MOTOR SPORT:SEBASTIAN VETTEL'S domination of the 2011 Formula One season continued in Istanbul yesterday as the defending champion cruised to a straightforward victory, with team-mate Mark Webber following the German home to complete Red Bull Racing's first one-two win of the year.

Despite an accident on Friday, which damaged his car enough to sideline him from second practice, Vettel eased to pole position on Saturday and lined up yesterday with his only chief rival looking to be team-mate Mark Webber, who pipped Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg for second place on the grid.

Webber, though, was on the dirty side of the track and the Australian made a poor start, being passed by Rosberg, but also seeing Vettel simply drive off into the distance.

Webber briefly fought back, closing the gap to within two seconds at one point after he had passed Rosberg, but Vettel simply found another gear to regularly outpace Webber by upwards of a second a lap. For Vettel, it was ultimately a comfortable ride to the chequered flag, his only concerns being a degree of tyre management and managing not to let his pace drop through boredom.

“We had a smooth race,” he said afterwards. “Obviously, (we had) a very good start, which was crucial. It was a bit of a comfortable situation having Nico at the beginning behind me, at least for the first five laps, as I was able to open a gap maybe quicker than if Mark had been behind.

“Throughout the race I had this cushion and we were able to react rather than act, so (I’m) very pleased.”

The afternoon was more taxing for Webber, with the Australian driver tussling with Fernando Alonso throughout the latter stages. After retaking second from Rosberg early on, it looked like the Red Bull Racing driver would use his RB7’s greater pace to distance himself from the hard-charging Alonso, but the expected gap never materialised.

Alonso held on and as Webber’s time fluctuated between blistering pace on new tyres and wayward laps as his tyres degraded, the Ferrari driver seized his chance, using his DRS to sweep past Webber just after the halfway point of the race.

After Alonso began to pull out a small gap, finding a two-second cushion to the Red Bull and for a brief moment looking like he might secure a memorable second place. It was too good to be true, however, and when Webber took on a new set of hard tyres in his third stop, he began to reel Alonso in. He eventually pulled off the same passing move Alonso had effected on him.

It was enough to see Webber on to the chequered flag for his team’s first one-two of the season.

“I got the maximum I could,” said Webber. “I spent a few laps trying to clear Nico (Rosberg), which is obviously not ideal and Seb got a bit of a gap. The fight with Fernando in the middle of the race was a little bit unexpected. He drove fantastic today. Both of us used the DRS to get the moves done, so that was part of it, but the tyres play a huge role. In the end, I had a fresher set of tyres from qualifying and got the job done.”

Alonso could barely keep the grin from his face after finishing more than 30 seconds clear of fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton and taking Ferrari’s best result of a troubled year so far.

McLaren, by contrast, slipped back after taking their first win of the year in China. Jenson Button failed to make a three-stop strategy work, as the majority opted for four, and Lewis Hamilton passed him for fourth in the closing stages, despite the China winner losing a huge chunk of time in a botched pit stop.

“I think most people were probably on my strategy initially, but because most of them damaged their tyres in their first stint, they changed their strategy. We didn’t,” said Button.

“Also, we didn’t leave the tyres (on) long enough. The tyres were still good at the end of every stint, but we came in. We should’ve stayed out for longer because it made the last stint just impossible, just too many laps.”

While Button struggled with his three stops, it was a plan that worked beautifully for Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, who perhaps delivered the day’s most impressive drive, the Japanese driver finishing 10th having started 23rd after a fuel system problem saw him fail to set a time in qualifying.

Remarkably, Kobayashi, later apologised for taking just one point.

“Before the race I promised (team owner) Peter Sauber I would score points today,” he said.

“It is just one point now because we lost a lot time with a puncture. Otherwise, I think I could have finished seventh.”