European Grand Prix 2012: Proper Attire

Hamilton, was passed by Räikkönen who was also getting his just deserts after Canada. Desparately clinging to third place, his tires going off badly, Hamilton tangled with Maldonado and almost gently slid into the barriers, his race and points out the window. His car fumed and so did he, hurtling the expensive command center steering wheel far out in front of the car while Alonso drove on to the checker followed by a thankful Räikkönen.

It was a stunning and yet oh –so-well deserved 29th F1 victory for Alonso, and as the sportswriters love to write, the crowd went wild. After so many economic worries, Spain found something to cheer about and cheer they did. It has to be one of the most popular victories in F1 history…and coming on top of the soccer team’s win over France on Saturday, it was a heady weekend for Spain.

The Grand Prix of Europe didn’t begin that way. Before the race Alonso made it clear to his vast number of fans that there was no way the Ferrari would be able to win at Valencia. He qualified well down, sitting on the sixth row next to Michael Schumacher, who was doing quite well for a change. Massa qualified on the seventh row and the Ferraris appeared to be in for another also-ran-race.

Having won the pole with Hamilton next to him, Vettel once again executed his famous first lap getaways; in a few laps the race promised to be his provided he and his team pulled the right moves with the tires. There was little Hamilton could do about it, but Grojsean was now driving the race of his life putting the Lotus in harm’s way with every lap, passing Hamilton for second on lap ten. The young French hope went off to capture Vettel. After a great fight with Alonso, on lap 41 the Lotus just up and quit, the victim, we are told, of an alternator failure. Grosjean has come out of nowhere and finds himself on a very competitive reborn Lotus/ Renault team. Though the string of seven winning drivers was broken at Valencia, Grojsean is a great candidate to add his name to this year’s impressive roster of victors.

Massa’s race was marred by an unfortunate incident with Kobayashi, who was of course driving as aggressively as ever; Massa recovered, Koby didn’t. But later in the pits the Ferrari team tried to mount two different tire compounds on the Ferrari, slowing Massa further. He finished 16th, a lap down.

As we mentioned, the old man had a good race and good for him. Schumacher got his first podium finish since….my god, when? As he removed his helmet at the end of the race, he was visibly elated, grinning from ear to ear. Starting from 12th position and on the hard compound he drove a impeccable race, showing us he still had it, at least at Valencia.

And Webber. Along with Schumacher and opposite his teammate, he chose to start on the harder compound tires, and using the same strategy stayed with Schumacher for most of the race, finishing right behind the German in fourth, gaining valuable points for Red Bull’s constructor kitty.

We look forward to the British Grand Prix in two weeks.

Race Results

1	ALONSO	Ferrari	1h44m16.649s
2	Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	+ 6.4s
3	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	+ 12.6s
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 13.6s
5	HULKENBERG	Force India-Mercedes	+ 19.9s
6	ROSBERG	Mercedes	+ 21.1s
7	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 22.8s
8	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 24.6s
9	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 27.7s
10	SENNA	Williams-Renault	+ 35.9s
11	RICCIARDO	STR-Ferrari	+ 37.0s
12	MALDONADO	Williams-Renault	+ 54.6s
13	PETROV	Caterham-Renault	+ 75.8s
14	KOVALAINEN	Caterham-Renault	+ 94.6s
15	PIC	Marussia-Cosworth	+ 96.5s
16	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 1 lap
17	DE LA ROSA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
18	KARTHIKEYAN	HRT-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
19	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 2 laps, accident
20	GROSJEAN	Lotus-Renault	+ 17 laps, alternator
21	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 24 laps, alternator
22	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 24 laps, accident damage
23	VERGNE	STR-Ferrari	+ 31 laps, accident damage
DNS	GLOCK	Marussia-Cosworth	DNS
Fastest Lap	ROSBERG	Mercedes	1m42.163s

Note – Glock did not take part due to a stomach bug. Maldonado originally finished 10th, but had 20s added to his race time for causing a collision

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	ALONSO	Ferrari	111 Points
2	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	91 Points
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	88 Points
4	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	85 Points
5	ROSBERG	Mercedes	75 Points
6	Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	73 Points
7	GROSJEAN	Lotus-Renault	53 Points
8	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	49 Points
9	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	39 Points
10	MALDONADO	Williams-Renault	29 Points
11	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	27 Points
12	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	21 Points
13	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	17 Points
14	HULKENBERG	Force India-Mercedes	17 Points
15	SENNA	Williams-Renault	16 Points
16	MASSA	Ferrari	11 Points
17	VERGNE	STR-Ferrari	4 Points
18	RICCIARDO	STR-Ferrari	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	176 Points
2	McLAREN-MERCEDES	137 Points
3	LOTUS-RENAULT	126 Points
4	FERRARI	122 Points
5	MERCEDES	92 Points
6	SAUBER-FERRARI	60 Points
7	WILLIAMS-RENAULT	45 Points
8	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	44 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	6 Points