2010 European Grand Prix
The 2010 European Grand Prix (formally the 2010 Formula 1 Telefónica Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held on 27 June at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. It was the ninth round of the 2010 Formula One season. The 57-lap race was won by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel who started from pole position. Lewis Hamilton finished second for the McLaren team and his teammate Jenson Button came in third. It was Vettel's second win of the season, and the seventh of his Formula One career.
2010 European Grand Prix
Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Buemi, de la Rosa, Petrov, Liuzzi, and Hülkenberg were all issued with five second-time penalties by the stewards for exceeding the safety car-in lap time. The finishing positions of Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil and Liuzzi were unchanged, but the penalty issued to Buemi moved him from seventh to ninth, allowing Alonso to finish eighth. Rosberg inherited tenth position as de la Rosa moved to twelfth in the final race classification. Glock was awarded a 20-second time penalty for failing to observe blue flags. Ninth-place finisher Alonso criticised the race stewards, and felt the race had been fixed after they took longer than expected to issue Hamilton's penalty. The Vice-President of Ferrari, Piero Ferrari stated that he was "incredulous and bitter, not just for Ferrari, but for the sport as a whole, as this is not the sort of thing one expects from professionals." Other teams – including Red Bull, Lotus and McLaren – rejected Alonso's accusations, with Lotus' technical director Mike Gascoyne stating "changing the safety car regulations had opened up a set of scenarios that had never been anticipated before. Hamilton passing the safety car is the only recorded example of a driver doing so in the modern era of Formula One." Ferrari subsequently argued for a change of safety car rules to prevent a similar situation reoccurring.