Australian Mark Webber secured his first victory of the season and the third of his career yesterday when he cruised to a sumptuous triumph for Red Bull in the Spanish Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Australian, starting from his third pole position, made the most of that advantage to hold his place in the crush on the opening lap, resisting all attacks at the first corner and streaking clear of the field.
It was his first win since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix after he had become the first Australian victor since Alan Jones in 1981 when he claimed his maiden win in Germany — and will have injected priceless belief in his bid to challenge for the championship.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Webber came home 24 seconds clear of home hero two-times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who profited from two dramatic late incidents to climb from fourth and give the big Catalan crowd good reason to celebrate.
Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren looked certain to finish second until he suffered a puncture on his penultimate lap of the 66-laps contest and crashed off the track, his front left wheel almost wrenched off his car.
This gave Alonso his second place and also enabled Webber’s Red Bull teammate German Sebastian Vettel to take third despite having to take an additional pit-stop in the closing stages after he had gone off into a gravel trap.
These late rare incidents were among very few to punctuate what turned out, predictably, to be a largely processional race at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher, 41, came home fourth ahead of fifth-placed defending champion Briton Jenson Button in the second McLaren.
Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of German Adrian Sutil of Force India, in seventh, Pole Robert Kubica who was eighth for Renault and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, of Williams, who finished a solid ninth despite starting close to the rear of the grid.
Another Spaniard, Jaime Alguersuari, finished 10th for Toro Rosso to take a point.
Webber’s win lifted him up among the leading contenders in the drivers championship still led by Button on 70 with Alonso now second on 67.
In the constructors’ title race, McLaren lead with 117 and Ferrari are second on 116.
It was a flawless exhibition drive by Webber at the front of the field, proving again that the Red Bull cars are the standard-setters this season, but several other men suffered frustrating afternoons.
German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, who was second behind Button at the start of the day, slumped from eighth to 12th on the opening lap and then struggled to make any impact.
After taking an extra pit-stop for tires, he was embroiled in the battle among the tail-enders among whom Italian veteran Jarno Trulli of Lotus finished as the best of the new teams.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but