2010 Spanish Grand Prix Review

When a particular car or driver is untouchable it really is untouchable. Mark Webber fell right into this category today as he stormed to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in Catalunya. The Red Bull Racing driver crossed the line well clear of his rival to take his first win of the season and only his teams second of the campaign. This Sunday walk in the park for Webber underlined Red Bull's superiority throughout the weekend and has certainly left many teams plenty to think about as the Formula One season heads into a crucial period of eleven races in the space of eight weeks.

For the duration of the weekend the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber were in a league of their own. On a circuit where so much winter testing had been done previously, the two cars seemed glued to the track in every sense over the course of the weekend. Their closest challenger came from the Mclaren of Lewis Hamilton but even he was at least half a second per lap slower on average. The Red Bulls locked out the front row of the grid for the race and seemed in command until the Mclaren of Hamilton managed to neatly split the two via the pit-stops. The Milton-Keynes outfit seemed poised for one-three finish and plenty of points once again when, their old friend unreliabilty came back to haunt young Vettel yet again.

This problem just doesnt seem to want to go away for Red Bull. But more importantly these problems seem to attack Vettel more harder than his team mate Webber. This raises the question whether or not Vettel is indeed pushing his car far too much and thus, damaging his car throughout the long race. It certainly would make sense. The high artificial kerbs of the Circuit de Catalunya don't do wonders for any car if the driver tends to take his car for a tough ride over them. Throughout the weekend most drivers seemed conservative in navigating through them whereas Vettel seemed to give his car a fair beating by cutting into the apex far too deep. This can damage the undertray and suspension of the car seriously. Perhaps Vettel in doing this does more bad for his car than good. Today however it was his brakes that seemed to give him grief with his team telling him to nurse his car to flag. Fortunately Vettel had a neat cushion over fourth place Schumacher and he didn't surrender further places.

Driver of the day apart from Webber would have definately gone to Lewis Hamilton had he not retired laps from the flag thanks to a puncture. The Mclaren driver put a few disappointing races behind him where he was second to team mate Button and produced a mature and daring drive and had managed to split the Red Bulls thanks to a handy pit stop and a few very quick laps. However with the flag and sight and very decent eighteen points seemingly his, Lewis entered the long turn three which puts supreme pressure on the tyres which on this occasion gave up the chase which sent Hamilton flying into the barriers. Mclaren came into the race with a host of updates on their car and had promised to challenge for the victory going into the weekend. After Friday practice, Jenson Button admitted that the Red Bull cars were far too fast to challenge and he himself had quite a quiet race stuck behind the Mercedes of Schumacher. Mclaren certainly have improved from the opening four races with these upgrades but whether or not Hamilton look back on those lost eighteen points later in the season remains to be seen.

For the fourth race in a row Felipe Massa saw his race pace easily beaten by two time champion team mate Alonso, who finished second to the delight of the home crowd. Ferrari have said they will investigate Massa's form further as the Brazilian doesnt seem to be gluing as well to this Ferrari as his team mate is. It is well to point out that Massa did have a very violent accident less than a year ago in which he very nearly lost his life. This accident could have indeed damaged Massa's driving ability as he certainly seems a shadow of the driver who came to within a lap of clinching the 2008 Drivers crown. Perhaps the Brazillian is now more cautions than ever and has lost some of that courageous spirit that he once had. One thing is for sure, Ferrari will want Massa to up his game soon. With Ferrari second in the Constructors Championship, they will need to be collecting plenty of points at each race and if Massa continues to deliver below-par performances, the Robert Kubica to Ferrari rumours may just become a reality.

A special word must also go out to the one and only Michael Schumacher who produced his best weekend performance of the season so far in fifth and also beat team mate Rosberg for the first time aswell. Mercedes upgrade package for this weekend has definitely seemed to have agreed with Schumacher as he finally seemed to get things together on the track. But it was completely contrasting fortunes for Rosberg who finished well outside the points. Rumours around the Paddock are rife that Schumacher's influence within the team seems to be engulfing Rosberg's and it is more Schumacher's input into the car upgrades which could hamper Rosberg's fine start to the season. This once again underlines the aura surrounding Schumacher who demonstrated such power at Ferrari where he put team mates like Irvine, Barrichello and Massa into the shade. Rosberg may feel peeved after this weekend but has only a week to get himself together. The Mercedes GP battle seems pretty tasty indeed.

The lavish and luxurious Monte Carlo is only a couple of days away with the first bit of action to take place on the unique day of Thursday instead of Friday. This is the first test of twenty plus cars racing through the legendary street circuit with the unforgiving armco barriers awaiting any driver who has a lapse in concentration. This race may just become quite messy as the rich and famous look on from their yachts as they sip their drinks in the sun.