This is shaping to be an exciting F1 season. Compared to the last one, around the same time, Brawn GP was running away with the Championhip, but now we’ve five drivers who are within earshot of each other with the Drivers’ points.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has gotten his Championship chance back into contention as he won the race in Valenica comfortably from the front. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was some five seconds behind earning a second spot.

Vettel was quoted, “Two races can change a lot. McLaren have had a very good run, and looking at it now, I think it’s between us and McLaren. Ferrari made a step forward this weekend, and they will come back, there’s no question about that. It will be tight. At the moment it probably looks as if Mercedes are losing a little bit, but even they can play a role if they have a very strong car at the end. But we will see. It’s not even half time, so there’s a long way to go.”

Known for being a boring race, and only a few overtaking from last year, the Valencia leg this time round sure has a couple of talking points.

First there was the Mark Webber crash with Heikki Kovalainen, who refuse to give away his racing line to a faster Red Bull car. It was a spectacular crash as the Australian careen into Kovalainen’s back car, and was thrown into the air.

Webber was unhurt amazingly, but it was his pride and Championship chances that was more wounded.

Then there was some sublime driving from Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi. He overtook a couple of cars to deservingly finished 7th after starting 18th on the grid.

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The next leg will be in Britain, and it will be McLaren home turf. The Red Bull team has a challenge on their hands now, and I do hope Silverstone will be a kick-ass race.

European GP Sun. Race (27 Jun 2010)

Note – Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi, De la Rosa, Petrov, Liuzzi and Hulkenberg all had five seconds added to their race times for speeding under safety-car conditions. Glock had 20 seconds added for ignoring blue flags.

1. Sebastian Vettel (RBR-Renault) 57 laps [1:40:29.571] 25 pts
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 57 laps [+5.0 secs] 18 pts
3. Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) 57 laps [+12.6 secs] 15 pts
4. Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) 57 laps [+25.6 secs] 12 pts
5. Robert Kubica (Renault) 57 laps [+27.1 secs] 10 pts
6. Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) 57 laps [+30.1 secs] 8 pts
7. Kamui Kobayashi (BMW Sauber-Ferrari) 57 laps [+30.9 secs] 6 pts
8. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 57 laps [+32.8 secs] 4 pts
9. Sebastien Buemi (STR-Ferrari) 57 laps [+36.2 secs] 2 pts
10. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) 57 laps [+44.3 secs] 1 pts
11. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 57 laps [+46.6 secs]
12. Pedro de la Rosa (BMW Sauber-Ferrari) 57 laps [+47.4 secs]
13. Jaime Alguersuari (STR-Ferrari) 57 laps [+48.2 secs]
14. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 57 laps [+48.2 secs]
15. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 57 laps [+48.8 secs]
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India-Mercedes) 57 laps [+50.8 secs]
17. Lucas di Grassi (Virgin-Cosworth) 56 laps [+1 Lap]
18. Karun Chandhok (HRT-Cosworth) 55 laps [+2 laps]
19. Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) 55 laps [+2 laps]
20. Bruno Senna (HRT-Cosworth) 55 laps [+2 laps]
21. Jarno Trulli (Lotus-Cosworth) 53 laps [+4 laps]
22. Nico Hulkenberg (Williams-Cosworth) 49 laps [Exhaust Retired]
23. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Cosworth) 8 laps [Accident damage Retired]
24. Mark Webber (RBR-Renault) 8 laps [Accident Retired]

Constructors Championship

1. McLaren-Mercedes 248pts
2. RBR-Renault 218pts
3. Ferrari 165pts
4. Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 109pts
5. Renault 89pts
6. Force India-Mercedes 43pts
7. Williams-Cosworth 20pts
8. STR-Ferrari 10pts
9. BMW Sauber-Ferrari 7pts
10. Lotus-Cosworth 0pts
11. HRT-Cosworth 0pts
12. Virgin-Cosworth 0pts

Driver Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton (British) McLaren-Mercedes / 127pts
2. Jenson Button (British) McLaren-Mercedes / 121pts
3. Sebastian Vettel (German) RBR-Renault / 115pts
4. Mark Webber (Australian) RBR-Renault / 103pts
5. Fernando Alonso (Spanish) Ferrari / 98pts
6. Robert Kubica (Polish) Renault / 83pts
7. Nico Rosberg (German) Mercedes Benz GP Ltd / 75pts
8. Felipe Massa (Brazilian) Ferrari / 67pts
9. Michael Schumacher (German) Mercedes Benz GP Ltd / 34pts
10. Adrian Sutil (German) Force India-Mercedes / 31pts
11. Rubens Barrichello (Brazilian) Williams-Cosworth / 19pts
12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italian) Force India-Mercedes / 12pts
13. Kamui Kobayashi (Japanese) BMW Sauber-Ferrari / 7pts
14. Sebastien Buemi (Swiss) STR-Ferrari / 7pts
15. Vitaly Petrov (Russian) Renault / 6pts
16. Jaime Alguersuari (Spanish) STR-Ferrari / 3pts
17. Nico Hulkenberg (German) Williams-Cosworth / 1pts
18. Heikki Kovalainen (Finnish) Lotus-Cosworth / 0pts
19. Jarno Trulli (Italian) Lotus-Cosworth / 0pts
20. Pedro de la Rosa (Spanish) BMW Sauber-Ferrari / 0pts
21. Bruno Senna (Brazilian) HRT-Cosworth / 0pts
22. Timo Glock (German) Virgin-Cosworth / 0pts
23. Lucas di Grassi (Brazilian) Virgin-Cosworth / 0pts
24. Karun Chandhok (Indian) HRT-Cosworth / 0pts

European GP Gallery

Click on thumbnail to enlarge.