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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, July 12, 2009

Auto racing: Webber wins first F1 race with German GP victory


PAUL LOGOTHETIS
AP Auto Racing Writer

NUERBURGRING, Germany — Red Bull's Mark Webber won his first Formula One race Sunday after overcoming a penalty to take the German Grand Prix.

The Australian beat teammate Sebastian Vettel by 9.2 seconds despite a drive-through penalty for bumping Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello out of the start while defending his pole position.

Webber's euphoric screams were heard over the team radio after he crossed the finish line in his 132nd race.

"It's an incredible day for me. I wanted to win so badly," said Webber, the first Australian driver to win since Alan Jones at Las Vegas 28 years ago. "It was very, very important for me to win because there are not many Australian drivers who have reached Formula One and few have been successful."

It was the second straight 1-2 for the Austrian team and third overall after nine races.

Felipe Massa gave Ferrari its first podium finish of the season by coming in third ahead of Nico Rosberg of Williams.

F1 leader Jenson Button of Brawn GP finished fifth to increase his overall total to 68 points, while Vettel moved into second with 47 points and Webber is third with 45.5 points. Barrichello has 44 points after finishing sixth.

The momentum continues to shift toward Red Bull after Button had looked set to run away with the title. It was the first time this season that Brawn GP failed to finish on the podium.

"We're not giving up. Sebastian and I are on top of our game and pushing as hard as we can to be up at all the venues," Webber said. "Red Bull taking the fight to these big guys is special."

It was an orderly start except for Webber's attempt to keep Barrichello from speeding up the inside toward the first corner.

The 32-year-old Webber thought the penalty might have been given to "spice things up a bit."

"A drive-through is pretty harsh for anyone in any Grand Prix," Webber said. "In the end it turned out OK but it could have been a different story."

With the front-runners tangled up, reigning F1 champion Lewis Hamilton reached the turn first but ran wide and subsequently dropped into last with a damaged rear tire. The McLaren driver would finish 18th.

After the completion of the first pit stops and Webber's penalty, Barrichello led by nearly three seconds.

Button, who had been held up trying to pass Massa for a number of laps, was nearly 10 seconds behind Webber in third while holding the same advantage over Vettel, who worked his way through traffic after a number of KERS-powered cars sped by him at the start.

"Of course I wanted to win today," the German said. "But even after starting fourth and losing a lot of positions ... second was the best we could do."

Webber led by more than 30 seconds over the Brawn GP cars after his final pit, holding on to be the seventh winner from pole this season.

"It was nice to go and have a very straightforward, easy victory," Webber said.

Massa used his KERS overtaking system to move up after starting from eighth, while Rosberg used an extra long opening stint to make up ground after starting from the 15th spot.

"To be honest I miss being here. I miss being in the top three," said Massa, who finished one point behind Hamilton in last season's title race. "I did a fantastic start and passed many cars."

Fernando Alonso finished seventh for Renault and Heikki Kovalainen took eighth for McLaren, snapping a four-race streak out of the points to end its worse run in nearly two decades.

Force India failed to get its first point despite Adrian Sutil starting seventh.

Sutil, who ended up 15th, was forced to return to the pits immediately after exiting when he tangled with Kimi Raikkonen , who would retire as a result of the bump. Raikkonen knocked Sutil out of Monaco last year with nine laps to go and a points finish beckoning.