Spanish Grand Prix

Mark Webber drove an uneventful race and led from the first corner. Sebastian Vettel was on track to make it a 1-2 finish for the ex-Sauber team, but issues in the pits allowed Lewis Hamilton to advance to second place. His day ended with two laps to go with a tire failure. Vettel was unable to capitalize on the turn of events when his brakes started to fail after a small off, but managed to bring the car home in third. While this was not enough to change the leader boards in the championship races, the points spread is now much closer among the top runners.

Ferrari did not have their best result, but Fernando Alonso was surely happy to finish second at his home grand prix and get within three points of Jensen Button in the driver’s championship. The Spaniard drove a clean race, but was still off the front running pace. Massa did not do well in qualifying, but made the most of a car that just didn’t seem to suit his preferred driving style to finish in sixth place.

The driver that finally seems to be coming back into the sport was Michael Schumacher. Herr Schumacher finished roughly 11 seconds off the podium finish pace, but his fourth place finish was his best this season, and the first time he really was able to differentiate himself from team mate Niko Rosberg. The powers that be seemed to be breathing a little easier in Stuttgart. Several likely were making comments like “I told you so” to others late Sunday afternoon. Jensen Button finished in fifth place, clearly not the result that the Woking based team was hoping for after Hamilton’s failure and likely overshadowed by the finish of the Mercedes Benz powered driver. Adrian Sutil wasn’t able to yet match his best finish of fifth in the season, but his seventh place finish kept Force India in sixth, ahead of all of the also rans that can count their championship points on both hands.

Robert Kubica was the last driver to finish on the lead lap in eighth place in a season that is starting to leave Renault as an also ran. The media is hoping that this does not give Flavio any more ammunition to attempt a come back to the sport.

The last two points paying positions went to Rubens Barichello in the Williams and Jamie Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso. But, not many outside of family members actually noticed.

The race this weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya was basically a day of lapping, which is appropriate considering the amount of testing that actually happens here. Most of the passing still happened in the pit lane, causing some speculation that maybe refueling should make a return, but at least the fans don’t have to deal with “debris flags” being used when the field gets too spread out.

Formula 1 fans only have to wait until this weekend for racing to return when the circus moves to the special track of the Circuit de Monaco. While this may not be the greatest track for high speeds or great passing opportunities, this still seems to be a favorite where people go more to see and be seen rather than just watching the race. Most of the top automakers are in this sport to sell to the target audience in the Principality. Hopefully this year that crowd will not be disappointed.

Race Results

1	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	1h35m44.101s
2	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 24.0s
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 51.3s
4	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	+ 62.1s
5	BUTTON	McClaren-Mercedes	+ 63.7s
6	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 65.7s
7	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 72.9s
8	KUBICA	Renault	+ 73.6s
9	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
10	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
11	PETROV	Renault	+ 1 lap
12	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
13	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	+ 1 lap
14	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 2 laps, accident
15	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	+ 2 laps, technical
16	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
17	TRULLI	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
18	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
19	DI GRASSI	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 4 laps
20	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 24 laps, hydraulics
21	CHANDHOK	HRT-Cosworth	+ 39 laps, suspension
22	DE LA ROSA	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 48 laps, accident
23	SENNA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 66 laps, accident
DNS	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 66 laps, gearbox
Fastest Lap	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1m24.357s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	70 Points
2	ALONSO	Ferrari	67 Points
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	60 Points
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	53 Points
5	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	50 Points
6	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	49 Points
7	MASSA	Ferrari	49 Points
8	KUBICA	Renault	44 Points
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	22 Points
10	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	16 Points
11	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	8 Points
12	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	7 Points
13	PETROV	Renault	6 Points
14	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	3 Points
15	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	McLAREN-MERCEDES	119 Points
2	FERRARI	116 Points
3	RBR-RENAULT	113 Points
4	MERCEDES GP	72 Points
5	RENAULT	50 Points
6	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	24 Points
7	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	8 Points
8	STR-FERRARI	3 Points