115; 4.Webber 103; 5.Alonso 96; 6.Kubica 83; 7.Rosberg 74; 8.Massa 67; 9.Schumacher 34; 10.Sutil 31; 11.Barrichello 19; 12.Liuzzi 12; 13.Buemi 9; 14.Kobayashi 7; 14.Petrov 6; 15.Alguersuari 3; 16.Hulkenberg, De La Rosa 1. Constructors' world championship standings 1. McLaren-Mercedes 248; 2. Red Bull-Renault 218; 3. Ferrari 163; 4. Mercedes 108; 5. Renault 89; 6. Force India-Mercedes 43; 7. Williams-Cosworth 20; 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 12; 9. Sauber-Ferrari 8. Non official results
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