Webber wins last race of the year

It was a relief for Mark Webber as the Aussie claimed his first victory of the 2011 Formula 1 season. He benefited from Sebastian Vettel’s gearbox problems to drive home in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull team clearly dominated the action on Sunday’s race. Vettel started off in the lead, while Webber held the other cars behind him and then started to increase his gap.

Vettel opened a three-second lead over his team-mate and at that time the two Red Bulls were driving at some moment a second per lap quicker than anyone on the track. But right from the early laps Vettel started to receive radio messages from his team, warning him to nurse his gearbox, which was developing problems. This caused Vettel pace to lower and on lap 29 his team-mate overtook him to take the lead at Interlagos.

Webber drove to his first win since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, while Vettel’s slower pace was enough to hang on to second place.

Vettel can also help Button and Alonso for holding on to his position, as both drivers fought hard behind him. In Sunday’s race Alonso started off on a better note overtaking Hamilton at the start and claiming third place from Button in a spectacular move around the outside at Ferradura on lap 11.

The Spaniard then started to run away, but a slower pace on the final stint on the harder tyres allowed Button to recover and overtake him with nine laps to go.

Further behind, Hamilton was left to fight yet again with Felipe Massa for fifth position, but a gearbox failure halted the McLaren, with the Brazilian securing the position in front of his home crowd.

The two Force India’s had a great performance in Brazil finishing sixth and eighth, a result that almost allowed them to catch Lotus Renault in the constructor’s standings. Nico Rosberg finished in the middle of the two Force Indias.

With his ninth position Kamui Kobayashi secured Sauber’s seventh spot in the team’s standings, while Vitaly Petrov closed the points-scorers.