It is times like this when we seriously question whether it was worth postponing this race by that odd three week interval between this race and the weekend out in the middle the desert. Spain has not necessarily inspired the aspirations of the supporters - except those who turned up to circuit today, they arrived full of hope and excitement and left potentially even happier. But back here on the sofa of neutrality and impartiality at Blog HQ's first outside broadcast of the season, which in a surreal turn of events lead to placing trains across the eastern seaboard of America. Considering the race weekend actually started with me solving crimes in front of an audience (I know the idea of an audience is rather mythical round these parts), and actually getting lines in their right place for once. Anyway back to today, and the amount of deviations this post has taken already kind of sums up how intense this race turned out to be, a demonstration of strategy and tyre conservation instead of any continuous action. Yet in contrast to previous races, well for anyone who wasn't driving a Mercedes, the tyres didn't have quite the same overpowering impact on relative position. Because instead of it being a temperature issue like in Bahrain, it was due to the excessive loading in long corners around the track.
Today's race will not go down in the annuls as some instantly memorable classic full of close lap after lap battling, the fact that for the final phase of the race all the top runners had at least 10s between each other. No amount of artificial DRS and self destructing tyres can sort that sort of thing out. In a sense this is the impact of running on a track which has seen thousands of testing miles in pre-season, therefore everyone knew how to get their cars to the line in the shortest time possible, involving the very minimal amount of resistance to overtaking along the way.
The Race...
In theory, this race had all the potential hallmarks of defying the theory of the Spanish GP being a little lacklustre in entertainment terms, because the cars at the front were on course for a very challenging day. This should lead to a lot of congestion and, where there is congestion there is unpredictability - a similar thing took place in Abu Dhabi when a large train of cars accumulated we ended up with a safety car intervention and some broken cars. Catalunya does not have the same intrinsic characteristics of the Yas Marina. So that set of circumstances would be more than unlikely...
Once the lights went out at the start of the race the initial getaway seemed even, yet it was those people who have Ferraris making a better start of things, a long with Vettel who passed Hamilton in turn one - it wouldn't be the first car to go past lewis today. As the field came up through the opening sequence, Alonso appeared to be the only person who saw the GP2 race on Saturday and went round the outside of turn three, passing both Raikkonen and Hamilton. Other than this, everyone was well behaved - Bianchi damaged a nose towards the back but no-one is saying how or against who at this point in time. Speaking of having a dire start to the race, Jenson was starting his day rather badly dropping down to 17th, only two cars behind him that did not belong to the bottom teams...
Further forward Massa was marching to the front, passing Perez on the main straight - before DRS was put into place. This was helped by the fact that Rosberg in the lead was not getting away from anyone, and in fact was starting to build the inevitable train from the get go - Vettel and Alonso were trapped, along with Hamilton and Raikkonen as the top five broke away. But in the opening phase of the race Hamilton started to drop back, haemorrhaging speed and was unable to defend from an attack from Raikkonen into turn 10. Massa was next up to pass the struggling Mercedes and it was turn 10 again - except Felipe went round the outside of the corner... it was the beginning of a very, very challenging day for Lewis.
At lap seven the pit stops began initiated by Mark Webber in the Red Bull, back here (or there as it was an outside broadcast) it was expected that the Mercedes would be in first given their history of tyre consumption. But in the Red Bull camp it is traditionally Webber who is harder on his tyres and this season is punishing for it. It was in the pits during this round of stops where things stopped making a lot of sense - Maldonado seemed to forget precisely where is, almost pitting in the wrong garage to start off with and managing to speed in the lane in the process. Force India were having more difficulties in pitting cars, spending ages on Sutil's car, dropping him well back down the grid. To complete the trifecta of pit lane issues, Romain Grosjean appeared with a very misaligned rear wheel after a suspension failure. Which for once was not due to him hitting anyone or anything...
During the round of stops a rather interesting development had arisen - Esteban Gutierrez was in the lead of the race, by staying out, and Alonso had managed to get his Ferrari in between Rosberg and Vettel, making an attempt at the lead through turn three but it didn't work out. However this was merely delaying the inevitable because a couple of laps later the entire of Barcelona erupted into a cauldron of noise when Fernando drove around the outside of Rosberg on the main straight. This opened the floodgates as both Vettel and Massa went by - it being the second Mercedes Felipe has passed round the outside of turn 10. At this point the race entered one of the many periods of inactivity where everyone seemed happy to stay where they were. Even Gutierrez got out of the way, pitting before Alonso and the field caught up with the Sauber out front. Life was so average that even Van Der Garde's rear wheel departed company from the chassis, fleeing on the exit of turn 11. The Caterham was dragged round to the garage, because four wheels is too mainstream, but the damage to the floor was too severe to continue in the race for the division three leader.
Lewis Hamilton was having a really bad day, being passed by all kinds of people, in the space of two laps he'd been passed on track by four cars - and that included a pit-stop, the final straw coming when Pastor Maldonado made it through in turn 10. Which lead to one of the many unhappy radio messages that were send back to Mercedes, complaining that he couldn't go any slower to conserve tyres and did not enjoy being passed by a Williams, especially considering their current car speed. Overall there were a lot of displeased messages, from a lot of drivers - not too happy with being forced towards a four stop strategy. As for Hamilton, being outside the points and being on the verge of being a lap down from second on the grid was definately not in the plans for the day.
