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

In the afternoon, had the 24 Formula 1 drivers with overcast skies and temperatures around 22 degrees again 90 minutes time to get to Saturday’s qualifying and the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday to prepare in Montreal.

After it was over for Red Bull in the morning not quite round, could grow Sebastian Vettel in the afternoon clear. The German was in 1:16.877 minutes, the fastest. And team-mate Mark Webber was the front. The Australians were missing lying in fourth place 0.396 seconds.
In second place was Fernando Alonso in Ferrari, the residue was 0.086 seconds at the top. Felipe Massa in the Ferrari was second with 0.524 seconds gap to the best value in the fifth position to find.

In between, Nico Rosberg pushed the Mercedes, which was led by 0.274 seconds gap to the third rank. Michael Schumacher was to be found in the second Mercedes 0.811 seconds difference to the fastest time at the ninth position.

Stark was on the way Adrian Sutil, Force India finished in 0.538 seconds with residue position six. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes came in 0.645 seconds with distance in eleventh place.

Nico Hulkenberg was 13th in the Williams (+1.570), Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso in 17th (+2.291), Timo Glock was taken in the Virgin with 4.611 seconds behind in second last.

Free Practice 2 – 11 June

Sebastian Vettel pulled the proverbial rabbit out the hat with another magnificent last gasp effort that saw him steal pole position in the dying moments of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit.

The young German, fresh from victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix, left the best for the very last as he turned the tables on a strong showing from the McLaren Mercedes duo and his own team mate Mark Webber who briefly topped the timing screens, and must have believed he had it in the bag, before Vettel once again made it count when it mattered with a mega effort which even surprised his team boss.

Christian Horner said afterwards, “I have no idea where Sebastian pulled that lap from. He’s been struggling in sector one all weekend and he pulled a great lap just to pip Mark.”

With Webber in second, Red Bull Racing will once again hog the front row of the Shanghai grid for the start of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) who was relatively subdued up until the final moments of qualifying was third fastest and will head up the second row with Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) beside him in fourth.

The McLaren duo who looked feisty all session wrong will be disappointed that their best in Q3 was only good enough for fifth and sixth for Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton respectively. The reigning champion getting the better of his team mate who up until Q3 was dominating proceedings and seemed destined for pole position, alas for him destiny had other plans.

Hamilton was clearly disappointed, “We were doing so well in practice, Q1 and Q2, then the car started bottoming a lot more in Q3. I really don’t understand what was wrong with the car. We have to go and analyse it.”

This report is in the process of being updated.

Qualifying Lap Times

In order to strengthen the Lotus Racing management group, this Friday was announced the appointment of two stakeholders who will be part of the team. They are S M Nasarudin Kandmarudin Meranun.  Together with the principal, Tony Fernándes the three will be in charge of Lotus Racing.
S M Nasarudin, one of the two stakeholders of Lotus-Cosworth explained: “We turned into reality a simple Malaysian dream, thanks to the passion we put into it, the hard work and the team’s spirit.  As in the case of all the other challenges we have had to get where we  are now, we approached these challenges as a team, and how, we are determined than ever to finish what we started.  We are realistic regarding our goals, but in no way we think that things will be easy from here forward, but our faith is still there.
On his part, Kamarudin Meranun, the other new Lotus-Cosworth stakeholder said: “We still have a long way to go and we do not know what the future might bring, but we are in the way and we have to do the best possible.  We made a great product in a very short period of time and in one of car racing’s most competitive platforms in the world.  Honestly, I think we have the motivation, decision and most importantly than anything else, the passion to take this project to the end, with God’s will.”

Finally, Tony Fernándes, Lotus-Cosworth’s team principal declared: “Our goals and objectives are clear, but as mentioned earlier, we have hard work ahead of us.  There are 19 races and with the mutual help of the three (principal and stakeholders), we thing that management has all the necessary resources to lead the team.”