Filipe Massa was on fire this weekend (May 13th) at the Spanish Grand Prix. I mean literally. The Brazilian lead from the start of this weekend's event and showed Fernando Alonso that the Spaniard will have to work hard if he wants to make it three championships in a row. The silver arrow tried to make a mad dash outside attempt in turn one, but Massa took a note from his mentor and took the road away after a slight love tap. It was down hill for Alonso after that and he rejoined the pack in fourth. Massa was on pace to make it look easy, but he still put on a bit of a show during his pit stop when a small amount of fuel flashed. Fortunately for all of the Ferrari fans whose hearts skipped a beat, no damage was done and he continued on to the win.
Lewis Hamilton made the best of the situation and tried to hang on. His second place podium finish pushed him to the top of the leader board, making him the youngest person ever to do it. If things keep up like this and he keeps placing second, he could win the championship without winning a race.
The start
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Alonso was able to salvage somewhat of a result in front of his home crowd once Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari failed. The team mentioned electronics and you can be sure that plenty of people will be working overtime in Maranello to make sure it doesn't happen again. The Spaniard captured the last step of the podium, but he was clearly outshined this weekend. He looked so good at Renault because his team mate was so bad. Now that he's paired up with someone that can drive, we'll see if it really is talent or just luck of being in the right place at the right time.
We thought BMW was making a run at it and Kubica did well this weekend. But, the Pole could do no better than fourth and realistically, he probably would have finished in fifth if Kimi's F1 did not use the same electronics that Ferrari put in my Mondial 8 back in 1982. Kubica’s team mate didn't do so well. You need to make sure you come out of the pits with all wheel nuts firmly attached. Someone's going to get yelled at in German over that one.
Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa, Rob Smedley
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David Coulthard proved that rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated. The aging Scot brought his Red Bull home in ahead of Rosberg's Williams. Sounds impressive, right? But then again, William's hasn't had much going for them in a decade now.
Kovalainen was the last to finish on the lead lap in his Renault. Maybe Alonso was right to jump ship when he did. Flavio will still manage to get a date out of the weekend.
The real surprise of the weekend was that Takumo Sato got Super Aguri's first F1 point. And he beat their more-or-less parent team (Honda) and their arch nemesis (Toyota) to do it. There has got to be some serious questioning going on in Toyota City if all of their expense is really worth it. Well done Sato-san.
Kimi Raikkonen
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Even though it is early, the tea leaves are starting to form shapes in the bottom of my glass. So long as Ferrari can fix their reliability issues, they'll bring the fight to McLaren. Lewis Hamilton is starting to cause Alonso to crack under pressure. If you're a Ferrari fan, you may want to start making some popcorn. This one should be fun to watch. BMW is poised to be a spoiler to the Italians and the Brits; I mean the rich garagist and his German backers.
For everyone else, they're going to be happy to just see the cars on TV. I've been celebrating Massa's win in Brazil this week. The picanha at the churrascarias has been to die for. I also learned why Rubens Barichello isn't liked so well down here. It seems that most of the bus drivers in São Paulo have bigger balls than he does. Seeing a fully loaded bus go into a four wheel drift on a roundabout is most impressive.
The circus heads to Monaco next. Bring your platinum American Express because it's not going to be cheap to see an hour and a half with no passing...
Kimi Räikkönen
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Race Results
