An eventful Spanish Grand Prix. 4 cars out after just 2 corners, and 2 more retiring for other issues later on. It was a battle of strategy over anything else this time around, much the same as it will be in two weeks time at Monaco.
With Massa 4th on the grid in his KERS Ferrari, he was looking strong on the run into the first corner. Barrichello made a mega start from third, and beat Button down into turn one, with Massa manging to find a way past Vettel's Red Bull. Trulli had a shocking get away from 6th, and found himself swamped by other cars... Piquet pushed Hamilton onto the grass as the Brit made a good start from way back on the grid. He dropped back, and the concatina affect into the first bend because of Trulli was made all too apparent. Rosberg had gotten tapped and pushed Trulli wide, out onto the gravel. Trulli span back onto the racetrack and Sutil (rejoining after missing the first bend) collided with the out of control Toyota. Bourdais jinked to avoid the accident, and took out his Torro Rosso team mate Buemi. The onboard shot from Hamilton's car was quite something as debris flew everywhere.
The Safety Car was deployed almost as soon as the incident happened. Debris was all over the track, but luckily no one suffered punctures. After 2 laps behind the safety car, the race was back on. Fisichella had pitted for a new nose and Force India filled the car up with fuel. He was left to run at the back of the field for the rest of the race. No one else came in and Alonso tried a very brave move on Mark Webber on the main straight. Webber forced Alonso onto the grass, but with KERS Alonso still slid past. Webber immediately dived down the inside of the spaniard into the first corner. Had Webber dropped behind the KERS Renault, he might not have found a way past. This is what happened to his team mate Vettel as Massa was infront of him for the whole race.
Barrichello sprinted away from Button, Massa was trying his best to hold onto them, but they vanished into the distance while Massa ruined Vettel's race. Webber was silently hunting them in 5th, while Alonso was battling with Glock and Rosberg for 6th. Raikkonen had made a good start form 16th and was upto tenth when a Hydraulics problem forced him out of the race. Kovalainen hadn't made much inroads from his grid box, he retired before Raikkonen with a gearbox problem.
Coming upto the first stops, Glock was surpsingly the first man in, followed by Alonso. Barrichello pitted a lap after Button, yet Button snatched the lead and ran into the distance. Button had changed to a two-stop race, which would ultimately net him the win. Vettel and Massa managed to stop on the same lap TWICE (for both stops) and kept the stalemate that had occured because of KERS. Webber vaulted both with a very long second stint (With Massa slowing his team mate), and ended up hunting down a slow Barrichello for second place in the final sequence.
Barrichello had problems with his tyres during his second and third stint, which totally ruined his 3 stop race plan. He could (and probably should) have won this race. There wasn't much action anywhere else out on the circuit, until the final 10 laps when Massa got an urgent call to slow down. Massa had been particularly thirsty on the fuel and Ferrari weren't sure if he was going to make it to the flag. Vettel was all over the back of the Ferrari, trying everything to get past. Massa finally let Vettel go with 4 laps remaining. He nursed the car over the line 6th, after falling behind a charging Alonso in the final lap. Heidfeld (In a rather dismal showing for the new BMW) almost also caught the slowing Ferrari that stopped on its in lap... Gasping for fuel. Rosberg managed to hold off Hamilton and Glock for 8th place and the final point.
Driver Of The Day: Jenson Button & Mark Webber. Button was just as awesome as we have become acustomed to this season. Webber shone without making a single mistake and nabbed third of his team mate.
Driver of the Day HistoryAustralia - Jenson Button and Timo Glock
Malaysia - Timo Glock
China - Sebastian Vettel
Bahrain - Jenson Button
Spain - Jenson Button and Mark Webber
Spanish Grand Prix result (66 laps)
1. BUTTON Brawn
2. BARRICHELLO Brawn +13.0s (Fastest Lap 1:22.762)
3. WEBBER Red Bull +13.9s
4. VETTEL Red Bull +18.9s
5. ALONSO Renault +43.1s
6. MASSA Ferrari +50.8s
7. HEIDFELD BMW +52.3s
8. ROSBERG Williams +65.2s
9. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
10. GLOCK Toyota +1 lap
11. KUBICA BMW +1 lap
12. PIQUET Renault +1 lap
13. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap
14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +49 laps
R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +59 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +66 laps
R. BUEMI Toro Rosso +66 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +66 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +66 laps
Championship Table (With customary huge gap)Driver | Team | Points | Wins |
---|
Jenson Button | Brawn GP - Mercedes | 41 | 4 |
Rubens Barrichello | Brawn GP - Mercedes | 27 | 0 |
Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing - Renault | 23 | 1 |
Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing - Renault | 15.5 | 0 |
Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 14.5 | 0 |
Timo Glock | Toyota | 12 | 0 |
Lewis Hamilton | McLaren Mercedes | 9 | 0 |
Fernando Alonso | Renault | 9 | 0 |
Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 4.5 | 0 |
Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 4 | 0 |
Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren Mercedes | 4 | 0 |
Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 3 | 0 |
Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 3 | 0 |
Sebastian Buemi | Scuderia Torro Rosso - Ferrari | 3 | 0 |
Sebastian Bourdais | Scuderia Torro Rosso - Ferrari | 1 | 0 |
Yet To Score: Adrian Sutil, Nelsinho Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella, Kazuki Nakajima, Robert Kubica
Monaco in two weeks ^^ See you then