Sebastian Vettel celebrates his victory on Sunday

Valencia: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the European Grand Prix on Sunday, dominating the race from pole position while his teammate Mark Webber survived a spectacular crash.

It was Vettel’s second win of the season. He completed the 57 laps of the Valencia street circuit ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in second.

“It’s good to get a lot of points, it’s good for the championship and I’m very pleased. The guys can be extremely proud,” Vettel said.

Jenson Button was third for McLaren.

Webber emerged unhurt after a collision with Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus flipped his car early in the race.

“The most important fact is that Mark is fine,” Vettel said. “On days like this you get reminded that still the speeds are extremely high and, if something goes wrong, it can go terribly wrong so I think the most important thing is that he’s fine.”

It was Hamilton’s third second-place finish in Valencia, as he overcame a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car.

Hamilton leads the overall standings with 127 points, ahead of world champion Button on 121. Vettel jumps two places to third on 115.

The result consolidates McLaren’s lead at the top of the constructors’ championship with 248 points, ahead of Red Bull on 218.

“It’s very very positive to be leading both championships, for myself and Jenson,” Hamilton said. “The results clearly show the effort that we’ve been putting in. It’s great that we’re now getting the results that we deserved.”

Rubens Barrichello of Williams, who won at Valencia last year, finished fourth and Renault’s Robert Kubica was fifth. Local favourite Fernando Alonso of Ferrari ended ninth after starting fourth on the grid and he is fifth in the standings on 96 points. Force India’s Adrian Sutil finished sixth while Vitantonio Liuzzi ended 13th.

Track temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius as the third Grand Prix held in Valencia got underway on the harbour site built for the 2007 America’s Cup.

Hamilton had warned it could be a spectacular race and his forecast looked correct as he touched Vettel's car while making an early bid to pass the German. Vettel held firm and Ferrari’s Alonso and Felipe Massa tucked in behind Hamilton in third and fourth.

“We touched for a moment, I broke my front wing, so I was very fortunate to be able to keep up the pace,” Hamilton said.

results

1. Sebastian Vettel (RedBull) 1:40:29.571s, 2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) +00:05.042, 3. Jenson Button (McLaren) 00:07.658, 4. Rubens Barrichello (Williams) 00:20.627, 5. Robert Kubica (Renault) 00:22.122, 6. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 00:25.168, 7. Kamui Kobayashi (BMW Sauber) 00:30.965, 8. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 00:31.299, 9. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 00:32.809, 10. Pedro de la Rosa (BMW Sauber) 00:42.414, 11. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 00:43.287, 12. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 00:44.382, 13. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) 00:45.890, 14. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 00:46.621, 15. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 00:48.239, 16. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) 00:48.826, 17. Lucas Di Grassi (Virgin) 1 lap, 18. Karun Chandhok (HRT-Cosworth) 2 laps, 19. Timo Glock (Virgin) 2 laps, 20. Bruno Senna (HRT) 2 laps, 21. JTrulli (Lotus) 4 laps, r. Nico Huelkenberg (Williams) 8 laps, r. Mark Webber (RedBull) 49laps, r. Kovalainen (Lotus) 52laps