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Barcelona: Ferrari Cruise to 1-2 Sweep

The Spanish Grand Prix was a convincing statement of which team gained the most from their car improvements over the last three weeks. No doubt, it was Honda and Red Bull!

Kimi Raikkonen had an uneventful and mistake free race as he translated pole into a convincing win. Kimi led every lap (not counting pit stop turnovers) and posted fastest race lap. Teammate Felipe Massa took second place from Fernando Alonso at turn one, lap one, and you could have turned off the TV at that point. Unless of course you just had to see Both Renault’s self destruct, both Toro Rosso’s DNF, and five other cars not to reach the checkers.

Most frightening of the non finishers was Heikki Kovaleinen’s wheel failure which caused his car to bury itself into a tire barrier. It’s not encouraging when it requires extended effort to pull a car out of the tires, and watch the driver boarded away to a chopper for evac to hospital. Heikki’s wave to the crowd was the only sign of encouragement. The US announcers suspected he had a broken ankle, later reports indicated he suffered only a mild concussion.

Lewis Hamilton managed to reach third place in a McLaren car that was obviously inferior to both Ferrari’s today. If Fernando hadn’t suffered his DNF I suspect Lewis would have been hard pressed for the podium.

So, what about the best improved cars? With Jenson Button’s sixth place (and first points this year) I believe it signals a massive improvement in team performance. Mark Webber’s uneventful climb to fifth place also shows Red Bull improvement as well as some delivery of the promise we all have hoped for from the Aussie driver. Webber was 53 seconds off Kimi’s winning time, but a fifth place finish is still great for team moral.

And that’s not to minimize the Force India’s 10^th place drive by Giancarlo Fisichella. A remarkable achievement for another improving team.

All of the results were slightly skewed by the high attrition rate, but the results bear out that oldest of racing axioms, before finishing first, one must first finish.

How refreshing was it to see King Juan Carlos of Spain making presentations to the drivers at the podium ceremony? Considering the alternative may have been Max Mosley, it’s just another reason why the tainted President of the FIA has to get the boot come 3 June.

Lest we forget:

Article 151c, from the Concorde Agreement, to which Mosley is a signatory: “Bringing the sport into disrepute. Any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.”

Spanish Grand Prix Results - 27 April 2008 - 66 Laps
POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIRE
1.	Kimi Raikkonen	Finland	Ferrari	66	1h38m19.051
2.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	66	3.228
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	66	4.187
4.	Robert Kubica	Poland	BMW Sauber	66	5.694
5.	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	66	35.938
6.	Jenson Button	Britain	Honda	66	53.010
7.	Kazuki Nakajima	Japan	Williams-Toyota	66	58.244
8.	Jarno Trulli	Italy	Toyota	66	59.435
9.	Nick Heidfeld	Germany	BMW Sauber	66	1m03.073
10.	Giancarlo Fisichella	Italy	Force India-Ferrari	65	1 Lap
11.	Timo Glock	Germany	Toyota	65	1 Lap
12.	David Coulthard	Britain	Red Bull-Renault	65	1 Lap
13.	Takuma Sato	Japan	Super Aguri-Honda	65	1 Lap
R	Nico Rosberg	Germany	Williams-Toyota	41	Engine
R	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Renault	34
R	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	Honda	34
R	Heikki Kovalainen	Finland	McLaren-Mercedes	21	Accident
R	Anthony Davidson	Britain	Super Aguri-Honda	8
R	Sebastien Bourdais	France	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	7	Damage
R	Nelson Piquet	Brazil	Renault	6	Accident
R	Adrian Sutil	Germany	Force India-Ferrari	64	Accident
R	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	0	Accident
FASTEST LAP:
	Kimi Raikkonen	Finland	Ferrari	46	1:21.670

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