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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