Oliver White
After the top three, Felipe Massa was fourth, Kimi Raikkonen was fifth after a fantastic and brave start, Jenson Button crossed the line in sixth, and the top ten was rounded off with Barrichello and Heidfeld.
Notable retirements came from Juan Pablo Montoya who spun with electricals issues and beached his McLaren on a kerb. Ralf Schumacher retired after a coming together with his team mate Jarno Trulli. Ralf had a replacement nose fitted, but retired later on in the race.
David Coulthard finished 14th in his 200th Grand Prix, and will want to forget about this weekend and move on to his 201st race as soon as possible. Williams and Toyota will also want to forget about the Spanish meeting as they too had poor races and could not compete where they would have liked. Webber and Rosberg finished 9th and 11th, Trulli came home 10th with Ralf not completing race distance.
The Spanish Grand Prix is typically a processional race, with overtaking moves few and very far between. This race was no different, but the fact that Alonso won his home race made it a little bit more special. The speed in the Renault was awesome, and whilst the
A great race, won by a combination of excellent driving and team tactics. Shame Jenson was held up so much in the early stages, or he might have caught Raikkonen. At least this season is shaping up to be unpredicatable – and hopefully we’ll have a nice battle all season for the championship.
Yes, the 2006 season is a somewhat less predictable than last. In fact, for quite a few years now! Hopefully McLaren can sort their elbows from their whatsits out and make it a three-way championship…
Interestlingly, the majority of votes are still on Fernando and Kimi (see right). Maybe this will change as the season draws close to the mid-way point?
After much delving into the subject and plenty of research (…someone told me), it turns out that Alonso and Raikkonen are on the exact same points as they were last year in the championship.
This seems odd, given the difference in performance levels, but hopefully it proves that the competition can still get much more interesting.
I think, perhaps, people are voting for who they want to win rather than who probably will (I know I did).