Yesterday’s race could be termed as one of the more bizarre races in recent history of Formula 1. Why do I say so, well for starters the qualifying was pretty jumbled up. It’s been long since we’ve seen four different cars on the front two rows. And the way qualifying ended was just beyond anybody’s imagination. The last four cars to cross the finish line after the chequered flag - that signified the end of Q3 - all were on pole for an instant, only to be bettered by the car that followed. In the end it was the Iceman for Ferrari who broke many a Spanish hearts and silenced the cacophony raised by the pole setting time of Alonso just seconds before. However the most disappointed was his team mate Felipe Massa who was just not good enough on the given day. The McLarens were never too highly rated over the weekend, but still their lagging behind the Renault was being attributed to different fuel loads (as Hamilton later clarified in the post race conference). Force India had another forgettable qualifying, finishing only ahead of the miserable Super Aguris, who probably were jubilant just to be there, considering conditions prior to the race.
The race start itself was exciting. As expected, Kimi got a good start and everyone had also expected a light Alonso to hold off everyone. But probably the disappointed Massa was too charged up to prove he is not second fiddle to his World champion team mate and hence got better of the Spaniard before the first corner itself. Hamilton too jumped Kubica (who has been really messing up his starts despite good qualifying performances) and Heidfeld was a big gainer behind them. But in all this somewhere things went wrong for Adrian Sutil as he crashed with Sebastian Vettel putting both of them out of the race while also causing some damage to the Toyota of Timo Glock. This got the safety car out immediately and the race was held up behind it for three laps.
As the race resumed Raikkonen got the perfect slingshot and started reeling in some pretty fast laps to build up a comfortable lead. His team mate on a race old engine could not match his pace but was comfortable to hold back Alonso. Meanwhile Hamilton was just not able to get the better of his ex-team mate despite being clearly faster and settled down after closing up. He could afford the luxury considering Alonso was expected to pit early and till then he had no reason to damage his tyres by driving in the dirty air. But Alonso did not pit quite as early as expected, probably helped by the safety car period and the first to pit was the BMW of Kubica. Among the top two Massa was the first to dive in, making the pole setting performance of the Finn even more remarkable, as he had qualified on pole despite having carried more fuel than all the top runners.
As the cars emerged out of the pits both Hamilton and Kubica had gained track position over Alonso. There was some drama during the pit period, however unlike the norm where it is in the pits, this time it was on the track. Heikki Kovalainen was leading the race as the top runners dived in the pits and was hot on his “in” lap when he suffered a rare puncture on his front left tyre at a high speed corner. The car rammed into the tyre wall close to 180 miles an hour. The impact was so bad that the car was lodged into the tyre wall, unable to be extracted by the marshals. This raised concerns over Kovalainen’s condition and the safety and medical cars were immediately scrambled. While all this was happening the BMW team was preparing to get their second driver Nick Heidfeld into the pits, who was on a strong late stop strategy. Sadly for him this would prove to be a bane rather than a boon. Just before he could dive into the pits, the safety car was deployed and he did not have enough fuel to go round for a couple of more laps till the pit lane was officially opened. This earned him a 10 sec stop-go penalty, when he was cruising in fifth position.
I really cannot understand this stupid rule, which denies cars which were all set to enter the pits, not to do so just because some bloke crashed his at the wrong time. Poor Heidfeld who had raced a brilliant race from 12th on the grid to fifth was painfully pushed to the back of the grid for no fault of his. But the relief came as Kovalainen was extracted from his car and gestured to the cameras showing he was conscious and no major damage was done. It is a tribute to the stringent safety standards of F1 that drivers can come out healthy out of such a horrifying crash. The safety car bunched up the grid and nullified the lead Raikkonen had built up. But again at the restart he had no problems whatsoever to break off comfortably. The top four, though breaking away from the rest of the pack, were quite not in position to challenge each other. In all this mayhem the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato was the only one who did not dive into the pits as he was on a one stop strategy.
