F1 Grand Prix Spain

Round 5 of the 2013 Formula 1 world championship brought us to Spain, and the Circuit de Catalunya. It was a critical weekend as the teams tried out major upgrades throughout, some of which worked, and some that didn’t. All would be truly revealed in Qualifying on Saturday, and there were some surprises in store. We’ve become used to a RedBull dominated Saturday in the past, but this year, things have changed.

Qualifying:

Around this beautiful Spanish race track, the Red Bull wasn’t the fastest car. It was the shiny silver arrows, Mercedes performed well throughout the weekend, but they shocked everyone by locking out the front row during Qualifying, Rosberg on pole alongside teammate Hamilton. It was 3 consecutive pole positions for Mercedes. Vettel started in third alongside the strong looking Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.

Local hero Fernando Alonso started only P5 after some rather dominant performances earlier in the weekend, Ferrari race pace did look promising however. Romain Grosjean had another good qualifying starting alongside the Spaniard. Mark Webber started in P7 with Sergio Perez the only McLaren in the top ten starting in 8th. Felipe Massa received a grid penalty after qualifying for impeding another driver, he started the race from P9 with the ever improving Force India of Paul DiResta rounding out the top ten.

Qualifying on Saturday afternoon did spring some surprises, there was plenty of action. The race on Sunday however, was just scintillating.

2013 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix Race Report.

The tension was building as the cars lined up on the grid, over 90,000 spectators filling the grandstands around this beautiful race track, and all the focus on the 5 red lights. As they went out it was a superb start from local hero Fernando Alonso, also Jean Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez with great starts off the line. The two Mercedes were dicing into the first turn under real pressure from Vettel, Hamilton locked up both front tyres and the Red Bull moved up into second place. Webber had a poor start and made contact with a Sauber in turn 2, but up front Alonso made a magnificent double overtake all the way around the outside of turn 3 past Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. The home favourite was in a feisty mood.

Raikkonen was hoping to move ahead of the Mercedes too, but Hamilton was defending his position well. Nico Rosberg was doing the same upfront, keeping Sebastian Vettel behind in the Red Bull. Felipe Massa was a man on the move, he got a good start, now chasing the McLaren of Perez. He nailed the overtake wonderfully down the start finish straight at the start of the second lap. It was an electric start to the Spanish Grand Prix.

It quickly became clear that Mercedes didn’t have good race pace at all, Nico Rosberg wasn’t pulling away in the lead, however he was managing the lead well at the front, the pressure from Vettel and Alonso behind was ever increasing. Lewis Hamilton was reporting brake issues caused possibly by the lock up in the first turn, he had pressure from Raikkonen and Massa closing in, the top 6 at this point separated my just over 3 seconds. The flying Finn passed Hamilton on lap 7 with an easy move, Hamilton not defending at all knowing that he couldn’t compete with the pace of the Lotus. Massa soon followed in the Ferrari. It was a critical move for both drivers as they were in with a shout of serious points and the Mercedes was just holding them up.

Mark Webber made an early pit stop, confirming a 4 stop strategy for the Red Bull after his poor start to the race. Others soon followed and the pit lane quickly became very busy, again it was all about the tyres, but it was all about over for Romain Grosjean as he retired from 9th place with a suspension failure. It was a real shame for the Frenchman who had scored points in every race so far this season.

The pit lane frenzy was still in full swing, Pastor Maldonado managed to get himself noticed once again in the stewards room for speeding in the pit lane. He quickly received a drive through penalty, it wasn’t quite the race Williams had here just one year ago.

It was turning out to be a spectacular race for Alonso though, having already made a stop, he just got the jump on Vettel on the Pit exit to the delight of the crowd. Ferrari were having a mighty race with both Alonso and Massa performing very well. No sooner had Alonso passed Vettel he then made a sensational move on Rosberg on the outside of turn 1. Sebastian Vettel had to respond, he did and Rosberg was losing position after position as Massa followed only 2 corners later, the glory of Qualifying seemingly a distant memory for Mercedes.

Mark Webber had made good progress throughout the race, but Sergio Perez and Paul DiResta were gaining on the Australian. The pace of Red Bull this weekend wasn’t anything like we have become used to, in fact it was almost damage limitation for the team with Ferrari and Lotus clearly much faster. McLaren were not improving much either, Perez had been out performing teammate Button throughout most of the race. It was sheer frustration for Lewis Hamilton, he was not impressed at all with the teams performance in the race, at one point even feeling the need to point out on the radio that he’d just been passed by a Williams.

