BARCELONA, Spain (CMC) — McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton crashed out on the penultimate lap of the Spanish Grand Prix as Red Bull’s Mark Webber won Formula One’s fifth event of the season yesterday.

The Australian Webber led from pole to flag to win in one hour, 35:44.101 minutes with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (1:36:08.166) second and Sebastien Vettel of Red Bull (1:36:35.439) third.

It seemed as if Hamilton, who started third on the grid but managed to get ahead of Vettel, would finish second with the race winding to a close.

But the 25-year-old suffered a puncture and skidded off at the Circuit de Catalunya, erasing his hopes of grabbing the precious 18 points on offer.

“It was quite a good race for me, I had really good fun out there. It’s nice to take a step forward and split the Red Bulls,” said a disappointed Hamilton, whose paternal grandparents hail from the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada.

“It would have been perfect for the team. But these things happen. There’s many more races to go. I was just cruising to the finish line — it was great points for me — but then I blew a tyre with two laps to go. That’s motor-racing.”

A despondent McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh blamed debris on the track for Hamilton’s demise.

“It was a deflation. It could have been debris caught in the rim. It’s not a straightforward puncture,”

he said.

“It’s difficult for the team. The tyres were in reasonable shape. I think probably debris caused the failure, but that’s speculation.”

Hamilton, whose best finish this season was second at the Chinese Grand Prix last month, drove brilliantly to split the Red Bulls which dominated the front row.

He took second spot from Vettel during the pit stop period and then kept the German driver at bay until he suffered brake trouble 12 laps from the end.

Hamilton’s misfortune left him sixth on 49 points, 21 off leader

and teammate Jenson Button who was fifth.