Sebastian Vettel stayed out of trouble on Sunday to win the European Formula One Grand Prix from pole as team-mate Mark Webber escaped a bad crash unhurt and rival Lewis Hamilton had to swallow a drive through penalty.
The German Red Bull driver Vettel claimed his second season victory and seventh overall to rebound from some bad weeks ahead of Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.
Webber’s car was lifted into the air after he hit the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus as he tried to pass him in the 10th lap.
The Red Bull was lifted into the air, flipped over and after landing skidded into a tyre wall. But Webber got out of the wreck immediately and walked away on his own. A Check-up in the medical centre confirmed that he escaped the scary incident unhurt.
The crash also cost Hamilton his penalty as race stewards ruled he had illegally overtaken the safety car as it came out after the Webber crash.
However, the final outcome was far from clear as it was announced late in the race that nine drivers, including Button, were under investigation for driving too fast during the early safety car phase — which could shake up the final classification.
That did not affect Vettel though as he was releived to have finally overcome a poor spell, a collision with Webber in Turkey and then only fifth place in Canada.
“It was about time. It is good to be back, on a circuit where we didn’t expect to be strong ... Finally we are back, it is good to get a lot of points,” said Vettel. “Mark had quite a big shunt, the most important thing is that he is all good,” added Vettel in the direction of Webber.
Hamilton also said it is “good that Mark is well” and Button said “I am happy that he walked away.” Hamilton said there was little he could do towards a third straight win after the penalty and looked after tha car after briefly touching with Vettel in the second turn.
“I thought I had passed the safety car (in time) ... I tried to bring the car back home in one piece,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton tops the drivers’ standings with 127 points from nine of 19 races, Button has 121 and Vettel moved from fifth to third with 115 ahead of Webber, who remained on 103. Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso has 96 after a frustrating afternoon.
Vettel won the start but was under pressure from Hamilton immediately and the two cars briefly touched in the second turn, with Hamilton complaining about front wing problem afterwards.
Vettel then almost braked too late just on the restart but just held his position ahead of Hamilton, while Japanese Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi was swept to third place ahead of Button and Alonso struggled in 10th.
The home boy Alonso and Ferrari lamented that Hamilton had squeezed past the safety car just ahead of them.
It did nothing to soothe their nerves when two super-fast laps from the Brit ahead of the penalty trip through the pitlane allowed him to re-enter the race in the same second place he held before — as Kobayashi appeared to slow down Button.
Vettel safely drove the race home without major problems in 1 hour 40 minutes 29.531 seconds for 57 laps on the 5.419-kilometres street course.
Kobayashi had to relinquish third place by making the mandatory pit stop very late, but then with fresh tyres passed Alonso and Sebastien Buemi in the final lap for seventh place — and possibly more depending on the probe.
Mercedes also suffered from the safety car as Nico Rosberg had to settle for 12th and record champ Michael Schumacher was 16th (and 15th on the grid) for his worst result since his return this season.
The next race is the British GP on July 11 in Silverstone.
