Webber overcomes penalty to win German Grand Prix

NUERBURGRING, Germany (AP) — Mark Webber won his first Formula One race Sunday after overcoming a penalty to take the German Grand Prix and give his Red Bull team momentum in its bid to catch Jenson Button in the drivers’ championship.

The Australian beat teammate Sebastian Vettel by 9.2 seconds despite a drive-through penalty for bumping Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello out of the start while defending his pole position.

Webber’s euphoric screams were heard over the team radio after he crossed the finish line in his 132nd race.

"It’s an incredible day for me. I wanted to win so badly," said Webber, the first Australian driver to secure victory since Alan Jones at Las Vegas 28 years ago. "It was very, very important for me to win because there are not many Australian drivers who have reached Formula One and few have been successful."

Felipe Massa earned his first podium finish of the season by coming in third ahead of Nico Rosberg of Williams.

Button, of Brawn GP, finished fifth to increase his leading total to 68 points, while Vettel moved into second with 47 points and Webber is third with 45.5 points. Barrichello has 44 points after finishing sixth.

"We’re not giving up. Sebastian and I are on top of our game and pushing as hard as we can to be up at all the venues," Webber said. "Red Bull taking the fight to these big guys is special."

A fuel rig problem cost Barrichello an extra pit stop, and that also slowed Button’s race. The Brazilian was angry after another team mistake cost him big points in the title fight.

"They made me lose the race. To be very honest, I wish I could get on the plane and go home," Barrichello said. "I don’t want to talk to anyone in the team. It will be all ‘blah, blah, blah’ and I don’t want to hear that."

It was the second straight 1-2 for the Austrian team and third overall in nine races as momentum continued to shift toward Red Bull after Button had looked set to run away with the title following his six wins in the first seven.

"The Red Bulls are quick. They’ve made improvements but I don’t think it’s as big as it looks at the moment," said Button, whose team failed to finish on the podium for the first time this season.

The 32-year-old Webber thought the penalty might have been given to "spice things up a bit."

"A drive-through is pretty harsh for anyone in any Grand Prix," Webber said. "In the end it turned out OK but it could have been a different story."

With the front-runners tangled up, reigning F1 champion Lewis Hamilton reached the turn first but ran wide and subsequently dropped into last with a damaged rear tire. The McLaren driver would finish 18th.

After the completion of the first pit stops and Webber’s penalty, Barrichello led by nearly three seconds. But that would soon be undone by mistakes.

Webber took advantage to lead by more than 30 seconds after his final pit, holding on to be the seventh winner from pole this season.

"It was nice to go and have a very straightforward, easy victory," Webber said.

Massa used his KERS overtaking system to move up after starting from eighth, while Rosberg used an extra long opening stint to make up ground after starting from the 15th spot.

"To be honest I miss being here. I miss being in the top three," said Massa, who finished one point behind Hamilton in last season’s title race. "I did a fantastic start and passed many cars."

Fernando Alonso showed Renault had improved after finishing seventh and Heikki Kovalainen took eighth for McLaren, snapping a four-race streak out of the points to end its worse run in nearly three decades.

Force India failed to get its first point despite Adrian Sutil starting seventh.

Sutil, who ended up 15th, was forced to return to the pits immediately after exiting when he tangled with Kimi Raikkonen , who would retire as a result of the bump. Raikkonen knocked Sutil out of Monaco last year with nine laps to go and a points finish beckoning.