2011 Spanish Grand Prix - The smiling assassin does it again!

SPRAYING: The victory streak continues for Sebastian Vettel

RED BULL’s Sebastian Vettel recorded his fourth win from five races in 2011 yesterday.  The ‘Smiling Assassin,’ used the ‘undercut’ to overtake Fernando Alonso and then hold off a quicker McLaren of Lewis Hamilton to take the honours at the Spanish Grand Prix.  Vettel now has a 41 points lead at the head of the driver’s standings.  However, he was made to work hard for his victory in Barcelona.

     For the first time in 2011, Vettel was beaten to pole position by his team-mate, Mark Webber.  However, neither Red Bull was leading into the first corner.  In a brave and special start, Alonso delighted his local fans by charging up the inside from fourth on the grid to claim an unexpected lead.  Vettel edged past Webber, but at least his start wasn’t as bad as Jenson Button.  Wheelspin and being put on the marbles through the first three corners had Jenson down to tenth on lap one from fifth on the grid.

     It was clear that Alonso was holding up Vettel, Webber and Hamilton, and he did a great job to keep them behind for the first 20 laps.  However, Vettel smartly pitted a lap earlier than Fernando, got a clean lap on fresh tyres and went past Alonso, when he came in for his second pitstop a lap later.  Hamilton went longer on strategy at the Circuit de Catalunya to also leapfrog Alonso. 

     Once the Ferrari got onto the harder, ‘prime’ tyre, the Spaniard’s pace was hopeless.  He ruined Webber’s afternoon, and it allowed Button, on a three-stop strategy to everyone else’s four-stop to produce two spectacular passes on one lap against the Ferrari and Red Bull driver.  Tyres once again dictated the pace of the Grand Prix, but the neutrals were treated to a tremendous Grand Prix by this, despite the lack of effect the DRS system had in Barcelona.

    Part of this was down to the hard-charging pace of Hamilton.  Curiously, the one second advantage that the Red Bull drivers had in qualifying had disappeared on raceday.  In fact, the McLaren package looked quicker in race trim, which will give both drivers firm encouragement.  Unfortunately for Lewis, the speed of the Red Bull through Barcelona’s fast-sweeping corners was enough to keep him away from producing a serious attack.  Having been beaten in similar fashion in China last month, this win will mean more to Vettel – his 13^th overall in his F1 career, although he needs to work on his ‘diabolical’ Crazy Frog impression!

LIFT: Felipe Massa gets a ride home after a rare DNF

    Button finished third, after producing a charging drive from his horrid first lap.  Webber looked flabbergasted and drained after his fourth place result.  On a track where he has traditionally had the edge over Vettel, to finish over 40 seconds behind his team-mate will leave the Aussie scratching his head.  Despite leading early on, Alonso went onto be lapped, which shows just how far the Ferrari is off the pace.  Ultimately, fifth was the best that Fernando could hope for, unless dramas happened ahead.  Team-mate Felipe Massa had a poor weekend.  The Brazilian was bitching about understeer all weekend, and was only running tenth when his gearbox packed up with five laps to run.  Hamilton, Button and Webber, along with Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguesuari survived a steward’s investigation for not slowing down under a yellow flag, when Heikki Kovalainen crashed his Lotus.  All received a reprimand from the driver steward, Mark Blundell.

    Michael Schumacher put in his best performance of 2011 so far, finishing a creditable sixth, ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg.  Rosberg was hobbled for the majority of the race by radio transmission problems.  Nick Heidfeld produced a sterling drive from the back of the grid to wind up eighth for Renault, right on the tail of the two Mercedes cars at the finish.  Heidfeld didn’t run in qualifying, after a spectacular exhaust fire almost left his car in a fiery mess during Saturday morning practice.  Sergio Perez earnt the first points of his F1 career, as the Sauber cars took the final points positions.  Kamur Kobayashi’s drive was particularly impressive to tenth, considering he lost time with a first lap puncture, following contact with Alguesuari.

     With Monaco just six short days away, the question remains, are Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull just totally unbeatable.  It will take a mighty effort, but Lewis Hamilton looks like he might just have a say in this championship before the Fat Lady starts singing.