Things again took a processionary note till the second round of pit stops. Heidfeld as committed as ever to finish among the points - despite his bad - luck was reeling in the back markers and was the first to pit from among the top teams. Thereafter followed almost everyone else. The dominance of Ferrari was there for all to see when they held up Raikkonen for a couple of seconds just to give him a clear exit from the pits. There was no risk of losing track position and Kimi emerged back out ahead of his team mate despite the “leisurely” stop. There was drama in the pits this time however. As Barrichello was slightly slow on the exit in the pit lane Fisichella tried to get the better of him, clipping the front wing of the hapless Brazilian in the process. The Honda had to drive an entire lap with the front wing lodged beneath the body work and this did enough damage to enforce retirement.
There was more action on the track. A determined Coulthard was trying hard to get into the points and executed a tight overtaking manoeuvre on Timo Glock’s Toyota. The German however did not give up easily and touched the rear of the Red Bull. This resulted in the Toyota losing its front wing and a puncture for the veteran Brit. Just as this was happening at the back end of the grid we had two glorious engine failures in the mid-field. First it was Alonso’s Renault which ended his good race in smoke. However the crowd was backing him still and he was waved off to a rapturous applause which he duly acknowledged before leaving for the pits. This brought a sad end to Renault’s race (as Piquet Jr. had already retired and continues to disappoint) which had promised so much. A couple of laps later it was Nico Rosberg’s Williams which ended what seemed to be a strong points scoring finish for the German. Both these engines were on their second race bringing reliability issues to the fore.
One team which has impressed with its reliability is Force India. Leaving apart accidents, they’ve finished in all the races, and at this position looked set to be in for an unlikely points scoring finish. The car is yet to have a mechanical failure and due to this they have managed decent positions where others have failed to finish. This was duly reminded by the team to Fisichella, who certainly has impressed all by his tenacity in the car. He even held off the highly charged up Heidfeld for more than five laps purely on experience and skill, as the BMW clearly was much faster than the Force India. Finally though, the Italian finished 10th, unfortunately out of the points but still the team’s best finish of the season so far. This is certainly encouraging as Force India is getting the better of more experienced teams by means of decent finishes and impressive reliability.
At the head of the pack though it was Raikkonen all the way, who had a textbook perfect race and took the chequered flag with no drama. This made it the eighth consecutive race at Catalunya where the pole setter has gone on to win the race, thereby vindicating the belief that the track is not conducive for overtaking. Therefore the win can be attributed to the Finn’s excellent performance in qualifying, a fact recognized and appreciated by his team on the radio after the race finished. Behind him Massa came second reigniting his season with a second consecutive podium finish, while also making it a second consecutive 1-2 for Ferrari. He was followed by Hamilton, who seemed to be closing in on the Ferrari in the closing stages, but never too close for comfort. Kubica again brought home the BMW in fourth, and had it not been for some unfortunate timing would have been followed by his teammate (who eventually finished 9th, painfully out of the points). Mark Webber was pretty happy in bringing the Red Bull in fifth and scoring important championship points. The Australian drove an event free race and hardly figured in the limelight as he finished some way off the leading pack. The final three positions were taken up by Jenson Button, Kazuki Nakajima and Jarno Trulli, in that order.
The race has further strengthened the buzz that Ferrari is the team to beat this season and that the McLarens really need to rethink. BMWs still are not quite there yet, though they are vastly superior to the rest of the pack. As to the driver’s championship, it is all much too close here to place a call. A couple of good or bad races here and there and the entire equation changes, as we saw all to well last season. But if the season continues like this it will certainly prove very entertaining, specially for the Ferrari and Raikkonen fan. As of now the Iceman is the marching ahead confidently and with the next race at Turkey, which has been hitherto a Ferrari dominated track, things look good for the scarlet team.
Drivers Championship:
Kimi Räikkönen - 29
Lewis Hamilton - 20
Robert Kubica - 19
Constructors Championship:
Scuderia Ferrari - 47
BMW Sauber - 35
McLaren Mercedes - 34
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