Posted on 10th May 2015
This afternoon, Nico Rosberg drove a dominant race to become the ninth different winner of the Spanish Grand Prix and took his first victory of this season ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.
The start of the race was extremely good for Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel; with the latter moving up to second place after Lewis Hamilton had a bad start due to too much wheelspin getting off the line to get up to speed. The Williams' drivers of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas had a great starts; while the Toro Rosso drivers of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr had difficult starts and were trying to keep drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen at bay who managed to pass the drivers on the opening laps of the race.
The first stages of the race saw Verstappen and Sainz Jr battling for their positions with drivers such as Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo and Pastor Maldonado who were able to get past the pair of them who were struggling for straight line speed on the straights but were fast during the corners. But the pair did try to fight back as much as they could do and we did see Ricciardo and Verstappen especially having a great few battles on the track; which Ricciardo was able to win.
Pastor Maldonado suffered rear wing damage on his Lotus during the early part of the race and was losing a lot of speed and downforce around the Barcelona circuit, which then prompted his team to get rid of the wing that was damaged and sent him back out to race; albeit further down the order than they would like.
Hamilton made his first pit stop at the end of Lap 13 but a problem with one of his wheels at the stop cost him some time and he lost ground to Vettel after rejoining the race behind Maldonado and with a lot of work to do to catch the Ferrari driver. But meanwhile at the front, Rosberg was pulling away from the field with a consistent gap of over 6 seconds and only lost the lead of the race when he had to pit for new tyres.
On Lap 22 via the team radio, Grosjean was told by his engineer to back up while using the 'bad gear' (which was fourth gear) otherwise he would blow the Mercedes power unit up. Grosjean didn't like hearing this; but Lotus' Director of Track Operations Alan Permane reinforced the team's message and Grosjean had to respond on the track to the teams' wishes.
Meanwhile at the end of Lap 27 as McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso while stopping for new tyres suffered a brake failure on the MP4-30 and went past his marks and was very lucky not to have hurt his front jackman who very quickly moved out of the way after seeing what had happened to Alonso's car. Alonso then officially retired from the race.
The second half of the race saw Hamilton once again trying to catch up to his team mate, Vettel and now Valtteri Bottas after his second pit stop. Hamilton kept the pressure on Bottas and was able to pass the Williams driver with a great move into Turn 1.
Lap 46 saw the battle between Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen for fifth place being settled with Raikkonen making a great move on the Brazilian driver into Turn 1 and making the place away from him.
The next lap saw Pastor Maldonado officially retire his Lotus-Mercedes from the race. It would seem that Maldonado isn't having the best of luck this season with reliability; but is able while on track to show that he can get himself into positions where point finishes could have been achieved.
The latter stage of the race was on the battle between Hamilton and Vettel. With Hamilton leading the race after Rosberg made his final pit stop; he had to push in order to keep Vettel behind him for second place and claw back more points to keep the lead in the championship as a form of damage limitation.
After making his pit stop at the end of Lap 51, Hamilton made his final stop of the day; handed the lead back to his team mate Rosberg and rejoined the race in second place ahead of Vettel after losing out in the first stage of the race after a mistake from his pitcrew.
There was a battle in the final few laps between Bottas and Raikkonen for fourth place but Bottas did just enough to hold onto fourth position, while Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat on the final lap of the race made contact with each other into Turn 1; with Sainz Jr gaining the position. However, the stewards are investigating this incident at the moment.
But it was Nico Rosberg who won the Spanish Grand Prix in dominant style ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton who finished in second place 17 seconds behind him but was ahead of Sebastian Vettel who finished in third place 45.3 seconds behind the Mercedes drivers.
Valtteri Bottas did a great job to finish the race in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, his team mate Felipe Massa in sixth place and Daniel Ricciardo in seventh place one lap down on the Mercedes of Rosberg. Romain Grosjean scored more points for Lotus in eighth place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in ninth place and Daniil Kvyat who took the final point in tenth place.
Max Verstappen finished the race out of the points after a difficult race in eleventh place one lap down but was ahead of Felipe Nasr in twelfth place one lap down, Sergio Perez in thirteenth place one lap down and Marcus Ericsson in fourteenth place one lap down.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in fifteenth place one lap down but was ahead of Jenson Button who finished in sixteenth place ahead of the Manor F1 drivers of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi in seventeenth and eighteenth place.
Fernando Alonso did not finish the race after suffering brake failure while trying to stop for new tyres and was lucky not to have hurt a McLaren jackman who moved bravely out of the way. While Pastor Maldonado did not finish the race due to the rear wing damage he sustained in the first stages of the Spanish GP.
The classification of the Spanish GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.41.12.555
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 17.551
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 45.342s
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 59.217
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 60.002s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 81.314
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1 lap
8. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1 lap
9. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
10. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1lap
11. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1lap
12. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
13. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1lap
14. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
15. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1lap
16. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
17. Will Stevens, Manor-Marussia, 3 laps
18. Roberto Merhi, Manor-Marussia, 4 laps
19. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, Not classified
20. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not classified
Lewis Hamilton leads the 2015 Driver's championship with 111 points, Rosberg is second with 91 points, Vettel is third with 80 points, Raikkonen is fourth with 52 points, Bottas is fifth with 42 points, Massa is sixth with 35 points, Ricciardo is seventh with 25 points, Grosjean is eighth with 16 points, Nasr is ninth with 14 points and Sainz is tenth with 8 points.
Mercedes lead the 2015 Constructor Championship with 202 points, Ferrari is second with 132 points, Williams is third with 81 points, Red Bull is fourth with 30 points, Sauber is fifth with 19 points, Lotus is sixth with 16 points, Toro Rosso are seventh with 14 points. Force India are eighth with 11 points.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
