ADVANTAGE RAIKONEN
(Image taken from Yahoo)
OK, after my trip to Bahrain, it was back to reality and watching F1 on TV again. It was also the start of the European season and the show hit the Circuit de Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix. There were still a lot of Alonso fans around despite his downturn in fortunes with the title still open. This was one track that the teams knew a little too well though, you don't often get a classic here.
Well again DC had car trouble and got knocked out in Q1, and again he'd start P17! Q2 and it was Jenson's turn to fall, he'd only start P13! In Q3 well Trulli got the first serious lap in but Lewis managed to beat that though he didn't retain provisional pole for long, Massa then took it then Alonso took it to send the locals wild but then Raikonen grabbed his first pole of the season, Alonso P2, Massa P3, Kubica P4, Lewis down in P5!
In the race itself, well DC had a mixed bag. His start wasn't exactly awesome, only getting him 16th though pitstops did allow him into the top ten at one point. Banging wheels with Glock put him at the back of the pack which involved duelling with Sato but the Scot did benefit from retirements further up the field to finish 12th, still an OK race.
Jenson may have had an uneventful start and didn't get much attention during the race but was certainly in the points during the first pit stop window and was still able to make his way slowly up the field with the help of some big name retirements(Kovalainen having a particularly ugly clash). In the end Jenson made it back into the points, finishing 6th to open his 2008 account.
Lewis had a solid enough start, moving past Kubica for fourth place before persuing the top three. He briefly led during the pitstop window and still found himself in 3rd place. The later accidents didn't affect him, McLaren decided not to pull him in after Kovalainen's crash but he never seriously looked like getting any higher and 3rd proved to be a good result on what was always expected to be a Ferrari circuit.
As for the Ferraris? Well they went 1-2 after the start and though that formation was interrupted occasionally during pitstop windows, they were never under any real serious threat this time round and Massa was never able to really challenge Raikonen's lead either. Raikonen won his second race of the season with Massa finishing second to complete the second Ferrari 1-2 in a row.
So the championship now looks like this. Raikonen leads the title race on 29 points with Lewis up to second place on 20 points. Further down, Jenson's grabbed 12th place with 3 points with DC yet to score(highest finish 9th).
Lewis is hoping for a better car in Turkey.
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