Key Moments: European Grand Prix 2010

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Key Moments: European Grand Prix

There may not have been a lot of close racing in the European Grand Prix but it did provide some drama and controversy. Sebastian Vettel emerged victorious and although he had a comfortable margin at the finish, the championship contender had to fight hard for the win during a few key moments in the race.

THE START

The first corner after the start at Valencia is much harder than it looks. There is lots of dust offline and there is little margin for error with the concrete wall so close on the exit. The cars arrive at the turn fairly quickly with cold tyres, cold brakes, and a full tank of fuel which can make it hard to pick the braking just right. Vettel did exactly that at a crucial time when he was under immense pressure from behind.

Sebastian made a solid getaway from pole position but Lewis Hamilton drew level as the two entered the first braking zone. Hamilton went for the inside and stole the apex away from the Red Bull, but Vettel timed his braking perfectly and stuck to the outside line. Lewis attacked on the exit but drifted wide into the side of Vettel and slightly damaged his front wing. Hamilton said on the radio "Vettel hit me" but it was actually the other way around. The German positioned his car nicely having braked as late as was possible and that simple racecraft gave him the race lead.

LAPS 1-9

Once the race settled down Vettel started lapping consistently quicker than his rivals and had pulled out a four second gap to Hamilton by lap nine. The leader was pushing hard in the early stages so that he would have a decent buffer when the round of pitstops began.

As it turned out, those quick laps gave the victory to Vettel. If he had been a few seconds slower he would have been caught behind the Safety Car when it emerged on lap ten. In that scenario Vettel would have ended up near Fernando Alonso, and Jenson Button would have taken the race win.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, those quick laps at the start meant Vettel didn’t lose any track position to Jenson when the Safety Car was deployed.

The fight was close between Vettel and Hamilton after the full course yellow, but it was resolved on lap 27 when Lewis served his drive through penalty. It would have been interesting to see if the McLaren was quick enough to overtake Vettel in the late stages, but it’s unlikely that Hamilton would have found a way into the lead.

Catching is one thing, passing is quite another.

Vettel didn't need to worry about any late-race drama as he had done enough in the early stages of the Grand Prix to give himself a comfortable margin at the end.

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Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.