The 2010 European Grand Prix (formally the 2010 Formula 1 Telefónica Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held on 27 June at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. It was the ninth round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the 57-lap race from pole position. Lewis Hamilton finished second for the McLaren team and his teammate Jenson Button was third. It was Vettel's second win of the season and the seventh of his Formula One career.
Hamilton led the World Drivers' Championship from teammate Button going into the race while their team McLaren led the World Constructors' Championship. Vettel achieved pole position by setting the fastest lap time in the third qualifying session and maintained his advantage heading into the first corner and resisted Hamilton's attempts to pass him. The safety car was deployed following a large accident involving Vettel's teammate Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen on the ninth lap. Hamilton passed the safety car and was later issued with a drive-through penalty for which he served on lap 27. Vettel remained the leader at the restart despite running deep in the track's final corner. Hamilton drew closer to Vettel but he was unable to get close and Vettel maintained the lead for the remainder of the race to win.
As a consequence of the race, Hamilton extended his lead in the World Drivers' Championship to six championship points ahead of teammate Button. This ensured the pair would enter the next, and their home race – the – as first and second in the championship. Vettel's victory elevated him to third; he was six championship points behind Button after surpassing the totals of teammate Webber and Fernando Alonso. By gaining the most championship points from the race, McLaren extended their lead in the World Constructors' Championship to 30 over Red Bull.
Background
The 2010 European Grand Prix was the ninth out of 19 scheduled rounds of the 2010 Formula One World Championship, and was held on 27 June at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought two types of tyre to the race; two soft compounds (super soft "options" and medium "primes"). The super soft tyres were identified by a green stripe on their side-walls.
Before the race McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton led the World Drivers' Championship with 109 championship points, three championship points ahead of teammate Jenson Button in second, and Mark Webber in third. Fernando Alonso was fourth on 94 championship points, and Sebastian Vettel was four championship points behind in fifth place. McLaren were leading the World Constructors' Championship with 215 championship points; Red Bull and Ferrari were second and third with 193 and 161 championship points, while Mercedes (108) and Renault (79) contended for fourth place.
After winning the previous two races of the season which put him into the lead of the World Drivers' Championship, Hamilton said he did not fear a Red Bull resurgence in the following events having declared that the McLaren team was in a good state for the second half of the season. However, he did not consider himself a favourite to win the championship. Button became concerned that his team would lose its recent momentum but said he would get the maximum amount needed from his car to help him remain in contention. Despite being afflicted with reliability issues with his Red Bull car, Vettel said there was no reason for him or his team to panic and was looking forward to the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Alonso was optimistic that car updates to his Ferrari would allow him to become more competitive but was calm about his expectations.
Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault introduced diffuser designs similar to the Red Bull RB6. Ferrari's design largely changed the shape of their exhaust system, and introduced a new gearbox case for Felipe Massa's car to raise the pick-up points of its rear suspension to help him adjust to the changes. They constructed a larger radiator to deal with the additional heat. Mercedes elected not to bring a new gearbox casing, but introduced a new rear diffuser to fully utilise the air blowing from the car's exhaust. Renault's design had the exit of their car's exhaust which had thermal protection against high temperatures and the team introduced a new design of their gearbox casing to allow for the pick-up points for its rear suspension to be accommodated. After running the F-duct device (which increases a car's top speed) in Friday practice, Red Bull decided to use it for the remainder of the weekend.
Lotus celebrated the 500th Grand Prix for the brand. For this occasion, the team changed the usual decoration of its car, including the number 500 between laurels on both sides of the rear of the Lotus T127. The family of Colin Chapman, the founder of the original Team Lotus, attended this celebration.
Practice Per the regulations for the 2010 season, three practice sessions were held, two 90-minute sessions on Friday morning and afternoon and another 60-minute session on Saturday morning. Conditions were hot and sunny for the Friday practice sessions. Several drivers went off the track due to the track being dusty. Nico Rosberg recorded the first session's fastest lap with a time of 1:41.175, ahead of McLaren teammates Hamilton and Button. Robert Kubica, Massa, Vettel, Webber, Michael Schumacher, Alonso and Rubens Barrichello rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. Bruno Senna's left-side view mirror became detached from his Hispania F110, which grazed his helmet, and was run over by Sébastien Buemi heading into turn 12, which caused the session to be stopped to allow marshals to clear the track of debris.
