Vettel extends championship lead

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull may not have stepped foot on the top step of the podium over the past three races, but their championship lead was extended over the weekend.

Vettel's tenth podium finish of the season was a solid points haul, while Australian Mark Webber finished fifth giving Red Bull a 103-point lead over McLaren in the Formula 1 constructors' world championship.

In the race for the 2011 Formula One drivers title, it looks almost impossible for Vettel to lose the championship from this position, the German has so far amassed 234-points.

The 2010 F1 champ now has a lead of 85-points over team-mate Mark Webber in second place.

The closest rival is McLaren's Lewis Hamilton 88-points behind on 146-points, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso a further 1-point on 145-points.

Hungarian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button is 100-points behind, fifth in the standings.

“I think it was a really tricky race today, especially with the conditions. Initially we led, then Lewis became very quick and we dropped a couple of places to the McLarens, we then started to recover pace to them.' Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told formula1.com.

Much like the McLaren team, the Red Bull drivers also made separate tyre choices and while it was Hamilton who lost out in the McLaren team, it was Mark Webber who lost out for Red Bull.

'The decisive point was opting to use the prime tyres at the final stop to get to the end, which put Sebastian in really good shape. Then the rain arrived and for a couple of laps it was marginal whether to stay out or to pit. Arguably, for a couple of laps, inters was the right call and Mark decided to pit for them - we decided to take the brave decision to leave Sebastian out and in the end it came right, the rain held off and P2 is a positive result for him.'

'Unfortunately for Mark, he lost some places with the penultimate pit stop for the intermediate tyres - without that, he would have been on the podium today, which is a shame. But, there’s no crystal ball in those conditions and it could have been a decision that won him the race.”

Webber will undoubtedly be left wondering why all the marginal calls work in favour of his team-mate and leave him struggling behind.