Things couldn’t have been any worse for Van Der Garde though, he lost his rear left wheel at turn 10, having said to the team over the radio he felt something was wrong, moments later he was in the pits with only 3 wheel on the car. The Caterham retired from the race.

Kimi Raikkonen was on the move once again, he was right behind Vettel putting the Red Bull under immense pressure. Raikkonen tried a move at turn 10 taking the outside line, it didn’t quite work out as Vettel forced the Lotus wide, but the overtake looked inevitable and sure enough it was, with a fantastic and forceful move at turn 1 Kimi taking the place.

The Finn was flying and pulling out a gap to Vettel immediately,Red Bull were struggling for pace this weekend. Sister team Toro Rosso were having no such problem as Daniel Ricciardo made an easy move on Sergio Perez in the struggling McLaren. Teammate Vergne had problems in the pits however, Nico Hulkenberg had an unsafe release and made contact with the Toro Rosso who was making his way to his pit box. It was a clear breach of the regulations from Sauber that resulted in a 10 second stop go penalty for Hulkenberg. Things got worse for Vergne shortly after with a delaminated rear tyre, the rubber flying off the canvas similar to what we saw in Bahrain with Hamilton and Massa. Paul DiResta suffered the same problem on Friday, the Pirelli tyres clearly having problems lately and to the anger of many of the fans.

My Twitter feed was full of people calling for change. This problem is serious, dangerous and needs to be corrected fast. The Frenchman was forced to retire from the race.

Jenson Button was driving well to crawl his way into the points. As the race went on the McLaren’s were improving, Button was catching Rosberg and Perez was lapping around the same pace, but DiResta was battling with Button and took 7th place. Strategy was all over the place throughout the race with even the drivers unsure of what was going on, it really was a fascinating Grand Prix.

Raikkonen had made his 3rd and final stop of the race, after which he was setting some blistering times, Ferrari decide to cover it off by pitting race leader Alonso who had the pit stop in hand and rejoined still in the lead. Massa pitted shortly after, rejoined in 3rd behind Raikkonen, the Brazilian was on a charge to catch the flying Finn, he tried his best, but Raikkonen upped the pace also, Ferrari decided that third was good for Felipe, he had a brilliant race after starting 9th on the grid.

It was teammate Fernando Alonso who at his home Grand Prix, took the chequered flag after 66 laps in the most fantastic way. The crowd were absolutely ecstatic to see their hero take his second victory around the Circuit de Catalunya, Ferrari and Fernando Alonso were quite simply unstoppable. Raikkonen came home in 2nd with Massa 3rd. In the podium room, Ferrari got a phone call from the boss, Luca Dimontezemolo. Alonso and Massa both spoke to the man at the very top of Formula 1’s most precious team. A brilliant race by all accounts, here is the full result.

1. Alonso Ferrari
2. Raikkonen Lotus
3. Massa Ferrari
4. Vettel Red Bull
5. Webber Red Bull
6. Rosberg Mercedes
7. Di Resta Force India
8. Button McLaren
9. Perez McLaren
10. Ricciardo Toro Rosso
11. Gutierrez Sauber
12. Hamilton Mercedes
13. Sutil Force India
14. Maldonado Williams
15. Hulkenberg Sauber
16. Bottas Williams
17. Pic Caterham
18. Bianchi Marussia
19. Chilton Marussia

Retired: Vergne, Van Der Garde, Grosjean.

Tom Wilkinson’s Post Race Pointers.

Mercedes really need to look at why they didn’t have good pace during the race, tyres were a factor for them, but Lewis Hamilton was highly frustrated and annoyed, so too was Rosberg especially after such a strong performance during Qualifying.

Williams seem to have taken steps backwards in both Qualifying and Races, Maldonado did finish ahead of less experienced teammate Bottas for the first time this season. But the team really must focus on overall pace.

McLaren appear to have moved forward in terms of pace and performance, but they were still struggling in the first half of the race. Some of the updates this weekend really didn’t work for them, it’s back to the drawing board in the search for speed.

The Spanish Grand Prix was full of drama and action all the way through, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We head on to the beautiful Principality of Monaco for round 6 in two weeks time.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @TomWilkinsonF1 #TWF1 throughout the 2013 F1 season for all the latest news plus my Live coverage on every race this season. Stay logged onto Driving For Pleasure for full Formula 1 and GP2 coverage throughout 2013.