Following on from his mature and
stunning win at the previous race, Maldonado reverted to his more normal
clumsy-oaf persona, crashing in FP3 and banging wheels deliberately with Perez,
earning him a 10 place penalty for the race. It would appear he used up his
limited reserve of skill in Spain...
Q1 was red-flagged by Perez getting
a bit too familiar with a wall, something you think he’d have got out of his
system after last year’s violent escapade. Slot number 24 beckoned, somewhere
behind a expensive cafe and round 2 bends, for race day.
In Q2 Vergne clonked the wall
exiting the tunnel, removing his front wing, and Button didn’t manage to get a
good time in and failed to make Q1 again. In a surprising change of form (maybe
he’s sharing skill & speed with Pastor), Massa was fastest.
Whilst pundits were loudly
proclaiming it to be Schumi’s 8 Millionth pole (I should probably check the
stats a bit more thoroughly), they conveniently forgot that it’s the line-up
pre-race that counts, not the time after Q1. Whilst Michael was indeed
impressively fastest, his assault on Senna in the last race meant he was
heading back to 6th on Sunday morning.
So Webber was actually on pole, with
Rosberg alongside, confirming the Merc’s pace around the Principality. And
whilst you’d think people would be quite pleased to hear that the Red Bull’s
had holes in, the fact that they were in the floor and the cars nippy, meant
that the other teams were grumbling yet again about the team’s interpretation
of the regulations.
Race day generously threatened to
involve that staple of a decent F1 race, rain, but the start was dry and Webber
got away well to hold his pole position, whilst Grosjean found himself facing
the wrong way in traffic after being tagged by Schumacher, Kamui went for a
flying lesson as he clipped the stricken Frenchman’s car, and Button’s dismal
weekend was delayed as he tried to avoid the mess. Somewhere in the mêlée,
Maldonado polished off his return to mediocrity and damaged his car enough to
retire, with Kobayashi, perhaps unsurprisingly, doing the same.
An early appearance for the Safety
Car resulted, as bits of broken car were winched, swept and dragged off the
circuit.
By lap 9, Webber had managed to
extend his lead enough to be out of DRS range of Rosberg, and rain started
looking more likely, scrambling the heads of the teams as they started trying
to figure out when to carry out their minimal tyre stops.
Mark managed to maintain the slenderest
of gaps at the front, and by lap 20 had a slim 2 second advantage. Meanwhile,
Schumi was applying relentless pressure on Raikkonen, as Kimi’s tyres started
to fade, resulting in a train of cars Trulli would have been proud of.
Rosberg was first of the
front-runners to stop on lap 28, as Alonso started to pile the pressure on an
underperforming Hamilton.
Webbo stopped 2 laps later and
rejoined in the lead, whilst Fernando jumped Lewis for 3rd as they
stopped.
By lap 33 the strangely unfamiliar
sight of Vettel at the front was made all the more impressive by the fact that
he was still on his original, harder, tyres – doubly so when it became apparent
he was faster than Mark.
With 38 laps completed, it did spot
with rain, but not enough to make anyone try the intermediate or wet tyres.
Perez, clawing his way up through
the field from the back, had to endure the additional misery of a drive-through
penalty, after cutting up Kimi as he tried to pit.
The familiar sound of Hamilton moaning
about stuff made a welcome return as he followed up his grumbles about his
tyres with a more unusually paranoid one – pit crews were dropping numbers off
their boards onto his head as he went past. Unfortunately for the grumpy one,
it looks like it might be the only way he’ll get a Number 1 on his car for next
season.
The Sebulator finally stopped for
tyres after a mammoth 46 laps, returning to the track just ahead of the whiney
one in 4th.
With 15 laps remaining, the rain
fell lightly again, this time actually slowing the cars and doubtlessly scaring
the bejeesus out of the drivers. Rosberg closed in on Webber and began applying
serious pressure.
Schumi pulled out of yet another
race with car woes, and Ricciardo parked it shortly afterwards.
With just 10 laps to go, Mark slowed
noticeably as the track dampened, creating an impatient queue of 6 drivers all
hoping to capitalise on the slightest error.
Vergne tried the intermediate tyres
with 7 laps to go, a gamble that failed to pay off as the rain eased, whilst
Button finished off another rubbish weekend by spinning out trying to pass, of
all people, Kovaleinen in the Caterham. You know you’re having a bad weekend
when that’s who you’re fighting all afternoon.
Mark held on for a welcome win, in a
race where he had the measure of his team-mate, and Rosberg proved the Mercedes
car’s strengths by coming home 2nd. Alonso finished off the podium,
whilst Massa actually had a reasonable race, bringing his car home 6th.
After all his problems, Perez was a strong 11th, but his efforts
were, unfortunately literally, pointless.
6 races – 6 winners. Still no idea
who might win the championship...
(Ably assisted tonight by a bloke with an uneven haircut and a couple of girls of dubious dancing ability. Yes, It's The Human League's "The Very Best Of". Add you voice...)
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