Webber leads Red Bull 1-2 in Germany

Mark Webber gets the traditional champagne dousing for his first F1 win

Red Bull

Despite a drive-through penalty for a first lap infraction, Mark Webber put the bit between his teeth and turned some of the fastest laps of the race to win his first ever Formula 1 race comfortably over his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel at the Nurburgring in Germany.

Felipe Massa showed that Ferrari has upped their game with competitive laps all race and finished 3rd to complete the podium. Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button completed the top-5.

Barrichello got the jump on polesitter Webber at the start but Webber moved to block Barrichello off the line, which got him a drive-through penalty.

Vettel finally got around Massa after being held up for 1/3 the race

Red Bull

He served this on lap 14, just as Barrichello made his first pitstop, and with the slower Kovalainen and Massa having bottled up the rest of the pack, Webber was able to emerge in the lead. He then pulled away during the five laps he still had before his first scheduled stop, while his challengers were all stuck behind Massa's Ferrari, which was not due to pit until lap 25.

This effectively erased Webber's penalty and he was only making two fuel stops, whereas the Brawns were to pit three times, definitely the wrong strategy on this day.

As those on long first stints finally pitted, Barrichello led again, but had lost a lost of time following Massa until the Ferrari stopped – and now had Webber closing on him rapidly despite the Red Bull being heavier.

When Barrichello was delayed by fuel rig trouble at his second stop, Webber was left with a clear lead over his teammate Vettel, who had leapfrogged past Massa at the first stops, then extended his advantage with a handful of fast laps before easing off.

"Mark was unbeatable," said Vettel, who nonetheless moved past Rubens Barrichello in the drivers' championship and now trails leader Jenson Button by 21 points.

An emotional Webber, just one of three grand prix-winning Australians including Alan Jones and Sir Jack Brabham, said: "I wanted to win so badly."

The 32-year-old, who had pins removed from his healing right leg last week, nervously batted off his collision with Barrichello at the start but admitted the overly-aggressive move is "not normally my style".

If not for a poor starting spot, Fernando Alonso may have won the race going away. Stuck in traffic, Alonso turned the fastest lap of the race at 1m33.365s, nearly 8/10ths fastest than even Webber. He finished 7th but only because he was stuck behind slower cars almost all race.

Webber becomes only the third Australian to win an F1 race behind Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.

With their 1-2 finish, Red Bull has taken another chunk out of the lead of the Brawn GP team.

Adrian Sutil and Force India's rare hopes of points were dashed with a collision with Kimi Raikkonen, and Lewis Hamilton's chance of a podium vanished at the start, when following a KERS-assisted charge he sustained a puncture.

Running last, the McLaren driver pleaded with the pits to "save this engine and gearbox" with a voluntary retirement, but was told to "concentrate on the driving and leave the strategy to us".

Sebastien Bourdais finished where he started, dead last, in what many are saying was his final F1 race. If so he will leave F1 disgraced, not only for being dead last in his final GP, but for having been beaten handily by both his rookie, less experienced teammates (Vettel and Sutil) two years running.

Results

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:33.365