Spain - Barcelona

[schumi]

There’s been a three-week gap since the last GP and you can tell – the only notable news being that of Bourdais trashing his Toro Rosso in testing, and Porsche saying the Mosley scandal has meant they will steer clear of F1.

Ferrari, on the back of their 1-2, go into the race as favourites, but BMW and McLaren should be able to put up a challenge, with the Williams there or thereabouts.

Unfortunately, we may lose a team. News of Magma pulling out of sponsoring Super Aguri means their financial situation is precarious, and even if they do make it to Spain, they might not be able to finish the season. Sounds as though they were hoping Honda would be able to bail them out, but that avenue doesn’t seem to be an option after they said they “had no intention of changing their support to include anything beyond engines and technical help”.

So, will Lewis be able to pull one out of the bag and get back at the sharp end of the grid, or are we going to see another Ferrari walkover?

[schumi]

Super Aguri made it to the grid after their main sponsor, Magen, pulled out. Suzuki Aguri seems confident of being at the races in Turkey, regardless of the situation, but is looking to secure a financial package in the meantime to ensure the team’s success.

Force India were the first to take to the track in the first session. In contrast, BMW left it late to do their runs and ended up stuck in traffic, meaning they had to go out again and use up another set of tyres.

The second session was plain sailing, and there was no further action in the third, except for Alonso managing to get (what one can only assume is a super light Renault) up into second place.

1..K Raikkonen
2..F Alonso
3..F Massa
4..R Kubica
5..L Hamilton
6..H Kovalainen
7..M Webber
8..J Trulli
9..N Heidfeld
10.N Piquet

[schumi]

Before the start of the race, Fernando Alonso gave the Spanish fans something to worry about, by crossing onto the grass and coming close to hitting the wall on the parade lap.

Massa took Alonso on the first bend, then there was contact between Sutil and David Coulthard. Vettel drove straight into the scene of the accident, tagging a Super Aguri on the way, and causing the safety car to be deployed.

Lap 7 and Piquet runs his Renault off the road, but rejoins the race track, although later, trying to overtake Bourdais, the pair touch, knocking off the latter’s front wing. Bourdais pits for a new nose, but the suspension was broken, and he retired. Piquet’s car was undriveable, and the yellow flags were out as stewards recovered the stricken Renault. Davidson, after his earlier tangle, also pitted and retired from the race.

Lap 22 saw a nasty incident for Heikki Kovalainen. It was suspected that a stone had got caught between his tyre and the rim, causing the tyre to explode and the McLaren to skew off into the barrier, nose first. The safety car and medical team were immediately deployed as stewards were unable to help the driver out of his car, which was still buried in the tyre barrier. Early indications showed he had no broken bones, but he was taken by helicopter to hospital, where he was found to have concussion.

Meanwhile, Nick Heidfeld was leading the GP, but needed to make a pit stop for fuel. With the safety car being out, therefore the pit lane not yet being declared open, the BMW driver had no choice but to suffer a stop go penalty for coming in, or risk running out of fuel. BMW are now calling for this rule to be changed.

A strange incident which I never really understood was when Barrichello was seen to be leaving his pit garage with an already damaged front wing. As a consequence, he had to do a whole lap with a piece of carbon fibre under his wheel, before finally making it back to the garage for a new one.

Lap 33, and Alonso’s car breaks down in front of his home crowd, with the Spaniard parking his car on the grass, and nine laps later, Nico Rosberg’s engine gave up.

With eight laps to go, Sato tried to overtake Coulthard, who covered his line, and in doing so, clipped Sato’s front wing. They bumped tyres going into the next corner before Coulthard eventually yielded, although he caught and overtook him a little while later for 10th position. Hamilton was chasing the Ferraris hard, but didn’t quite have enough as the superior red cars took the chequered flag for a second consecutive 1-2.

1..K Raikkonen
2..F Massa
3..L Hamilton
4..R Kubica
5..M Webber
6..J Button
7..K Nakajima
8..J Trulli

Special mentions have to go to Kubica for another quiet but solid drive, Webber for getting in the points for his third GP in a row, and Button, whose Honda team seem to be reaping the benefits of having one of the greatest tactical minds in the sport with them this year – Ross Brawn.

[Genghis]

Not that good a race, even though the top four were quite close together at the end, caused by two deployments of the safety car.

McLaren will be encouraged that Hamilton looked quite competitive at the end of the race, but Ferrari definitely still hold the advantage.

Can stop Massa stop Raikonnen this year? I doubt it.

And I had a little chuckle when Alonso stopped - because the bloke is such a little turd.