Now as you might be aware, the Spanish GP actually took place a week ago, and we all know how that played out and the events have been shared across the world. But while this was all taking place in real time, I was hanging out in Beamish playing with steam trains and other olde worlde things, which meant it wasn't possible to see the race live and only caught up with the highlights later on in the evening. Due to other commitments this format of a Sunday may become the norm, as the world of motorsport does bore other people a considerable amount - at Blog HQ there are often audible groans when the other residents realise there is a race on the TV, and outside of Blog HQ time is often spent away from the television. This is rather exacerbated by the fact that Sky have bought half the season, so when in a place with freeview it doesn't have access to the footage.
The Race
We all know what happened last Sunday, as it was one of those races where the result and images would be broadcast across the world in the following days after the chequered flag fell. The whole thing began when the two Mercedes drivers took themselves out of the race on the entrance to turn four, and aggressive overtaking effort was met with an even more aggressive defensive manoeuvre and the two met in the middle. Before reconvening in the gravel trap moments later. What followed was an example of what Formula 1 would look like without that dominant team making everyone else look slow and off pace. When the safety car was initially deployed it was a Red Bull 1-2-3 with Carlos Sainz, sitting behind Ricciardo and Verstappen. Ferrari made easy work of Sainz on the restart thanks to DRS and a newer version of the Ferrari engine.
The rest of the race came down to strategy as the lead quartet split into two groups based on the number of stops they wanted to take... or how many the team suggested. This strategy has also summoned a series of conspiracy theories - as some people are pointing out that Red Bull might have sabotaged Ricciardo's strategy to lure Vettel out of the equation and gift a win to their new prodigy in the form of Max Verstappen. As the dutchman crossed the line in first place, history was made as the youngest ever winner, and winning on his debut with a new team. Whether this anomalous form will continue into Monaco, who knows, or whether Spain was an anomaly... but we'll see what happens when Mercedes don't knock themselves out of the race. There were other intra-team battles that occurred further down the field - the two Haas cars brushed wheels when duelling with Jolyon Palmer, then Palmer himself came to bother on the final lap when Magnussen attempted an aggressive overtake forcing Jolyon off track.
The Bonus Points Winners
So with that review sort of pulled together it is time to move onto the matter of the points... just so that they are out of the way before Monaco.
- 25pts - Carlos Sainz - A brilliant start and running third under the safety car without the older engine and DRS might have been able to hold off the Ferraris
- 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Round the outside of Bottas by millimetres on the opening lap and making the most of the tyre strategy to earn another podium finish.
- 15pts - Max Verstappen - A brilliant debut win under pressure from Raikkonen once the strategy cleared the cars ahead of him.
- 12pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Fought hard to challenge Vettel for third but another late puncture cost him the shot at the podium
- 10pts - Esteban Gutierrez - The first race where the Mexican exhibited stronger form than Grosjean for the Haas team in their continued run of form, just missed out on the points
- 8pts - Felipe Massa - After a terrible qualifying Felipe drove a strong recovery drive to continue his streak of points scoring finishes for Williams
- 6pts - Daniil Kvyat - Gets demoted and then scores a point and the fastest lap of the race, and unlapped himself on Ricciardo in the closing laps. A move which seemed funnier before it became apparent Daniel had a puncture.
- 4pts - Jenson Button - After Alonso secured the best qualifying result of their new era, Jenson Button took home some points on the Sunday for the team when Fernando's car broke down
- 2pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Following in the footsteps of Heikki Kovalainen and taking over the fire fighting duties from the marshals once his Force India started roasting itself mid race.
- 1pt - Nico Rosberg - The move round the outside of Hamilton on the opening lap was brilliant... then things went wrong a few corners later
Looking ahead to Monaco
The monaco GP is a race that is drowning in tradition and history but doesn't often deliver the most enthralling race, because it is so difficult to overtake and engage in prolonged wheel to wheel contact. But it is also a race where chaos can reign supreme and drivers can out-drive their cars and deliver history making performances. Jules Bianchi's stunning points scoring finish in 2014 is one of those wonderful occurrences that a mad street race can deliver. We've had contact, controversy and craziness - sometimes all in the same race weekend. On the back of this Spanish GP, I expect tensions to be quite high in certain garages... tensions that might spill into on track mayhem. Anything to distract us from the plague of 'celebrities' who seem to only appear if there is a chance of getting on TV... but hopefully there will be too much happening on track that there will be no cause to look for famous faces.
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