Sebastian Vettel took his and the Toro Rosso team's maiden win Vettel fastest as Hamilton spins ...
Ferrari fastest in first practice ...
F1: Kovalainen grabs pole position in Britain ...
Live - French Grand Prix ... in a thrilling Italian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton came from 15th to finish seventh.

Vettel led from pole throughout a demanding race of changing conditions to finish ahead of Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa reduced the Englishman's championship lead to one point by finishing sixth.

Robert Kubica of BMW climbed from 11th to third by using a one-stop strategy.

The drying track and mixed-up grid led to a fascinating and unpredictable race of varying strategies.

Hamilton impressed hugely in his charge up through the field.

But Vettel was equally deserving of plaudits for a cool and controlled drive to replace double world champion Fernando Alonso as the youngest winner in Formula One history.

The Spaniard, who finished fourth after a strong race in his Renault, was the first to congratulate Vettel after the race.

The German's victory was also the best result by far for the former Minardi team, which was taken over by Red Bull and made its junior outfit in 2006.

They have emerged as a major force in the second half of this season, using cars provided by Red Bull but fitted with a Ferrari engine rather than the Renault used by their parent team.

Vettel left Kovalainen behind in the early stages of the race, establishing a lead of more than 10 seconds before he made his first stop on lap 18.

He controlled the race from there, changing to intermediate tyres at his second stop on lap 36 as the track dried out and continuing to drive with pace and aplomb to the finish.

"Unbelievable," he said. "The whole race we had no problems. The car was working fine. It was a fantastic race, a very good strategy but all that was gone when I crossed the finish line.

"The lap back to the pits and the whole podium ceremony was just unbelievable. For sure it is the best day of my life. These pictures, the emotions, I will never forget.

"Who might have thought about this at the beginning of the season? We had a poor start and we got better and better, I am speechless."

Kovalainen drove a steady race behind him, while Kubica was able to use a very long first stint to fit intermediate tyres at his sole stop on lap 34 and move into third place.

He headed Renault's Fernando Alonso, who used the same strategy allied to a stop four laps earlier, when he was the first driver to take the gamble of a switch to the different tyres.

Kubica's team-mate Nick Heidfeld was fifth, ahead of Massa, Hamilton and Red Bull's Mark Webber.

The Englishman looked on course for an unlikely podium as he carved his way up from 15th on the grid to lie second behind Vettel by the time of what was planned to be his sole pit stop on lap 27.

But the track was too wet to fit intermediates at that stage, and although he was fuelled to the end, he had to come back in on lap 36 to fit change tyres.

That dropped him to seventh and despite making initial in-roads into Massa's lead, he fell back a little after closing the gap to less than two seconds and had to concentrate on holding off a challenge from Webber in the closing laps.

Webber finished in the final points place in eight place, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

The Finn started one place ahead of Hamilton on the grid but was far less convincing in battling up through the field.

He is now 21 points behind Hamilton and effectively out of the title chase with four races remaining.

(BBC)

<< Back