InterSportsWire

Report by Ashleigh Charlesworth

The Spanish GP turned out to be a bit of an interesting beast. Yes the racing was not amazing (as it rarely is at the Circuit de Catalunya), but from a technical and strategy standpoint it was a very interesting mix.

The first European GP of the year is always where strange things turn up, not only in the car designs but in the changes to where the teams perceived performance.

This year is no different. Going into the race everyone was saying that the Ferrari’s with their new nose design would run off and hide all weekend. This was shock number one, they didn’t. In fact the other teams were a lot closer than we thought they would be.

The Renault’s were the next shock. Looking pacey all weekend, Fernando got second spot on the grid. Everyone dismissed this, saying Fernando was doing a glory run on low fuel for his fans but it turned out he was not as light as people thought; pitting only two laps ahead of the Ferrari’s.

Then we have McLaren. Everyone thought they were going to be playing catch up all weekend but after working out fuel differences it seems that they were not far off the Ferrari qualifying pace - if at all. And it seems they just misjudged the amount of fuel the other teams would run in Q3 as they went the longest of the front running teams in the first stint. The cars did not look as planted as the Ferrari’s but then Lewis like his car setup to be loose - so not really a big issue.

Almost all teams, however, brought changes to their cars, Honda being the most visible with the dumbo wings nose design, reminiscent to what we got a glimpse of last year.

So with the off track stuff dealt with let’s get onto the race.

It started well for the Ferrari’s, with Massa getting the jump on Alonso’s Renault, and went into the first corner in second spot. It was also a good start for Lewis Hamilton, jumping ahead of Robert Kubicca up the inside into turn one, giving him fourth spot behind the Renault and two Ferrari’s.

Everyone seemed to squeeze through turn one unscathed but the carnage did not hold up for long. Adrian Sutil caused a short stint for the safety car when he tried an adventurous undertake at turn four touching David Coulthard’s car and spinning out, Sebastian Vettel was the unlucky driver to collect Sutil, destroying both drivers chances.

After the race resumed it seemed to be a rather status quo affair with nobody able to get better than 2 seconds behind the car in front. This is a problem at this track as the high levels of downforce required completely hinder close quarters running.

There were a few scraps up and down the field, with Nelson Piquet having an off in his Renault, putting him back to 18th spot. He then went and added insult to injury when trying to overtake Sebastien Bourdais with a run up the inside of the French driver he managed to take both cars out of the race. It seems Bourdais just did not see him coming and the result was two more cars retiring. The earlier off from Piquet also took Anthony Davidson out of the race, as the gravel that was brought back onto the track managed to get through the Super Aguri’s radiator protection and cause a leak that ended the Brit’s race.

The front runner Pitstops started on lap 16, when Fernando brought his Renault in for it’s first stop later than a lot of people had predicted. It seems he was not running quite as light as some expected as Felipe Massa only lasted another three laps. Then we had Kimi coming in on lap 22, Lewis on Lap 23, showing that the McLaren should have been further up the grid if it had run a more aggressive strategy in Q3.

While all the stops were happening, Heikki was leading the race and before he could make his stop for fuel, he suffered a massive accident at turn nine when his front left wheel failed on entry to the 140mph corner. The wheel failure allowed the tyre to instantly deflate and Heikki had no chance to slow the car down before skipping through the gravel and hitting the tyre barrier. The worrying thing was that the McLaren had managed to go underneath the tyre wall. The modern ‘conveyor belt’ design is supposed to stop the cars going underneath.

The marshals did a fine job pulling Heikki’s car out, and getting him to the medical centre quickly. But the damage to the car was very telling, with the car picked up to be carted off, you could actually see the floor underneath the drivers cell from above. Heikki is ok though, some bruising and concussion but nothing broken.

However, as this all happened during most of the midfield teams scheduled pit stop sessions, there was carnage, with Nick Heidfeld having to pit whilst the pit lane was closed, giving him a 10 second drive through penalty when the safety car session was over. Rubens Barichello also had another pit lane incident; he seemed to catch the nose of the Honda when he left his pit garage and had to tour a complete lap with the nose wing stuck under the floor of the nose thus damaging many of the aero parts in that section of the car. This forced the Honda out of the race as it was deemed too damaged to continue by the team.

The race continued through all the teams second stops, with only retirements to be interested in. Fernando’s Renault lump let go on him in a big way, forcing him to retire from his home GP.

The Toyota lump in Nico Rosberg’s Williams also let go on the pit straight, forcing him to retire as well.

David Coulthard was again the target of another driver, Timo Glock tried a manoeuvre on the Brit and was far too fast, clipping the rear wheel of the Red Bull, this caused a deflation of the tyre and forced both cars to pit for repairs. A stewards investigation deemed it a racing incident but it ruined the race for both drivers.

All the retirements and accidents did mean that drivers who have not yet scored managed to get of the mark this race. Most notably Honda’s Jenson Button who finished sixth.

The race was all but over at the start though as the track is notoriously difficult to overtake cars and with Kimi winning it made it eight in a row for pole starters winning. Hopefully the new aero and slicks next year will negate this a bit.

Read more for more F1 news at F1 Blog.