Lap 50: Petrov is 16th with Schumacher 10 seconds back in 17th. The German is now losing pace and seems unable to catch that four-car scrap ahead of him.
Lap 49: Hamilton comfortably restores his fourth position as Massa emerges fifth and Button sixth.
Lap 49: Heidfeld is 10th with Perez 11th, Barrichello 12th, Buemi 13th, di Resta 14th and Kobayashi 15th.
Lap 49: Massa and Button are in for their final stops.
Lap 49: Vettel's lead is now 8.6 seconds over Alonso and Webber, with the latter running wide and losing ground on the latest tour.
hataw na! SV pa rin talaga at RBR namamayagpag ah!
Fasten your seatbelt! Or else...Driven To Thrill!
13:43 The Australian takes solid points for third place, nursing a gearbox problem home to the flag.
13:43 Alonso takes second for Ferrari to the delight of the crowd, brilliantly coming out on top of a strategic fight with Webber.
13:43 Another dominant performance from the runaway championship leader, taking an effortless sixth win of the season.
13:43 Sebastian Vettel wins the European Grand Prix!
Race Results
After 57 of 57 laps
Position Country Driver Team
1 Germany S Vettel Red Bull
2 Spain F Alonso Ferrari
3 Australia M Webber Red Bull
4 Great Britain L Hamilton McLaren
5 Brazil F Massa Ferrari
6 Great Britain J Button McLaren
7 Germany N Rosberg Mercedes
8 Spain J Alguersuari Toro Rosso
9 Germany A Sutil Force India
10 Germany N Heidfeld Renault
11 Mexico S Perez Sauber
12 Brazil R Barrichello Williams
13 Switzerland S Buemi Toro Rosso
14 Great Britain P Di Resta Force India
15 Russian Federation V Petrov Renault
16 Japan K Kobayashi Sauber
17 Germany M Schumacher Mercedes
18 Venezuela P Maldonado Williams
19 Finland H Kovalainen Lotus
20 Italy J Trulli Lotus
21 Germany T Glock Virgin
22 Belgium J d'Ambrosio Virgin
23 Italy V Liuzzi Hispania
24 India N Karthikeyan Hispania
13:44 Sutil ends up ninth with Heidfeld taking the final point for Renault in 10th.
13:44 Alguersuari holds off the challenge from Sutil over those closing laps to take eighth - a great effort after his long middle stint.
13:44 Rosberg also had a quiet afternoon with a lack of race pace from Mercedes, ending up in seventh place.
13:44 Button couldn't find much speed in the McLaren today either and comes home a distant sixth.
13:44 Massa suffered from a costly slow pitstop and ends up fifth for Ferrari.
13:44 Hamilton has struggled with tyre wear today and takes fourth after a frustrating afternoon.
La na talaga si MS, retireable na. Ganun pa rin laban, RBR then Ferrari/McLaren at their heels.
Fasten your seatbelt! Or else...Driven To Thrill!
14:01 DRS was brought into the sport this season to aid overtaking, but it looks like virtually nothing can help overtaking around Valencia, apart from driver mistakes.
Vettel led away from the start and produced another dominant display. Alonso and Webber pushed hard at times, but you always had the feeling that the champion had things under control.
McLaren struggled this afternoon and, after two weeks in the limelight following Button's win in Canada, it's back to the drawing board at the McLaren Technology Centre in preparation for the team's home race, while the fear over Mercedes race pace proved to be correct.
This was the 2011 European Grand Prix on AUTOSPORT Live. Thanks for joining us over the course of the weekend. We will be back with all the usual coverage for the British Grand Prix in two weeks time.
14:01 Red Bull's advantage is also sizable in the constructors' race, with an 89 point margin over McLaren and Ferrari 166 points adrift in third.
13:59 Hamilton is now fourth, 89 behind the runaway leader, with Alonso now almost 100 points off the top of the table in fifth place.
13:59 Vettel's score is now 186 and a massive 77 point margin over a tie between Button and Webber.
13:56 Vettel, Morgan, Alonso and Webber stand atop the podium for the traditional end-of-race winners photo, having cooled down a touch with the champagne.
13:55 The champagne sprays on the podium at the end of a very hot, but sadly processional European Grand Prix.
13:54 Webber accepts his third-place award after a typically fighting drive to some solid points for himself and the team.
13:54 Fernando Alonso receives his award for second place. The crowd goes wild after a good drive from the local hero.
13:53 Red Bull's Ian Morgan picks up the constructors' award after another dominant victory for the Milton Keynes-based team.
13:53 Vettel once again collects the winner's trophy and smiles as he surely reflects on his cruise towards a second title.
