Formula-1 news

Nobody could hold a candle to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel on Saturday in Hungary – not even team mate Mark Webber, who took a distant second to the German’s dominant pole time. Together the duo look pretty invincible for Sunday’s race, but there’s no doubt Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in third and fourth, and fifth-placed McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton will do all they can to stop Red Bull having it all their own way in Budapest. We take a team-by-team look at the pre-race form

Felipe Massa handed Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso a controversial victory in Sunday’s German Grand Prix as the red team scored their second one-two of the season and the win they were under so much pressure to achieve before the summer break, beating Sebastian Vettel’s pole-winning Red Bull into third place.

Lewis Hamilton held on to his championship lead as fourth place brought him to 157 points ahead of McLaren team mate Jenson Button, who moved to 143 points after finishing fifth. Red Bull’s Mark Webber was sixth after a race in which he was held back by an engine problem. He and Vettel are now joint third with 136 points, as Alonso closed up on 123 and Massa climbed to 85.

After running wide on his last flying lap during qualifying, Red Bull’s Mark Webber didn’t shy away from blaming himself for his fourth place position on the Hockenheim grid. But despite his disappointment, Webber is feeling optimistic about his chances on Sunday

On paper it was a dream team – the clout of Mercedes backing, the technical and managerial genius of Ross Brawn, the young driving talent of Nico Rosberg and the living legend that is Michael Schumacher. With such expectation, anything less than perfection would have been disappointing, and the reality of Mercedes GP’s first season has been far from perfect.

While fourth in the championship standings isn’t bad going for a ‘newcomer’, and there are still positives aplenty, they have less than half the points of leading team McLaren and have little hope of retaining their Brawn-won titles of 2009. Ouch! Here’s the story of their campaign so far

Mark Webber beat his Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel into the first corner and never looked back in Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Vettel then dropped to the back of the field with a puncture, leaving McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton as Webber’s only serious challenger.

Nico Rosberg was an excellent third for Mercedes GP, with Jenson Button fourth for McLaren after a safety-car period aided his recovery from 14th on the grid….

Red Bull maintained their advantage at Silverstone courtesy of Mark Webber on Friday afternoon, in an hour and a half long second free practice session which saw some different faces in very different places.

Ferrari bounced into contention with second and fourth places to Red Bull’s first and third, Mercedes were fifth and sixth, and McLaren only eighth and 13th, separated by Force India, Williams and Renault. And Renault’s Vitaly Petrov was quicker than Robert Kubica. Go figure

Cosworth enjoyed a satisfying European Grand Prix around the streets of Valencia on Sunday, with Williams’ Rubens Barrichello taking fourth place in his Cosworth-powered FW32. The result was the highest placed finish for a Cosworth-powered driver since David Coulthard took fourth for Red Bull in the 2005 European Grand Prix at Germany’s Nurburgring. It was also Cosworth’s best result of the year so far. Mark Gallagher, Cosworth’s F1 Business Unit’s General Manager, reflects on their weekend

Renault’s Robert Kubica is a real racer, who always works hard and never seems fully satisfied with his results. Kubica’s qualities as a driver have undoubtedly helped push Renault out of the midfield, and the French team are hoping to challenge Mercedes GP for fourth place in the constructors’ championship. On Sunday the Polish driver will start the European Grand Prix from sixth on the grid, and he’s optimistic he’ll be able to add to the team’s tally of points