In the second practice session, Alonso set the day's fastest lap of 1:39.283; Red Bull drivers Vettel and Webber finished with the second and third-fastest times. Rosberg, Hamilton, Kubica, Massa, Adrian Sutil, Button and Barrichello followed in the top-ten. Massa caused the session to be disrupted after spinning in the fourth corner and narrowly avoided making contact with a barrier. The session was stopped to allow Massa's car to be removed from the centre of the track for transport to the pit lane. Timo Glock's lost the use of his car's fifth gear and pulled over to the side of the track at turn 12 to prematurely end his running. Vitaly Petrov spun at the exit of turn 14 and reversed his car to rejoin the circuit, avoiding the need for a red-flag. Vettel was the fastest driver in the final practice session with a lap of 1:38.052; Webber was third-fastest. Kubica separated the two Red Bull drivers in second, with Sutil fourth. Alonso, Barrichello, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Massa, Button and Hamilton rounded out the top ten.
Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes and eliminated the cars that finished 18th or lower. The second session lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 17. The final ten-minute session set pole position to 10th. Cars which competed in the final session were not allowed to change tyres before the race. They started the race fitted with the tyres on which they set their quickest lap times. Vettel set the fastest times in the second and third sessions to win his fourth pole position of the season with a time of 1:37.587. It was the Red Bull team's eighth pole in the season's nine races. He was joined on the grid's front row by Webber who recorded a lap time 0.075 seconds slower. Hamilton qualified third but locked his rear tyres on his final timed lap heading into turn 17 and slowed, preventing him from improving his grid position. The two Ferrari drivers were fourth and fifth (with Alonso ahead of Massa); Slower cars prevented Massa from gaining optimum tyre temperature and could not improve his fastest lap. Kubica took sixth position and felt more movement on his Renault when he had the medium compound tyres equipped. Button had oversteer through turn 24 and an error in the following corner restricted him to seventh. Nico Hülkenberg was eighth, ahead of Williams teammate Barrichello in ninth who had a brake-warm up problem. Petrov rounded out the top ten and mistakes on his final timed lap prevented him from obtaining a better starting position.
Buemi was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session; his best lap time of 1.38:586 was half a second off Vettel's pace in the second session. He was disappointed as he had Barrichello ahead of him driving towards turn 25 on his final timed lap which slowed Buemi and lost him two tenths of a second. Rosberg took 12th position. Sutil had no grip in his car and qualified in 13th. His teammate Liuzzi clinched 14th place after an oversteer and struggled on his car's soft tyres. Schumacher was unable to get his tyres working to his preference and had a right-front brake problem restricted him to qualifying in 15th. Schumacher's qualifying effort was criticised by the Formula One paddock. Pedro de la Rosa took 16th having struggled with a lack of grip on the super soft compound tyres. Jaime Alguersuari drove hard but a lack of top speed put him 17th. Kamui Kobayashi failed to advance beyond the first session; he flat-spotted his front super soft compound tyres on his first timed lap which caused him to feel vibrations in his car. The two Lotus cars of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen qualified in 19th and 20th positions, ahead of both Virgin drivers Lucas di Grassi and Glock in 21st and 22nd. Both Hispania drivers lined up at the back of the field (with Karun Chandhok ahead of Senna).
Qualifying classification The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold. Driver Constructor 1 5 Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault 1:38.3241:38.0151:37.587 1 2 6 Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault 1:38.549 1:38.041 1:37.662 2 3 2 Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes 1:38.697 1:38.158 1:37.969 3 4 8 Fernando AlonsoFerrari 1:38.472 1:38.179 1:38.075 4 5 7 Felipe MassaFerrari 1:38.657 1:38.046 1:38.127 5 6 11 Robert KubicaRenault1:38.132 1:38.062 1:38.137 6 7 1 Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes 1:38.360 1:38.399 1:38.210 7 8 10 Nico HülkenbergWilliams-Cosworth 1:38.843 1:38.523 1:38.428 8 9 9 Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth 1:38.449 1:38.326 1:38.428 9 10 12 Vitaly PetrovRenault 1:39.004 1:38.552 1:38.523 10 11 16 Sébastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.096 1:38.586N/A 11 12 4 Nico RosbergMercedes 1:38.752 1:38.627N/A 12 13 14 Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes 1:39.021 1:38.851N/A 13 14 15 Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes 1:38.969 1:38.884N/A 14 15 3 Michael SchumacherMercedes 1:38.994 1:39.234N/A 15 16 22 Pedro de la RosaBMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.003 1:39.264N/A 16 17 17 Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.128 1:39.548N/A 17 18 23 Kamui KobayashiBMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.343N/AN/A 18 19 18 Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth 1:40.658N/AN/A 19 20 19 Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth 1:40.882N/AN/A 20 21 25 Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth 1:42.086N/AN/A 21 22 24 Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth 1:42.140N/AN/A 22 23 20 Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth 1:42.600N/AN/A 23 24 21 Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth 1:42.851N/AN/A 24 Source:
Race