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.
It was by no means a sure thing but Pastor Maldonado kept his head under some serious pressure from both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen, and secured Williams' first victory for about eight years. Behind him, Lewis Hamilton had a storming race, protecting his tyres to complete the only two stop strategy and get into the points after starting from the back. With five retirements, and penalties galore, the Spanish Grand Prix was a fantastic spectacle.
The big news post-qualifying came from the McLaren camp, when pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was stripped of his time. After the car was deemed to not have enough fuel in it, Hamilton will now start from the back of the grid, or the pitlane. Meanwhile, Karthikeyan did not post a qualifying time within the 107% cut off, but the FIA have deemed his free practice results worthwhile and the HRT driver has been cleared to race.
Qualifying in Spain today offered up enough of a surprise when Pastor Maldonado was fast throughout, and found the pace to finish on the front row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton was in pole position, with a time half a second faster than that of Maldonado's Williams beside him. However, the surprise took another twist several hours later, when the stewards stripped Hamilton of his time, promoting Maldonado up to pole position.
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