Vettel leads home Red Bull 1-2

Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish at Silverstone on Sunday afternoon to claim victory at the British Grand Prix, sealing an invaluable 1-2 finish for his Red Bull team in the process.

Team-mate Mark Webber was second, but, more importantly for the Championship, leader Jenson Button’s winning streak of four consecutive victories has been ended - the English racer coming home sixth.

It is the manner of Red Bull’s dominance over the weekend which impressed most, however. Vettel was over a second a lap quicker than the entire field in the race initially and has now moved to within two points of Barrichello and 25 points of Button in the Drivers’ standings.

The day also drew another decent showing from Webber. The Australian will be disappointed not to have been able to push his colleague, but was a worthy runner-up ahead of Barrichello, who struggled to make any real impact after lights out.

Felipe Massa was fourth for Ferrari after some a clever strategy from the Scuderia. Nico Rosberg was fifth, just ahead of Button, with Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen completing the points finishers.

Timo Glock was ninth in the second Toyota car, while proof that Force India are now a real threat, Giancarlo Fisichella was tenth overall on pure merit.

Two-time Champion Fernando Alonso ended up 14th with Lewis Hamilton 16th, having started on the back row of the grid. The Briton did at least make some progress though, despite battling for grip throughout the main event.

Vettel made a clean get ahead, with Barrichello maintaining position ahead of Webber, while Button and Trulli were the two to lose out when the field bunched slightly at Turn 1.

Raikkonen was another man to make a strong start – the Finn moving up fifth behind Nakajima. Hamilton, for his part, forced his way up to 14th in the opening laps until he came across a battle between Heidfeld, Alonso and Kubica.

The trio were scrapping over the early 'teen positions in an intense fight not helped by damage to Heidfeld’s nose cone, and the duo were so caught up in each other that they allowed Force India’s Fisichella sneak by into 11th on the second lap.

Vettel quickly established a several second lead, Barrichello unable to hold on to his opponent's coat tails while having to fend off the attentions of Webber behind him.

Nakajima was one of the first into the pit lane and when all stops were completed the Williams man ended up ninth, despite his decent first stint. Raikkonen was next in and though he came out ahead of Nakajima, he would ultimately lose out to Trulli and stay seventh.

In fact, the driver to benefit from a longer first run was Massa. The Brazilian had worked his way up to second when he made his first visit to the pit lane, emerging fifth, ahead of Trulli and his team-mate.

Another crucial first stop was that of Webber’s. Despite the fact, he was two seconds longer in the pit lane, his in lap saw him come out just ahead of Barrichello and into second.

The mid-way point of the race brought some excellent racing from both Hamilton and Alonso. The latter ran wide at Luffield, allowing Hamilton to get down the inside, hold the better track position and move by into through Copse.

However, the defending World Champion struggled with grip throughout and allowed the Spaniard back into 16th following a mistake through Becketts.

A clash between Sebastien Bourdais and Heikki Kovalainen on lap 34 left the French racer needing a new nose cone and the Finn with a left rear puncture. Both men would retire within laps of the incident.

The final lot of planned stops brought Raikkonen and Rosberg in early. A trip over the grass through Club for Hamilton saw the Briton into pit lane as well, and when Massa made his stop (lap 45), he did jump past Rosberg as expected.

Webber pitted on lap 47 to relinquish the lead back to Vettel, who came in on lap 44, while two superb circuits of the track right before he pitted saw Barrichello preserve third ahead of a charging Massa.

In an effort to glean any extra point he could, Button continued to push and when he did finally made his second stop, he got ahead of both Trulli and Raikkonen to move up to sixth, where he had originally started.

The ex-Honda racer did continue his charge in the final laps but Rosberg and Massa just had too much of an advantage given the single digit of laps remaining.

The weekend belonged to Vettel though, who finished with the race winner, pole position and the Fastest Lap. Next up - his home event in Germany.

British Grand Prix - provisional race results

Pos Driver Team Time