Race Notes - Mark Webber wins Spanish GP

Mark Webber took his Red Bull-Renault from pole-position to win the Spanish Grand Prix, in Barcelona, in a dominant flag-to-flag victory. Fernando Alonso took advantage of troubles in front of him to finish in second place in his Ferrari, 24 seconds behind the leader. Sebastian Vettel hung in to finish in third place in his Red Bull, spending the last 10 laps of the race nursing his car home with failing brakes, 51 seconds behind his team mate.

The victory is Webber's third career win, and the Australian's first of the season, following his third career pole position yesterday.

At the start Mark Webber took the lead from pole position, followed by Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Alonso, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher. At the first round of pit stops Hamilton was able to rejoin in front of Vettel, and held the German driver off to take second place, which he held the entire race - until two laps from the finish, when a left front tyre puncture sent him off the road at turn 3 and crashing into the barriers.

After getting ahead of Button at the pitstops, Schumacher was able to hold off a string of cars behind him in his Mercedes to come home a distant fourth, 62.1 seconds behind. Right behind him, Button (63.7s) finished in the McLaren in fifth, and Felipe Massa (65.7s) in the Ferrari in sixth place.

Adrian Sutil (72.9s) in the Force India-Mercedes was seventh, Robert Kubica (73.6s) in the Renault was eighth, Rubens Barrichello (1 Lap) in the Williams-Cosworth finished ninth, and Jaime Alguersuari (1 Lap) in the Toro Rosso-Ferrari finished in the final points paying position.

Nico Rosberg was forced out onto the grass at the start and struggled outside the points for the entire afternoon.

In the points standings Jenson Button holds on to a narrow three point lead over Fernando Alonso, while the Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber made up ground in third and fourth places, while Nico Rosberg dropped from second to fifth in the standings. The Constructors' Championship is tightening up with McLaren-Mercedes leading with 119 points over Ferrari with 116 and Red Bull-Renault with 113, followed a distant fourth by Mercedes GP with 72 points.

The Championship continues next week a Monte Carlo.