Germany vs England

The British contingent are moping about the paddock at the moment after that 4-1 defeat in South Africa, while the Germans at Mercedes are celebrating. And they had something else to cheer about this afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel got his championship campaign back on track with an authoritative victory in Valencia, though it was the airborne exit of his team mate, Mark Webber, that provided the most thrilling moment of the race.

Starting second, Webber made a poor start and an early pitstop, meaning he was attacking slower cars at the back of the field as he tried to salvage points. Bearing down on the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, the Australian braked much too late on the fast approach to Turn 12. His Red Bull plowed into the back of the Lotus and somersaulted in the air, crashing down on its nose and burying itself into the tyre wall at horrendous speed. In a stunning tribute to the safety of Formula One, Webber walked away unscathed.

Click here to watch the video (before Bernie takes it down):



Meanwhile, Vettel had held onto his lead at the start, having been challenged by Lewis Hamilton through Turn 2. The pair tagged wheels, resulting in a slightly broken front wing for the McLaren.

Hamilton changed his wing on Lap 15 when the safety car came out for Webber, but was later penalized with a drive-thru for passing the safety car as it exited the pitlane. His old foe Fernando Alonso, who was behind him at the time, snitched to his Ferrari team over the radio and Hamilton was forced to take the penalty 12 laps later. By that time, he'd built a big enough gap over Sauber's hard-charging Kamui Kobayashi to return to the track still in second.

Alonso was absolutely furious after the race, saying the result had been "manipulated", because he'd respected the rules and Hamilton hadn't. "Hamilton overtook the safety car, something that I had never seen. We were a metre off each other, and he finished second and I finished ninth.

"This race was to finish second. Then with the safety car I would have finished where I finished in ninth, and Hamilton in eighth. But here, when you do the normal thing, which is respecting the rules, you finish ninth, and the one who doesn't respect them finishes second."

Jenson Button was stuck behind the Sauber until Kobayashi made his mandatory tyre change on lap 54 - an amazing distance on a single set of boots. That allowed Button three laps to "go and have fun and see what the car could do", and set the fastest lap of the race.

Kobayashi rejoined in ninth but on fresh rubber was able to attack, picking of Alonso and finally Sebastien Buemi for seventh at the final corner.

There's an ongoing investigation into whether nine cars sped under safety car conditions. Button, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Tonio Liuzzi, Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa all set a laptime faster than the allowed time when the safety car first pulled onto the track. It may result in retrospective time penalties, or possible even grid demotions at the next race at Silverstone.

Hamilton goes to his home grand prix at the top of the championship table, followed by countryman and McLaren team mate Button.