Webber all the way

Mark Webber became the first driver to win from pole this season as the Spanish Grand Prix lived up to its notoriously dull reputation until late catastrophe struck Lewis Hamilton.

The past 10 winners of the race at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya have won from the top spot on the grid, with Webber emphatically enforcing that statistic with a lights-to-flag triumph. It was the 33-year-old Australian's first win this year, and third of his career, elevating him up to fourth in the championship.

Hamilton should have grabbed the runner-up spot for the second successive race, only to suffer a suspected tyre failure on the penultimate lap that plunged him into a tyre wall, with the Briton fortunately emerging unharmed.

That, though, was to the delight of the Spanish fans as Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished second, benefiting also from Sebastian Vettel suffering an issue with the front right of his Red Bull that dropped him to third.

After amassing 32 overtaking manoeuvres in the previous four races, Hamilton did not manage one on-track move in this event. Sadly for the 25-year-old, cruel luck then hit him hard on lap 65 of 66, and with the chequered flag just four miles away at the time.

If Hamilton had avoided such misery he would have ended the day a point ahead of team-mate Jenson Button, who finished fifth behind Michael Schumacher, at the top of the standings.

As it is, he is now 21 points adrift of Button, who has a three-point cushion to Alonso, with Vettel a further seven points behind.

Schumacher's fourth place was his best result this year in a car now much to his liking, albeit one that still finished over a minute behind Webber.

In stark contrast, team-mate Nico Rosberg, who had finished third in the last two races, now finds himself in reverse as he was a woeful 13th.

Behind Button, the top 10 was completed by Ferrari's Felipe Massa, Adrian Sutil for Force India, Robert Kubica in his Renault, Rubens Barrichello for Williams and Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari.