Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica - 07 May 2010 - 09 May 2010 |
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Spanish GP: Lap by Lap Report
Welcome to the Spanish GP. 66 laps will be covered on this circuit.
Welcome to Round 5 of the Formula 1 Season. This is the first race of the European leg and the competition is heating up. Both the Red Bulls look in control of the race. Red Bull has managed to get pole throughout this season. This is the first time Schumacher out qualified his teammate Nico, putting to rest speculation about his performance. He has been on this track 17 times and also the car has been developed to his specification. Will he be on the podium? We'll find out soon. This is Alonso's home ground and he will do his best to get to the podium. We will find out soon.
Grid
Both Red Bulls are on the front row of the grid. Then its Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso right behind them. Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher are on P5 and P6. Robert Kubica and Nico Roberg are on the fourth row, Felipe Massa and Kamui Kobayashi are on the fifth row of the grid, Adrian Sutil and Pedro de la Rosa are on the sixth, Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov on the seventh, Sebastien Buemi and Jamie Alguesauri on the eighth, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Rubens Barrichello on the ninth, Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen on the tenth row, Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi on the eleventh. Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna are the last on the grid.
Problem with Heikkis car. He will start from the pit lane.
Start The Five lights illuminate and the Spanish GP is on!
Lap 1
A clean start by all the cars. Alonso tries to overtake Lewis but fails. He is already 2.5 sec behind race leader Webber. Lewis is doing well by staying close to the race leader. Webber pulls away from the rest.
Lap 5
Its Webber followed by Vettel and then its Lewis and Alonso in P3 and P4. Not much drama so far. Bruno Senna goes wide and his race is over unfortunately. Button is closing in on Alonso, he is about 1.5 sec behind him. Alonso seems to be loosing speed. He is now 5 sec behind Webber.
Lap 9
Webber sets the fastest lap. Schumacher is in 6th and Massa in 7th. Nico just out of the points in 11th . Sebatien Buemi overtakes Karun Chandhok for the 19th position. Karun does his best to hold on but fails. Meanwhile Alonso is now 8 sec behind Webber. Adrian Sutil had a great start and is in 8th position.
Lap 12
Buemi passes Timo Glock of the Virgin Racing car and moves into 18th position. Liuzzi is now into the pits for a change of tyres. He is on hard compound tyres. Buemi overtakes Trulli in the Lotus. Liuzzi comes out of the pit lane and he nearly pushes Buemi out of the track. Meanwhile the top 6 positions remain the same. Its Webber followed by Vettel, followed by Lewis in 3rd, then its Alonso, Button, and Michael Schumacher.
Lap 14
None of the top 9 drivers have made a pit stop so far. Alonso and Vettel dive into the pits now. Vettel takes 6.2 sec and Alonso 4 sec. A great pit-stop by the Ferrari team.
Lap 18
Schumacher overtakes Jenson. Jenson tries his best to overtake him. He is all over Schumacher. Lewis does a dangerous manoeuvre over Vettel when he comes out of the pit lane. Lewis is now in 2nd place.
Its Mark Webber and then its Lewis, followed by Vettel in the top 3. Its Alonso in 4th, Schumacher in 5th and Button in 6th. Button tries his best to overtake Schumacher, but fails. Massa is in 7th. Lewis is 9 sec behind the race leader.
Lap 23
Drive through Penalty for Buemi for crossing the line on the exit. Mark Webber sets another fastest lap and is ahead of the pack.
Lap 30
Karun comes into the pit lane for a new front wing change. He has a shunt with Jaime. The Battle for 5th still continues. Button is still not able to overtake Schumacher. There are problems with Massa's front wing, but he still carries on. He is behind Button in 7th. Meanwhile Webber and Vettel both exchange fastest laps. Vettel is closing the gap with Lewis. He is 1.5 sec behind Lewis. Sutil is in 8th and Kubica is in 9th. They all are closing in on Schumacher. Schumacher is controlling the pace and is doing a great job holding on to Button.
Lap 33
Bad news for Karun. He is out of the race for a front suspension damage. Nico Hulkenberg comes into the pits for a 2nd pit-stop. Drive through penalty for Jaime Alguersuari for causing a collision with Karun.
Lap 38
Schumacher still in 5th place and the gap between 6th place Button and 1st place Webber is now 48sec. Good news for Force India fans. Sutil is in the points and he is now in 8th position. Webber meanwhile does another fastest lap in the 1min 25 sec region. So far the top 7 drivers have not made a second pit stop.
Lap 42
Alonso does a fastest lap in his Ferrari. Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes GP who has had a bad race from the beginning is battling with Nico Hulkenberg for 15th position.
Lap 46
The top 7 positions remain the same. Schumacher still holds on to his 5th place. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg still trying to get pass Nico Hulkenberg.
Lap 52
Not much drama on the track. Mark Webber is still in 1st position followed by Lewis and Vettel. Kubica is close on the wheels of Sutil. Massa is now 1 sec behind Jenson. Still no pit stops been made for the top 7 runners. Alonso is now closing on to Sebastian Vettel.
Lap 55
There is some problem with Vettels car as he comes into the pits. He has a problem with his tyres. Its good news for Alonso though, who now has a chance to get on to the podium. He is now in 3rd place and Vettel comes out in 4th. Alonso is about 8 seconds behind 2nd place Lewis.
Lap 60
Alonso is lapping half a second faster than Lewis and is closing the gap. The crowd is pretty excited. There is news from the Vettels team radio that his brakes are about to go. He has not dropped his pace though and is still not heading to the pits. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg overtakes Nico Hulkenberg finally. He is now in 15th place and is chasing Liuzzi in the Force India car.
Lap 62
Vettel is asked to slow down as it is very critical. This is an advantage for Schumacher though. He is now lapping about a second faster than Vettel. But there are only four laps remaining and the gap is about 20 seconds.
Lap 65
Two laps remain and Lewis crashes! A front left tyre failure and he is out of the race. Very unfortunate. Alonso jumps to 2nd position now. Vettel still on track is now in 3rd position.
Final Lap
Webber wins the Spanish GP, his 3rd GP victory. A fantastic drive by him. The crowd is cheering for Alonso though he came second. Vettel still struggling but he makes it in 3rd place. Schumacher in 4th answering his critics, Button 5th, Massa 6th, Adrian Sutil in 7th. Both the Virgin Racing cars made it to the chequered flag. It was a great race mainly because of the incidents in the last few laps.
Wow! Couldn't have asked for a better start for the European leg of the season! Join us next week for the street race, the Monaco GP.
Race Classification after 56 laps
Welcome to the Spanish GP. 66 laps will be covered on this circuit.
Welcome to Round 5 of the Formula 1 Season. This is the first race of the European leg and the competition is heating up. Both the Red Bulls look in control of the race. Red Bull has managed to get pole throughout this season. This is the first time Schumacher out qualified his teammate Nico, putting to rest speculation about his performance. He has been on this track 17 times and also the car has been developed to his specification. Will he be on the podium? We'll find out soon. This is Alonso's home ground and he will do his best to get to the podium. We will find out soon.
Grid
Both Red Bulls are on the front row of the grid. Then its Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso right behind them. Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher are on P5 and P6. Robert Kubica and Nico Roberg are on the fourth row, Felipe Massa and Kamui Kobayashi are on the fifth row of the grid, Adrian Sutil and Pedro de la Rosa are on the sixth, Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov on the seventh, Sebastien Buemi and Jamie Alguesauri on the eighth, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Rubens Barrichello on the ninth, Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen on the tenth row, Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi on the eleventh. Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna are the last on the grid.
Problem with Heikkis car. He will start from the pit lane.
Start The Five lights illuminate and the Spanish GP is on!
Lap 1
A clean start by all the cars. Alonso tries to overtake Lewis but fails. He is already 2.5 sec behind race leader Webber. Lewis is doing well by staying close to the race leader. Webber pulls away from the rest.
Lap 5
Its Webber followed by Vettel and then its Lewis and Alonso in P3 and P4. Not much drama so far. Bruno Senna goes wide and his race is over unfortunately. Button is closing in on Alonso, he is about 1.5 sec behind him. Alonso seems to be loosing speed. He is now 5 sec behind Webber.
Lap 9
Webber sets the fastest lap. Schumacher is in 6th and Massa in 7th. Nico just out of the points in 11th . Sebatien Buemi overtakes Karun Chandhok for the 19th position. Karun does his best to hold on but fails. Meanwhile Alonso is now 8 sec behind Webber. Adrian Sutil had a great start and is in 8th position.
Lap 12
Buemi passes Timo Glock of the Virgin Racing car and moves into 18th position. Liuzzi is now into the pits for a change of tyres. He is on hard compound tyres. Buemi overtakes Trulli in the Lotus. Liuzzi comes out of the pit lane and he nearly pushes Buemi out of the track. Meanwhile the top 6 positions remain the same. Its Webber followed by Vettel, followed by Lewis in 3rd, then its Alonso, Button, and Michael Schumacher.
Lap 14
None of the top 9 drivers have made a pit stop so far. Alonso and Vettel dive into the pits now. Vettel takes 6.2 sec and Alonso 4 sec. A great pit-stop by the Ferrari team.
Lap 18
Schumacher overtakes Jenson. Jenson tries his best to overtake him. He is all over Schumacher. Lewis does a dangerous manoeuvre over Vettel when he comes out of the pit lane. Lewis is now in 2nd place.
Its Mark Webber and then its Lewis, followed by Vettel in the top 3. Its Alonso in 4th, Schumacher in 5th and Button in 6th. Button tries his best to overtake Schumacher, but fails. Massa is in 7th. Lewis is 9 sec behind the race leader.
Lap 23
Drive through Penalty for Buemi for crossing the line on the exit. Mark Webber sets another fastest lap and is ahead of the pack.
Lap 30
Karun comes into the pit lane for a new front wing change. He has a shunt with Jaime. The Battle for 5th still continues. Button is still not able to overtake Schumacher. There are problems with Massa's front wing, but he still carries on. He is behind Button in 7th. Meanwhile Webber and Vettel both exchange fastest laps. Vettel is closing the gap with Lewis. He is 1.5 sec behind Lewis. Sutil is in 8th and Kubica is in 9th. They all are closing in on Schumacher. Schumacher is controlling the pace and is doing a great job holding on to Button.
Lap 33
Bad news for Karun. He is out of the race for a front suspension damage. Nico Hulkenberg comes into the pits for a 2nd pit-stop. Drive through penalty for Jaime Alguersuari for causing a collision with Karun.
Lap 38
Schumacher still in 5th place and the gap between 6th place Button and 1st place Webber is now 48sec. Good news for Force India fans. Sutil is in the points and he is now in 8th position. Webber meanwhile does another fastest lap in the 1min 25 sec region. So far the top 7 drivers have not made a second pit stop.
Lap 42
Alonso does a fastest lap in his Ferrari. Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes GP who has had a bad race from the beginning is battling with Nico Hulkenberg for 15th position.
Lap 46
The top 7 positions remain the same. Schumacher still holds on to his 5th place. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg still trying to get pass Nico Hulkenberg.
Lap 52
Not much drama on the track. Mark Webber is still in 1st position followed by Lewis and Vettel. Kubica is close on the wheels of Sutil. Massa is now 1 sec behind Jenson. Still no pit stops been made for the top 7 runners. Alonso is now closing on to Sebastian Vettel.
Lap 55
There is some problem with Vettels car as he comes into the pits. He has a problem with his tyres. Its good news for Alonso though, who now has a chance to get on to the podium. He is now in 3rd place and Vettel comes out in 4th. Alonso is about 8 seconds behind 2nd place Lewis.
Lap 60
Alonso is lapping half a second faster than Lewis and is closing the gap. The crowd is pretty excited. There is news from the Vettels team radio that his brakes are about to go. He has not dropped his pace though and is still not heading to the pits. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg overtakes Nico Hulkenberg finally. He is now in 15th place and is chasing Liuzzi in the Force India car.
Lap 62
Vettel is asked to slow down as it is very critical. This is an advantage for Schumacher though. He is now lapping about a second faster than Vettel. But there are only four laps remaining and the gap is about 20 seconds.
Lap 65
Two laps remain and Lewis crashes! A front left tyre failure and he is out of the race. Very unfortunate. Alonso jumps to 2nd position now. Vettel still on track is now in 3rd position.
Final Lap
Webber wins the Spanish GP, his 3rd GP victory. A fantastic drive by him. The crowd is cheering for Alonso though he came second. Vettel still struggling but he makes it in 3rd place. Schumacher in 4th answering his critics, Button 5th, Massa 6th, Adrian Sutil in 7th. Both the Virgin Racing cars made it to the chequered flag. It was a great race mainly because of the incidents in the last few laps.
Wow! Couldn't have asked for a better start for the European leg of the season! Join us next week for the street race, the Monaco GP.
Race Classification after 56 laps
