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Spanish GP - Pastor's hot!

After a few weeks of no races, but plenty of miles on track, the first in-season test for several years highlighted that Red Bull and Lotus seemed to have found extra time. Oh, and the Williams had improved a bit...

Q1 in Spain saw Senna drop out, which seemed somewhat at odds with the pace of his team-mate. Q2 turned into a bit of a nightmare for some of the big names, as just a tenth of a second separated 5th and 12th places. Unfortunately, Button and Webber timed it badly and found themselves as spectators for the final push. Massa once again dropped out in Q2 as well, making it 5 races in a row. In a team where failure isn’t tolerated, his days must surely be numbered. Maldonado was fastest, too.
 
Q3 proved just how important tyres have become in F1, as Rosberg, Vettel and Schumacher didn’t bother to put in competitive times, whilst Kobayashi couldn’t, his car having ground to a halt at the end of Q2. The remaining 6 went for it, and it was Hamilton who bagged pole by a comfortable margin. Maldonado was 2nd, in a show of speed so shocking, I may have looked faintly gormless for a minute or too. Well, more gormless than usual, anyway.

Lewis was instructed to stop on track after the chequered flag, and was later sent to the back of the grid, the team having failed to ensure he had enough fuel to get back to the pits and supply a litre of fuel from the car. Many thought the penalty was harsh, but here’s the thing – if they had driven the car back, and then had less than a litre of fuel left in the pipes, would the penalty have been worse? Nope. They were trying to pull a fast one, and rightly got a slapped wrist, with a particularly sturdy carbon fibre ruler. Force Majuere? My arse with a top hat on.

A cooler Sunday saw Alonso claw his was pasta Pastor (sorry) at the start, building a 1.3 second lead by the end of the lap. Perez’s afternoon turned sour straight away as a tangle saw him gain a puncture, but a switch to the harder tyres saw him instantly putting in a fastest lap.

Webber was first to stop intentionally, and he switched to hards too, the early stop necessitated by being stuck behind Massa. Vettel did likewise a lap later after only 8 circuits.

Hamilton was up to P12 by lap 10, and Grosjean and Senna resumed hostilities a couple of laps later, with Romain the victor, minus some bodywork.

Senna’s dismal weekend continued when Schumi came from another timezone behind and rammed into the back of his car. Michael was out on the spot, shouting “Idiot!” into his radio, whilst Bruno limped back on track, but had to park it up a couple of corners later. Assumingly, Michael was talking to himself – at least that’s the way the stewards saw it; He’ll get a 5 place grid penalty in Monaco. Ouch.

By lap 14, Hamilton found himself in 4th, a slightly false situation caused by him trying to go an extra long way on his tyres and make one less stop. Quick thought here –14 laps? A long way on tyres? Blimey – how things have changed in F1! Yet another messy McLaren pit stop saw Lewis delayed for crucial seconds.

Meanwhile, Webber lost 5 places in the space of lap 18, with the team unusually replacing the front wing at his stop – a strange situation, repeated later by Vettel.

On lap 26, the race’s pivotal moment occurred, as Williams pitted Maldonado early. A fast lap by the Venezuelan and slower ones by Alonso saw Pastor in front when Eyebrows stopped.

Vettel became the recipient of a pointy finger for a change when the steward waggled a collective digit at him for ignoring waved yellow flags, with Massa receiving the same punishment – like his race (or season) could get much worse.

Maldonado began to pull away, and by half distance had a 7 second lead, whilst a fired-up Hamilton bagged both Toro Rossos within a couple of corners, and Perez exited the race after a bungled Sauber pit stop.

Pastor stopped again on lap 42 – a worryingly slow one too, and then got held up behind Raikkonen, who was busy trying to stay on the road with clapped out tyres, trying to make a one-less-stop-than-the-others strategy work. Back in 3rd, Alonso put in fastest laps, ramping up the excitement.

With 16 laps left, Fernando was right behind Maldonado, and both of them had already been on their tyres for a fair while. Did they need to stop again? Was Kimi in with a shout of winning? With both the Kimster and the Grosjean-jeanie putting in much faster laps, the untalkative Finn was catching the top 2 at more than a second a lap.

With 2 laps remaining, Alonso began to drop back, with Kimi closing rapidly and just 4 seconds behind.

So, the most unexpected event of the season occurred – A Williams car won the Spanish GP, making Maldonado the 5th different driver to take victory this season, and the first Williams winner since Montoya in 2004.
 
With any of the top 7 drivers in the championship in with a chance of taking the lead in Monaco and a quarter of the season gone, the 2012 F1 championship couldn’t be wider open if it was doing an impersonation of the San Andreas Fault.

Shocking scenes occurred post-race, as an exploding KERS unit caught fuel alight in the Williams garage. More than 30 staff, from a variety of teams, required treatment for a range of injuries, many caused by bravely fighting the flames. With all the intense competition in F1, it was heartening to see pit crews from many different teams all pitching in to help. F1 does sometimes seem to be like a squabbling family – but they unquestioningly look out for each other too. I wish all those injured a speedy recovery.

(More Hall & Oates tonight - 2002's "Do It For Love".)

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