Sebastian Vettel leads 1-2 finish for Red Bull at British GP to claim 2nd F1 victory of season

Vettel wins British GP in 1-2 Red Bull finish

SILVERSTONE, England — Sebastian Vettel cruised to victory in the British Grand Prix on Sunday, leading Red Bull to a 1-2 finish for the second time this season.

The 21-year-old German’s faultless 15.1-second win over teammate Mark Webber duplicated their finish at China in April. Both cars benefited from revamped aerodynamics.

“I had a fantastic car, it was unbelievable. I was able to push, push more,” said Vettel, whose car had a new nose, undertray and diffuser. “It shows we are going the right way. I’d like it if we could finish the season like that, but this circuit suits our car.

“On the other hand, we have made quite a step forward. I think we have improved the car a bit everywhere and it all came together, with the team working perfectly well.”

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello was third after struggling with back pain, but teammate and championship leader Jenson Button finished a season-low sixth in front of home fans.

Having won six races out of eight, Button still leads the standings despite finishing outside the top three for the first time this season. He has 64 points, followed by Barrichello with 41 and Vettel with 39. There are nine races left.

Webber said placing third in qualifying made it difficult to challenge the pole-sitting Vettel.

“We needed to get on the front row, and then the race was virtually lost in the first stint,” said the Australian, who is 28.5 points behind Button. “The gap at the end of it was way too big. I couldn’t bridge it and then … in the second stint there was a lot of traffic.”

Button had a daunting task to improve from sixth on the grid, and it got tougher when his tires lacked grip.

He dropped to ninth early on, but with 10 laps to go reclaimed sixth place to earn three points after leaving the pits ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

“If you don’t get the tires in their working range, it doesn’t matter what car you’ve got, it doesn’t work. So, that was my problem here and Rubens seemed to be struggling as well,” Button said. “The pace wasn’t there.

“Hopefully, this will be the worst race of the year. And after struggling so hard to get three points, in a way this might be an important three points.”

Brawn GP team principal Ross Brawn is confident his drivers will rebound at the German GP on July 12.

“This is not a complete disaster for the championship,” he said. “You can have days when you struggle but come back. It could have been a lot worse.”

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa finished fourth as he did in Monaco last month, edging Nico Rosberg of Williams.

“We still didn’t get the result that we are capable of today,” Rosberg said. “But Barrichello was slow in the middle stint and I was stuck behind him, and that cost me the place to Massa.”

It was a miserable day for reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who finished 16th after being lapped by Vettel. Hamilton, who won last year’s race in front of his home fans, complained over the team radio that his tires lacked grip. He is currently 11th in the drivers’ standings.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen retired in the 36th lap after puncturing a tire in a collision with Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais, who was trying to pass him but lost his front wing and also went out of the race.

It was the fourth straight race that McLaren failed to finish in the points, the first time that has happened since 1981.