Webber cruises to victory in Britain

Hamilton and Rosberg join him on the podium

Mark Webber cruised to victory in the British GP on Sunday afternoon.

Webber made a better start than pole sitter Sebastian Vettel and was able to take the lead at the first corner as the German went briefly off-track. He rejoined in 2nd and was lining up a move on the Australian when a right-rear puncture sent him off at Maggotts.

This dropped him at the back of the field and he had to slowly tour back to the pits. He swapped to the hard tyre but rejoined dead last and was faced with a huge challenge. Meanwhile, Webber was enjoying a nice run at the front and slightly pulling away from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Having made his way up to P3 at the start, Robert Kubica held on to his position but couldn’t follow the rhythm of the leaders and found himself under some pressure from Rosberg. The Pole pitted on lap 14 and rejoined in tenth place ahead of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Rosberg pitted on lap 16 and managed to stay ahead of the pair. Hamilton and Webber pitted on laps 17 and 18 respectively. After this first raft of stops, Webber was leading Hamilton and Button – although the reigning World Champion was yet to stop. Hulkenberg was up in 4th ahead of Rosberg.

Alonso made a move on Kubica on lap 18 but a question mark hanged over his pass as he had to run off-track to complete it. Unfortunately for him, the Renault driver had no chance to strike back as he had to pit with a problem. A rear differential failure put an end to his race.

Button pitted on lap 22, handing 3rd place to Hulkenberg. Halfway through the race, Webber was leading Hamilton by 6 seconds.

Third-placed Hulkenberg finally pitted on lap 28. The safety car had to be deployed on the following lap to allow for rear wing debris to be cleared from an earlier contact between Sutil and de la Rosa. The Sauber driver eventually retired in the pits.

Alonso was a big loser of this safety car period as he had just been handed a drive through penalty when it was deployed. He served it on lap 31, once the safety car had released the field, and rejoined in 16th position.

Race leader Mark Webber handled the restart well to keep Hamilton at bay. Rosberg was in third place but under pressure from Button. Further down the field there was a fierce battle for 11th between Alguersuari and Massa. The young Spaniard did a good job in defending his position but eventually lost it out to the Brazilian. Vettel also went through and was up in P9 on lap 41.

Sutil was his next target but that was not so easy for the Red Bull driver to overtake him. He found a way past on the penultimate lap and crossed the finish line in 7th place as his teammate cruised to his third win of the season.

Hamilton finished second. Nico Rosberg took the last step of the podium. Button was fourth with Barrichello fifth and Kobayashi sixth. Sutil, Schumacher and Hulkenberg scored some points.

Fernando Alonso had another eventful and frustrating afternoon in the Ferrari and finished in 14th place.