Delighted Webber cruises to crushing triumph

A delighted Mark Webber signalled yesterday that he is a serious contender for this year's drivers' world championship when he cruised to a crushing victory for Red Bull in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old Australian secured his first win this year and the third of his career with a sumptuous demonstration of his talents and the outright performance of his dominant Red Bull car.

"That was a fantastic result," he said afterwards, when he played tribute again to the industry and invention of his Red Bull team. "Everyone has done their part in this, including the driver, and I am absolutely thrilled.

"Collectively, it has been a huge job well done by everyone at Red Bull."

Starting from his third pole position, Webber made the most of that advantage to hold his place in the crush on the opening lap, resisting all attacks at the first corner, and then streaked clear of the field to take command.

It was his first win since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix, after he had become the first Australian victor since Alan Jones, in 1981, when he claimed his maiden win in Germany - and will have injected priceless belief in his bid to challenge for the championship.

Webber came home 24 seconds clear of home hero, two-times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who profited from two dramatic late incidents to climb from fourth and give the big Catalan crowd good reason to celebrate.

Briton Lewis Hamilton, of McLaren, looked certain to finish second until he suffered a puncture on his penultimate lap of the 66-laps contest and crashed off the track, his front left wheel almost wrenched off his car.

This gave Alonso his second place and also enabled Webber's Red Bull team-mate German Sebastian Vettel to take third despite having to take an additional pit-stop in the closing stages after he had gone off into a gravel trap.

These late rare incidents were among very few to punctuate what turned out, predictably, to be a largely processional race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher, 41, came home fourth ahead of fifth-placed defending champion Briton Jenson Button in the second McLaren.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of German Adrian Sutil of Force India, in seventh, Pole Robert Kubica who was eighth for Renault and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, of Williams, who finished a solid ninth despite starting close to the rear of the grid.

Webber's win lifted him up among the leading contenders in the drivers championship still led by Button on 70 with Alonso now second on 67. In the constructors' title race, McLaren lead with 117 and Ferrari are second on 116.

Alonso said: "I feel extremely happy. When you gain two positions in the last part of the race, it feels great. Overall, the weekend has been so-so for us, but in terms of results it's fantastic.

"We need to improve. I think we saw that we need to improve the car to be close to Red Bull, but we learned some things..."

Vettel, relieved to finish the race with his damaged car losing brakes, said: "A lot of things went wrong today. I had no chance to get past Mark at the start. I was not quick enough and I struggled a lot with the balance of the car.

"I think we came in too early. We probably expected Lewis to come in on the same lap, but he didn't and then we waited in the pit box a long time because we had to wait for the Ferrari to come past and Jenson was coming in. It felt like a nine-seconds pit-stop."

Mixed feelings

Hamilton, disappointed at his bad luck, but pleased with his car's speed, said: "It was quite a good race for me, I had really good fun out there. It's nice to take a step forward and split the Red Bulls.

"It would have been perfect for the team, but these things happen. I was just cruising to the finish and it was great points for me, but then I blew a tyre with two laps to go."

After being outpaced and outraced by his 17-years-junior Mercedes team-mate fellow-German Nico Rosberg, Schumacher was all smiles at finishing fourth.

"We knew we had no chance to compete for a victory, not even a podium and, thanks to some glitches in others' pit-stops, we moved up one place. Jenson pushed quite hard. I'm sure it was pretty frustrating for him - and exciting for me."