Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel drove his Red Bull to a narrow and dramatic victory ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in the Spanish Grand Prix, yesterday.

The 23-year-old German used his natural speed and clever strategy to steal the lead after starting second behind team-mate Mark Webber and then resisted all that 2008 champion Hamilton could throw at him in the closing stages of the 66-lap contest.

After a thrilling duel, Vettel finished six-tenths of a second ahead of the 26-year-old Briton to reel off his fourth win in five races this season – his 13th career win – and extend his lead in the drivers’ world championship.

It was the first time that a driver, who did not start from pole, had won the Spanish Grand Prix in 11 years.

Hamilton came home second ahead of his McLaren team-mate and fellow-Englishman Jenson Button who finished third ahead of Webber. The latter had started from pole, and fifth-placed two-times champion Fernando Alonso.

Spaniard Alonso gave his home crowd plenty to cheer with a wonderful start and great charge for Ferrari in the early stages, but could not live with the leaders in the second half of the 66-lap contest.

Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, 42, bounced back from his dismal race in Turkey by finishing sixth for Mercedes ahead of his team-mate German Nico Rosberg, another German Nick Heidfeld, of Renault, and the two Sauber drivers, Mexican Sergio Perez and Japanese Kamui Kobayashi.

Vettel now has 118 points and leads Hamilton by 41 points while in the constructors standings Red Bull have 185 points to McLaren on 138.

“A great drive Seb, fantastic, a brilliant job,” said Red Bull team chief Christian Horner to Vettel on the slowing down lap.

“Yabbadabbadoooo!” replied the driver, his youthful enthusiasm shining through.

Vettel and Hamilton had exchanged the lead throughout the race as each pit-stopped several times, yesterday.

The German made his third stop after 32 laps to go on hards.

This gave Hamilton the lead again before he did the same three laps later and rejoined second, cutting the gap to little more than a second with 20 laps remaining and Button third, 22 seconds – or a fast pit stop – adrift.

The leading duo then pitted again after 48 and 49 laps and Hamilton staying just over a second behind with Button 30 seconds behind in third, chased by Webber, as they went into the final 10 laps.

Hamilton soon cut Vettel’s lead to half a second and began hunting a passing move with the aid of his Kinetic Energy Regeneration System (KERS) and the Drag Reduction System (DRS).

Hamilton’s McLaren appeared to have the superior pace in these final laps, but not the edge, or opportunity, to overtake the leader who was using all his skills to stay in front.

GP result

1. Vettel (Red Bull) - 1:39.03.301
2. Hamilton (McLaren) at 0.630
3. Button (McLaren) - 35.697
4. Webber (Red Bull) - 47.966
5. Alonso (Ferrari) - 1 lap
6. Schumacher (Mercedes) - 1 lap
7. Rosberg (Mercedes) - 1 lap
8. Heidfeld (Renault) - 1 lap
9. Perez (Sauber) - 1 lap
10. Kobayashi (Sauber) - 1 lap
11. Petrov (Renault) - 1 lap
12. Di Resta (F. India) - 1 lap
13. Sutil (F. India) - 1 lap
14. Buemi (T. Rosso) - 1 lap
15. Maldonado (Williams) - 1 lap
16. Alguersuari (T. Rosso) - 2 laps
17. Barrichello (Williams) - 2 laps
18. Trulli (Lotus) - 2 laps
19. Glock (Virgin) - 3 laps
20. D’Ambrosio (Virgin) - 4 laps
21. Karthikeyan (Hispania) - 5 laps

Did not finish
Liuzzi (Hispania) - 29th lap
Kovalainen (Lotus) - 49th lap
Massa (Ferrari) - 59th lap

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:26.727.

Drivers
1. Vettel 118, 2. Hamilton 77, 3. Webber 67, 4. Button 61, 5. Alonso 51, 6. Rosberg 26, 7. Heidfeld 25, 8. Massa 24, 9. Petrov 21, 10. Schumacher 14, 11. Kobayashi 9, 12. Buemi 6, 13. Sutil 2, 14. Perez 2, 15. Di Resta (GBR) 2.

Constructors
1. Red Bull 185, 2. McLaren 138, 3. Ferrari 75, 4. Lotus-Renault 46, 5. Mercedes GP 40, 6. Sauber 11, 7. Toro Rosso 6, 8. Force India 4.

Next race
Sunday – Monaco GP.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.