Vettel Takes Ghastly European Grand Prix

As predicted, the European Grand Prix turned out to be a drab one. Sebastian Vettel could care less as he took his second win of the season and jumped back into the points race.

Valencia is a beautiful city and has beautiful beaches. The Valencia track is about as boring as it gets. Sorry, but it is true. The 2010 European Grand Prix proved as much. The race boiled down to three interesting things – the first lap, the Mark Webber accident and the safety car shenanigans. Since the safety car was out as a result of the spectacular Webber crash, this was basically a first lap race. I’m not even going to watch it next year. Sheesh.


Top Driver – Sebastian Vettel

Vettel drove a controlled race. His only bit of conflict was the first corner with Hamilton, where he successfully slammed the door on the Brit. The rest of the race didn’t reveal much passing. The only thing of interest was the last lap when Kobiyashi started passing cars on his new tires. Still, I’ll give the award to Vettel if for no other reason than the car didn’t explode as has been the case with him most of the year.

Poor Driver – Mark Webber

All was not good for Red Bull this weekend. Webber started like he was in cement and dropped from second to ninth. He then slammed it into the back of the Lotus, apparently confusing himself with a participant in the Red Bull airplane championships. He dropped an important 25 points in the championship, points that will probably haunt him at the end of the season.

Losers – Ferrari Conspirators

Ferrari gets preferential treatment? Well, not at Valencia. The team is one of only three to follow the rules on the safety car and is rewarded with five second penalties to the other teams? That is hardly favorable treatment.



Losers II – Charlie Whiting

The master of the race course is usually firmly in control of things. This was a poor performance by him and his lackeys in the stewards office. First, there was actually no need for a safety car – Webber was way offline. Even if you assume there was, bringing it out in mid pack causes massive problems. Letting Hamilton off with a 10 second penalty for passing the safety car while those who followed the rules ended up 10 places back was baffling. Then there was the Schumacher pit mess. The pit light goes red as he was leaving and ended his race. What is with that?

Overall, this was one of the worst races of the year. Only Bahrain was worse and that was only because there wasn’t a good crash in Bahrain. Do what the America’s Cup did. Leave Valencia for another track!

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