This weekend we saw a fantastic race in Spain that held a little bit of everything - intrigue, overtaking, suspense, strategy and, of course, an underdog winner. The great racing we are seeing on Sundays is tempered only by the fact that qualifying excitement has been sacrificed to generate such great Grands Prix.
The Spanish Grand Prix was really good, mostly because there were so many drivers out of place. Whilst Hamilton's penalty was a harsh one, it meant there was bound to be action in the race. Our suspicions that Maldonado would fall rapidly down the order did not come to pass, whilst the fight for points was incredible.
So another race, another winner. This season is turning into an incredible one and despite the calls that Barcelona would sort out who had the genuine pace we are still no nearer to being able to accurately predicting this year's world champion. So who stood out? Who outperformed their technology on Sunday? Anyone fancy saying 'pay driver' and Pastor Maldonado in the same sentence? Whoever does is very brave and suddenly looks very deluded.
The Spanish Grand Prix offered up plenty of opportunity for points, but none more so than seeing how the paddock responded to the Williams fire. If we still had team rankings, there would be bucketloads being handed out, but the drivers did the best they could too. Pastor Maldonado, race winner, picks up the most in one go this week, after the now infamous piggy back. In other news this week, we finally get to see the results of Vettel's Kung Fu movie, whilst Fernando has a hot beverage.
Pastor Maldonado converted his debut F1 pole into his first ever Formula 1 race win this afternoon in Spain. In doing so he also ended his team's eight year winless drought, but post-race celebrations inside the Williams garage came to an abrupt halt when fire broke out at the rear of the building.
Red Bull were lucky that McLaren also had a difficult weekend in Spain, they retain their lead in the standings, with McLaren sitting second behind them. Lotus have made a great jump forward but remain third, whilst Williams now sit on the same points as Mercedes, leap-frogging Sauber. Force India continue to struggle, adding just one point to their total this week.
Sebastian Vettel retains his lead at the top of the standings table, but is now on joint points with Fernando Alonso - who makes his way back up from fourth. Pastor Maldonado's incredible victory sees him fly up the table from 14th to 9th, now sitting just behind Romain Grosjean. The Lotus driver himself picked up a good haul of points, but not as many as teammate Kimi Räikkönen, who finished on the podium. Kimi has moved up from 7th to now sit 4th, right in the title hunt.
