Planet-F1

Spanish GP: Winners and Losers

Monday 28th April 2008

Fernando Alonso may have made a fiery exit from the Spanish GP, but the Renault team have bounced back in style. Luckiest hobbit was Heikki Kovalainen, unluckiest hobbit, Nick Heidfeld.

Star of the Race
Fernando Alonso, Renault, DNF
Fernando Alonso didn't have to do anything after Saturday to justify his place as the star of the race. Even if he did overdo the tyre warming on the parade lap and cover his tyres in debris before coming down the main straight of Circuit de Catalunya.

The Renault team showed last year they were adept at copying McLaren technology and this year they have (quite legitimately) gone round the paddock lifting nice little aero bits off the other cars, most prominent of which is the Red Bull engine cover. And they have put Fernando back in contention.

He may not have finished the race, but his performance in almost taking pole position for the Spanish GP has to be the highlight of the season so far. It was one of those 'Where did that come from?' moments.

The F1 season so far has been relatively predictable and this was a joyous moment of surprise. A gestalt shift of expectation for all of Alonso's fans. There were just four laps of fuel separating him from polesitter Kimi Raikkonen which fully justifies Flavio Briatore's assertion that they can battle for podiums.

It's a pity that he didn't get a clear run at Kimi into Turn 1, but you can't have everything

Overtaking Move Of The Race
Lap 54: Nick Heidfeld on Giancarlo Fisichella
Effectively this was the only overtaking move of the race as Coulthard on Sato isn't going to make any season-end highlights programme. Nick got a better launch onto the straight and while Fisichella covered the inside line, Heidfeld drilled his BMW down the outside where there was more grip. And most importantly, stopped the car in time to turn in at Turn 1. Even thenhe was helped by Fisi getting off the gas.

Nick was the latest victim of the Safety Car Wheel of Misfortune. They've got to change that rule.

WINNERS

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 1st
It's difficult to judge Ferrari's true pace given the intervention of the Safety Cars, but on soft tyres they looked to have at least 0.4 on the McLarens and BMWs. On hard tyres following the second round of pit-stops the McLaren looked more of a match.

Raikkonen was clearly the quickest of the two Ferrari drivers but you would have thought they'd have pulled out a bigger margin towards the end if they could - one inadvertent trip across the gravel would have been the difference between 1st and 4th.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 2nd
Massa continued his rehabilitation programme by not crashing the car again. However he needs to start winning soon if he wants to stay a contender.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 3rd
Ditto. Lewis got his Championship campaign back on track, but he was oh so close to being nerfed up the gearbox at the start by Kovalainen. It was a ballsy move down the inside to take Kubica. Hamilton actually enjoys that kind of thing, but it seems that the ITV team go into high anxiety mode whenever he is surrounded by other cars on the grid.

Robert Kubica, BMW, 4th
Kubica said he was surprised that he was just five seconds away from leader Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the race. Did he not notice the Safety Car periods, then?

Five seconds isn't a true representation of the performance gap between Ferrari and BMW.

Webbo, Red Bull, 5th
Mark fulfilled his true potential for a change and came home with a handy carrier-bag full of points. It would have been interesting to see how his race panned out compared to Fernando Alonso's, but the double World Champion inadvertently changed the Engine Mapping on his steering wheel to 'Barbecue'.

Jenson Button, Honda, 6th
Despite pitting soon after the second re-start, Jenson managed to hold onto 6th place. He was never going to get even so much as a sight of 5th place, so a great job of work.

LOSERS

Nelson Piquet, Renault, DNF
Nelsinho stuffed his own race up early on when he ran off track and he might have hung on for a point had he not collided with Bourdais. As it was, he'd shadowed Fernando Alonso pretty effectively through Qualifying - so not all bad news. Having said that, Flavio is not a notoriously patient man.

Sebsatian Vettel, Toro Rosso, DNF
Yet another failure to get round the opening lap for the immensely likeable German and very little he could do about it other than qualify further up the field.

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, DNF
Heikki is probably not thinking that he's a loser right now. He left the road so swiftly that there was no time for him to watch his whole life flash before his eyes. It then seemed to take quite a long time for Charlie Whiting to send out the Safety Car and Medical Car. One quick replay of the incident was surely all it needed to confirm the gravity of the accident. In a macabre way, it was only mishaps like this that kept us sane through the Spanish GP. Lewis may have been close to Felipe, but given that Heidfeld struggled to get past the Force India, the likelihood of overtaking amongst the Top 4 was slim to none.

Overtaking Fest Lovers
Lovers of wheel to wheel action wouldn't have been watching anyway as Barcelona usually battles it out with Budapest and Magny Cours for dullest procession imaginable. It got so bad that I was hoping for more advertising breaks featuring the guy from Polaris World. "You have probably been wondering what the apartments in Polaris World look like...?"

Steve Riders' Hands
I apologise if the Mark Blundell-watching hasn't come up to scratch in the last few GPs, but Steve Riders hands have become a bit distracting. You see I've suddenly become aware that his microphone hand looks really stubby, a bit like a wrestler's and very large. And now whilst trying to copy down the gems wot Blundell is saying about ve guys, all I'm doing is staring at Steve Rider's great fat microphone hand.

He seems like a cultured man, he is smoothness itself behind the microphone, but it looks like someone's give him a great big man's hand glove to wear as he holds it.

(I am getting therapy, though.)

Mark - git orf me BAFTA-award winnin' barra - Blundell
Mark Blundell offered us three barra loads of clichés in Barcelona, but we've grown a bit tired of copying down 'winkles' when what we want is 'oysters' from the Pearly King of Guff.

In a clear reference to Bambi Mark mentioned that Alonso could be a "faun in McLaren's side" on Sunday. And using Blundellevision he noted that "I fink Alonso could be on for free stops." And "What wouldn't surprise me is that Alonso gets off the line cleanly and leads the Ferraris into Turn 1."

However sexual allusion of the weekend has got to go to Louise Goodman who was having fun with the ever-amicable Ferrari boss Stefano