13:52 That is followed by the Austrian national anthem for today's winning constructor - Red Bull Racing.
13:51 The drivers step out onto the podium to huge applause and the German national anthem rings out for today's winner - Sebastian Vettel.
13:47 Vettel is of course delighted with his 16th career victory as he cruises back to the pits and ever closer towards retaining his title
Vettel eases to European GP victoryBy Matt BeerSunday, June 26th 2011, 13:45 GMT
Sebastian Vettel resumed his domination of the 2011 Formula 1 season after his Montreal blip, by winning the European Grand Prix in Valencia with ease.
The world champion broke his rivals' challenge with an early charge that saw him establish a three-second lead within a few laps and then nurse a similar advantage for the rest of the afternoon, before a push for fastest lap in the final stint took his winning margin up to 10.8 seconds.
Fernando Alonso finished a very encouraging second for Ferrari in front of his home crowd. Both Ferraris had jumped Lewis Hamilton's McLaren at the start, with the flying Felipe Massa dodging between Hamilton and Alonso, then trying to get down the inside of Mark Webber for second. But as he had to back out of the move, Alonso went around the outside of his team-mate and took third.
Alonso then stayed close behind Webber and managed to grab second place with an outbraking move on lap 21. The Spaniard could not shake the Australian off, and when the Red Bull made its second stop one lap sooner, Webber was able to vault back ahead of Alonso.
But the battle was not over, as at the final tyre changes Alonso regained the advantage by running three laps further on used softs while Webber was on his new medium tyres. The Ferrari rejoined just in front, and any hope Webber had of coming back at Alonso ended when the Red Bull team ordered him to back off and take care of a gearbox finish. He held on for third.
Running longer at most pitstops did not help Massa, who fell back to fifth in the end behind Hamilton, closing on the McLaren late on without ever threatening.
Montreal winner Jenson Button had a very low-key afternoon. He was passed by Nico Rosberg at the start and by the time he had dived back ahead of the Mercedes with a bold move at Turn 2 on lap six, the rest of the leaders were out of reach. A later KERS fault ensured Button would finish a lonely sixth.
Rosberg took seventh, having battled for a while with the impressive Jaime Alguersuari, as the Toro Rosso driver converted his miserable 18th on the grid to an eighth place finish by making a two-stop strategy work on a day when nearly everyone else had to pit three times. Alguersuari fended off Adrian Sutil to the finish, as the Force India escaped from an early battle with Nick Heidfeld's 10th-placed Renault.
Sauber's Sergio Perez pulled off a unique one-stop strategy but narrowly failed to convert it to points, chasing Heidfeld home in 11th.
Michael Schumacher's hopes of points ended when he made contact with Vitaly Petrov's Renault as he joined from the pit exit after his first tyre change. That meant an extra stop for a new front wing, leaving the Mercedes 17th. Petrov was only 15th, having never really recovered from a bad start.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTSThe European Grand PrixValencia, Spain;57 laps; 310.080km;Weather: Sunny.Classified:Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h39:36.169 2. Alonso Ferrari + 10.891 3. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 27.255 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 46.190 5. Massa Ferrari + 51.705 6. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1:00.000 7. Rosberg Mercedes + 1:38.000 8. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap10. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap14. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap15. Petrov Renault + 1 lap16. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap17. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap18. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap19. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 2 laps20. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps22. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps23. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps24. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 3 lapsFastest lap: Vettel, 1:41.852Not classified/retirements:Driver Team On lapWorld Championship standings, round 8: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Vettel 186 1. Red Bull-Renault 295 2. Webber 109 2. McLaren-Mercedes 206 3. Button 109 3. Ferrari 129 4. Hamilton 97 4. Renault 61 5. Alonso 87 5. Mercedes 58 6. Massa 42 6. Sauber-Ferrari 27 7. Rosberg 32 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 16 8. Petrov 31 8. Force India-Mercedes 12 9. Heidfeld 30 9. Williams-Cosworth 410. Schumacher 26 11. Kobayashi 25 12. Sutil 10 13. Alguersuari 8 14. Buemi 8 15. Barrichello 4 16. Perez 2 17. Di Resta 2 All timing unofficial
ZZZzzz...sleepfest.
Race: Vettel Wins Lacklustre Euro GP
Sebastian Vettel strolled to his sixth win of the campaign in the European GP where the fight was a lot closer than it was exciting.
No matter how many DRS zones you put in, how much power the KERS gives a driver, or what you ban on the cars, it truly seems as if nothing will ever make the Valencia street circuit an exciting venue for Formula One racing.