Spanish GP Race Report

Surprise, surprise! Barcelona delivered a fascinating race! There wasn’t really much going on on the track (or at least not as much as during the previous GPs), but in emotional terms – this race was a thriller! Just show me one person who wasn’t going crazy watching it. Red Bull fans must have been going out of their senses when Lewis Hamilton was haunting Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the race. McLaren fans were cheering for Lewis who was about to (and as it turned out – only about to till the very end) grab his second victory this year, while Ferrari fans went ecstatic with Alonso’s first two stints and very depressed about the way the race unfolded for the Maranello squad later on.

Yes… it was a nerve-wrecking and exhausting spectacle. Alfred Hitchcock once said that a good film should start with an earthquake and be followed by rising tension. And that is exactly what we saw in Barcelona two days ago. The race started with a stellar start from Alonso, who after a perfect lap (his own words) on Saturday managed to separate the McLaren drivers to claim P4 on the grid. Polesitter Webber didn’t start well (something he makes us used to this season) which opened the gate to Vettel (in P2). Alonso (who hadn’t been a startmaster in the previous races either) made a marvellous start from the theoretically dirty side of the track and got past Hamilton. Vettel was all over the place, weaving like crazy, trying to find a way past Webber. Alonso used the German’s slipstream  and when Vettel decided to go for the outside of the first corner, Alonso squeezed himself into the tiny slot on the inside and took a sensational lead to the surprise of the drivers (and maybe even his own) and ecstasy of the home fans. Behind, Button lost 5 places (from P5 to P10), Schumacher gained 3 and Petrov 1.

The leading four (Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton) was now packed very closely and we could only wait for the DRS to be enabled on lap 3 to see some overtaking attempts. However, it wasn’t to happen. Though Red Bulls were much faster, Alonso managed to stick in front of the pack as long as first two stints. Vettel went for the second pit stop one lap earlier than Alonso, which proved to be a perfect choice – when both Alonso and Webber changed their tyres for the second time they emerged behind the reigning World Champion. Hamilton chose a different strategy, staying out 5 laps longer in his second stint than Vettel. It got him to the lead for some time, but didn’t win him the race in the end of the day.

Jenson Button in the meantime, decided to gamble once again (like in Turkey 2 weeks earlier) and went for 3 pit stops (compared to 4 chosen by the rest of the top drivers), which this time worked for him just fine. The 2009 World Champion used soft (much faster) tyres for his first 3 stints, which meant that he would have to tackle the disastrous (according to Lewis Hamilton) hard compound only for the last 18 laps (his last stint). This enabled him not only to take back positions lost at the start, but also to gain a few more.

By lap 30 it was pretty clear that the battle for the victory would be between Vettel and Hamilton with Alonso, Webber and Button fighting for the remaining last podium spot. It all depended on the chosen strategy. And Button got it right. Lap 29 saw Alonso and Webber in the pit lane for the third time and first set of hard tyres. Red Bull crew was faster, but it wasn’t enough for Alonso’s feisty mood: the Spaniard emerged from his box side by side with the Aussie and managed to get himself ahead by the end of the pit lane. Both drivers were now on the hard, much slower, tyres and as they were occupied with fighting each other (which involved some nice passing and repassing moves), Jenson Button appeared behind on options, which enabled him to overtake both opponents without particular problems. With lack of aerodynamic downforce Ferrari was unable to make the premium tyres work for them and Alonso was now around 2 seconds slower per lap than the pacesetters, Vettel and Hamilton. He went for the last pit stop (hard tyres once again) much earlier than Webber in a vain attempt to stay in front of the Aussie. However, his pace dropped down so drastically that when Webber pitted on lap 47 for the last time, he joined the track in P4 way in front of the Spaniard.

Unfortunately for the Red Bull driver, his gap to Button was now so big that the Briton managed to keep his P3 after his last pit stop a lap later. Vettel was now leading with Hamilton behind. The McLaren crew made the last desperate attempt to put Hamilton in front of Vettel by keeping him out a lap longer than the German. This wasn’t enough and after the last pit stops, Hamilton was still in P2. However, satisfaction with a second place when you have a really fast car isn’t characteristic for an F1 driver, and by no means for Lewis Hamilton. Thus, Lewis launched an attack which didn’t end until the chequered flag, but to the disappointment of the McLaren crew and to the relief of Red Bull Racing (and Christian Horner in particular, who traditionally simply couldn’t stop moving his feet in a nervous reaction) all in vain. As a result, we saw three most recent world champions on the podium, namely Vettel, Hamilton and Button.

The way the race unfolded must have been unpleasant for Mark Webber, who managed to beat his team mate to pole for the first time this season, but was unable to keep the pace and had to settle for P4 in the end. However, it was nothing when compared to the misery of Ferrari – after 3 good first races this season, Felipe Massa was once again off the pace and was practically invisible for the majority of the weekend. The gearbox failure and DNF only added insult to injury. On the other side of the garage, Fernando Alonso managed to, surprisingly, split the McLarens on the grid and led the race for a quarter of its distance only to be lapped right before the end, despite being as high as P5. Such a fall from the top must have been very painful not only for the driver and the team, but also for the thousands of fans gathered in the stands.

Heikki Kovalainen deserves an honourable mention as he achieved a historical success for his Lotus Team: the Finn got to Q2 on Saturday, but did not rest on laurels and climbed as high as P15. During the race he managed to be even in P8 at one point, but wasn’t able to finish the race due to a crash.

Nick Heidfeld was also one of the smaller heros of the GP. He suffered a severe fire in FP3 (when he proved that his nickname “Quick Nick” doesn’t come from nowhere as he jumped from the burning car as fast as a streak of lightning), which made him sit in the garage for the whole qualifying session and sent him to the end of the grid at the start. Heidfeld might have not been the most entertaining driver on Sunday afternoon, but he still managed to climb to the points and took 8^th place, 3 places in front of his team mate, Vitaly Petrov who started from P6!

Michael Schumacher may not be enjoying his starts yet as much as he’d like to, but he managed to chase some daemons away as he finished the race in P6  – his best result this season. Even more importantly – for the first time in quite a long time he managed to get himself in front of his team mate, Nico Rosberg.

Both McLaren drivers and Red Bull's Mark Webber were handed reprimends after the race as they failed to slow down sufficiently under yellow flags after Kovalainen's crash. All of these drivers as well as Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari were under investigation after the race, but as no penalties were involved, the race results remained unchanged.

After the crazy Turkich GP, we finally received a race which was almost perfect. Pirellis were once again one of the main factors influencing overtaking, while DRS and KERS were in use, but in contrary to what we saw in the previous GPs – it didn’t result in confusion and lack of understanding (from the fans) about what was going on. The normally boring Montmelo track with the addition of “overtaking devices” and new tyres gave us a great and intense mixture of drama and entertainment, with some gutsy fights and bold moves. And though we still saw some examples of passing rather than overtaking (due to tyres differences, e.g. Button’s move on Webber and Alonso or Vettel’s overtakings after his second pit stop), the outcome of some of the battles (mainly the one for the victory, between Vettel and Hamilton) could not be foreseen until the very end.

Sebastian Vettel is now a sole runaway with 118 points in WDC, as many as 41 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton (77 pts), who seems to be his only real threat at the moment. Behind the leading duo we have more closely matched bunch consisting of the three last year’s title contenders: Mark Webber (67), Jenson Button (61) and Fernando Alonso (51).

Also RBR doesn’t have to fear about their WCC position as they are comfortably leading with 185 points, 47 points clear of the second McLaren (138 points). Ferrari is even further behind having gathered 75 points so far.

Full results here.