Sebastian Vettel declared on the radio he is “back on track” after winning Sunday’s European grand prix.

“Germany one, England nil,” grinned third-placed Jenson Button, before leaving the FIA press conference to watch Germany score the first goal for real as the countries battle for World Cup survival in South Africa.

With his win, pole sitter Vettel snatches third place in the world championship – behind both McLarens – from his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, who escaped unhurt from a frightening backflip crash.

Caused by the Australian striking the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus, the crash mirrored one during the earlier GP2 race, in which Josef Kral was hospitalised.

Some figures, including David Coulthard, slammed Kovalainen’s decision to race Webber’s much faster car, but Lotus technical boss Mike Gascoyne said on Twitter that the Finn was “pissed off with Webber”.

“For all those saying we should not have defended from Webber, when it is for position on track we race,” Gascoyne insisted.  “Always.”

The race was also controversial for other reasons.  Hamilton finished second after a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car, while Fernando Alonso did not make the illegal pass and finished just ninth.

“It is really unfair, it is like no penalty,” Alonso’s race engineer Andrea Stella told the angry Spaniard by radio during the race.

And nine drivers – Button, both Williams, both Renaults, both Force Indias, Sebastien Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa – are under investigation by the stewards for driving too fast on their pitstop in-lap while the safety car was out.

If penalised, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi – finishing behind four of the investigated drivers – could be the big winner, after finishing seventh with an unique race strategy that saw him make a very late single pitstop.

By performing impressive late-race passes on Fernando Alonso and Buemi, meanwhile, the Japanese also rekindled memories of his stirring late debut for Toyota last year.

Provisional Race Result -  27 June 2010

Robert Kubica and Montreal – that’s a Hochschaubahn: 2007 pilot of the accident, the then BMW Sauber F1 Team at the hairpin difficult, but escaped miraculously with minor injuries. A year later he led a complete surprise double victory of his team ahead of Nick Heidfeld – it was the only win for the Bavarians in the premier class. Last year there was no race in Montreal – Kubica this year but returns to the Ile de Notre Dame. “The Grand Prix of Canada is something like my destiny race,” says the poles ‘Auto Bild motorsport’.

And so he feels: This year a sensation in the air – “with little luck.” Because: “The course our car will be. It’s fast on the straights and is as wonderfully out of slow corners. It is these properties are required in Montreal.” The strength in tight corners is based on the small wheel base of the Renault R30 – no current Formula 1 racing car can compete in this discipline with Kubica’s car. It showed the team had in Monaco, where the 25-year-old is the sharpest of the superior competitor Red Bull pilot was.

And although the Renault engine has a power deficit, Kubica and Vitaly Petrov scores are in the top speed is always at the front – reason is the low air resistance of the R30. Moreover, the French have for the Grand Prix of Canada, a secret weapon in the quiver: the first time is given to an in-house interpretation of the F-shaft system, which turned out on the long straights of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as a great advantage. Now the only question is whether the system works right away, or if you have it like Red Bull in Turkey to expand after the first test.

That will leave Robert Kubica after just one season, the team Renault is unlikely. After Felipe Massa contract extension with Ferrari in Maranello in 2012 the door is closed. Even if the pole for 2011 is not linked to Renault, there are few other enticing options. This Renault boss Eric Boullier had managed to retain its number-one pilots in 2011 and to his team. The Luxembourg wants to build the Renault racing team to head the Polish pilots around.

(MotorSportsTotal)

Well that’s how it panned out as the reigning F1 World Champion delivered a well judged and much deserved drive to notch up his second victory of the season. Prior to the start of the Chinese Grand Prix, at Shanghai International Circuit, few would have predicted a Jenson Button win, fewer would have waged odds on a McLaren 1-2.

The race under heavy Shanghai skies had everything: a dry spell, a semi-wet phase, wet with rain fall, first lap mayhem, a jump start and generous doses of overtaking.

It was by no means plain sailing (excuse the pun) for Button who took the lead on lap 19 and controlled the race from that point on, well almost, as in the final laps he faced a relentless challenge from team mate Lewis Hamilton who again was the star of the show with a gritty drive to second place.

Nico Rosberg, again showed impressively, bringing his Mercedes GP home third making it an all Merc powered driver podium. Rosberg flew the flag for the Silver Arrows as his illustrious team mate Michael Schumacher could only manage 10th place in an afternoon in some high profile battles which alas saw him come out second best in just about all of them. Twice he was overtaken with remarkable ease by Hamilton, Vettel and Webber, lost a battle with a rookie late in the race and was taken by a Ferrari on the very last lap which relegated him to tenth.

Fernando Alonso brought his Ferrari home in fourth, which was an impressive feat considering that the Spaniard was given a drive through penalty for jumping the start. It was marginal but replays showed the scarlet car edging forward before the lights went off. Hence he led briefly from the start. Team mate Felipe Massa was nowhere near Alonso’s pace all weekend and scrapped his way to ninth, well and truly overshadowed.

Renault again were impressive with Robert Kubica taking fifth place in yet another strong drive for the team and crowning a good day with rookie Vitaly Petrov having an action packed day with a  number of excursions, but also a number of duels with some big names and seventh place was a just reward for the Russian who clearly revels adverse conditions.

Sebastian Vettel who started on pole in his Red Bull will be wondering where it all went wrong. A win in conditions that he thrives in was almost a foregone conclusion prior to the start. But it was not to be and sixth is scant reward for a race that somehow escaped the team. Mark Webber who shared the front row defied his experience with some silly mistakes which saw him come home eighth. There will be few smiles in their garages.

YF1

The current MotoGP champion, the Italian, Valentino Rossi, motorcycle world’s nine-time champion, again made clear that the new Yamaha M1 gives him good sensations, as he leaded the second pre-season testing day in the Sepang racetrack.

‘Il Dottore’, who already was the fastest yesterday, today rolled with good times, his best being 2.00.925.

The rider from Urbine was the only one capable of riding below 2.01, while his direct World Championship rivals did as follows: Stoner, his closest opponent, made it second at only 395 thousandths.  Lorenzo and Pedrosa also rolled at less than a second from the Italian rider.

However, the great surprise of the day was in charge of the US rider, Ben Spies (Yamaha), Superbike world champion, pulling off the fifth best time, showing great adaptation to the M1, in spite of his lack of experience with it.

Regarding the rest of the Spaniards, the results were: Aleix Espargaró (Ducati) ninth, improving yesterday’s times, while Héctor Barberá (Ducati) and Álvaro Bautista (Suzuki) are still adapting to the ‘queen’ category  and were twelfth and fourteenth, respectively.

On the other hand, the fright of the day was experienced with the Italian, Marco Simoncelli (Honda), who suffered a fall due to a ‘lash’ of the RC21V, but escaped unharmed and could return to the track a while later.

–RESULTADS OF THE DAY:

1. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha)  2:00.925.

2. Casey Stoner (AUS/Ducati)       0.395.

3. JORGE LORENZO (ESP/Yamaha)       0.360.

4. DANI PEDROSA (ESP/Honda)         0.142.

5. Ben Spies (USA/Yamaha)           0.444.

6. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Honda)     0.006.

7. Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha)       0.207.

8. Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati)        0.014.

9. ALEIX ESPARGARÓ (Ducati)         0.154.

10. Loris Capirossi (ITA/Suzuki)    0.116.

…/…

12. HÉCTOR BARBERÁ (ESP/Ducati)     0.222.

16. ÁLVARO BAUTISTA (ESP/Suzuki)    0.029.