Out of nowhere, a wild battle appeared - we'd almost forgotten what one looked like - and it was Raikkonen on Vettel for second place. Kimi spent several laps behind the Red Bull being considerably quicker in the corners but had enough on traction to make ground and escape in the DRS zone - most of the time. Raikkonen made a first attempt outside of turn 10 but was forced wide. Kimi doesn't really do being beaten in a battle and made a late dive down into the first corner after the DRS wasn't strong enough. In free air the Lotus made significant ground towards Massa ahead. The most entertaining part of this battle was that Jules Bianchi, having just been lapped was running faster lap times than Vettel and was effectively held up by the Red Bull on the track. Because that battle was completed we needed some more action, and the track wasn't proving that we look back at the pit lane where Nico Hulkenberg was released into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso - which Nico was handed a 10 second stop and go penalty dropping adding him to the small number of cars behind Hamilton. That list was added to mere laps later when Vergne suffered a complete tyre delamination on the exit of turn three, identical to the one Di Resta suffered in FP2, and eventually sending the Frenchman into retirement.
With the main contenders a considerable distance apart, even changes in strategy was not going to impact anyone inside the top five, Alonso was on a different planet in the lead from Raikkonen and Massa. Red Bull were fourth and fifth. Seemingly the only two cars on the grid that were close to another were the Mercedes team, and surprisingly neither of them were doing the attacking... Interestingly both were under attack from Force India cars - Rosberg had Di Resta for company and Hamilton was under pressure from Sutil whose race was compromised by the poor first stop. The odd thing about both these battles is that the Force India's were unable to make any impression on the cars in front of them - despite having the benefit of DRS and KERs. While nothing was happening there, Button was able to see Perez in his mirrors at the bottom end of the points positions - on reflection of Bahrain - a precautionary message was sent out reminding them to be gentle this time and not smash the cars up too much. So in response they didn't, in fact they didn't do anything, why was no body doing anything... and retained position, probably not out of intention however.
And that was roughly about it - even the late battle for the final point between Ricciardo and Gutierrez came to nothing. Alonso was able to cruise home to take a popular home win for Ferrari, winning both of the last two race in the country, though the last one was in Valencia. Raikkonen completed another podium position and closed up the gap to the championship lead. Massa picked up his podium of the season, making it a double podium for Ferrari. Vettel and Webber scored more solid constructors points for Red Bull in 4th and 5th, somehow in the realm of massive tyre degradation Nico Rosberg did better than the same predicament in Bahrain and came home in 6th, marginally ahead of Di Resta. The two McLarens spent the last few laps without knocking panels off each other and finished intact, with Button leading Perez. At the bottom of the points Ricciardo held onto 10th place because like so many other battles in the final phase of the race, Gutierrez could not make any impression and steal the first rookie point of 2013.... Speaking of points..
The Bonus Points Championship points winners
This bonus points championship was originally constructed to award points for those drivers who do something exciting and other assorted arbitrary reasons... something that might not be an accurate definition for today. But it is in races like this where gains in the championship can be made for the most mediocre differences between competitors.
- 25pts - Jules Bianchi - For being legitimately faster than the current champion in on of the fastest cars and being held up in the process
- 18pts - Felipe Massa - From 9th to a podium, that deserves points - and two outside passes on Mercedes' in turn 10.
- 15pts - Nico Rosberg - Managed to stay in the point, and having his driving style for saving tyres passed onto his dwindling team-mate.
- 12pts - Esteban Gutrierrez - Almost managed to score the first point for a rookie in 2013, and he actually lead the race for several laps in the opening stint.
- 10pts - Fernando Alonso - A double outside pass on the opening lap and some dominate speed throughout the race.
- 8pts - Paul Di Resta - Another strong albeit under the radar performance in the Force India
- 6pts - Jenson Button - For a decent comeback from 17th on the first lap to score some points
- 4pts - John and Mary - For hosting another successful outside broadcast, and food, sugary food.
- 2pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - For not planting it in the wall when the tyre delaminated
- 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - Gets a sympathy point for a dire race
The Penalties Championship
It's hard to think that after such as rather uneventful race there would be anything to hand out penalties for, only Bianchi is reported to have hit anything and the only yellow flag was for Grosjean hobbling off track with the suspension failure. But penalties there were, all for pit lane issues...
- Nico Hulkenberg - 10s Stop and Go - For hitting Vergne in the pit lane
- Pastor Maldonado - Drive through penalty - For speeding in the pit lane
- Caterham - 10,000 EUR fine - For not putting Van Der Garde's wheel on properly in the pit lane
Looking Ahead to Monaco
Well if a Spanish GP doesn't create that level of anticipation then the Monaco GP certainly does, always conveying something special and instantly converts people sitting on their sofas into children gain. Though at blog HQ there is not too much of a conversion to make. This race represents everything that is good and bad about the sport, it has the tradition of being involved in the championship for decades. It doesn't have those over-protective tarmac run-off areas and acres of space to run wide and rejoin having gained an advantage in the process. In Monaco there are lots of metal barriers and absolutely no space for errors or forgiveness, a missed apex by a little too much and the walls are waiting to take off wheels and wings in return. It takes away the artificiality of the DRS because it is virtually useless and makes overtaking a long lost skill again, requiring ingenuity and intelligence rather than waiting for when the FIA decide a certain straight is the passing area.
Of course on the other side of things Monaco represents the gross exuberance of the sport, where all the posh hangers on turn up just to get on tv and jump on the bandwagon - in sickening quantities. People bring their excessive yachts and mock the rest of us underfunded peasants in their perspective with their wealth and privilege. There is often that most corrupted of statements that it is the venue of the beautiful people - well frankly they can get sodded, using their obscene budget and connections to distort the balance of power and presence at the track. All the pretentious morons should be thrown into the harbour so we can have a race without them trying to hijack the airtime for their own selfish intentions. But that is a rant for another weekend in a fortnight's time. Until then is it farewell from Blog HQ.
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