From the end of Friday practice it was obvious that no-one else but a Red Bull driver was going to win the Spanish Grand Prix at Catalunya barring an act of God, a volcano erupting under Barcelona or a colossal meteorite extinguishing all life on Earth. And from the end of first qualifying it was also clear that on this occasion, that driver was going to be Mark Webber. There never was a great deal between Webber and Vettel but as Vettel said after the race, “Mark was in a different league today.” Well, all weekend really.

Webber utterly dominated at Catalunya

  Webber topped all three qualifying sessions to claim his third career pole and there was no way that he was letting anyone up the inside into turn one this time. Vettel actually had a better start and just edged his nose in front in the run to turn one, but he was on the outside and Mark had the line so Seb just had to back out of it and fall in behind him. From that point onwards Mark just pulled away without any great trouble while Vettel had to defend against a determined Hoon.

    Of the top three, Vettel pitted first, which in this case was an error as he lost his second place to the Hoon after he pitted on the next lap. Webber pitted on the same lap as the Hoon (lap 17) and rejoined in the lead, becoming the first driver this year to lead from start to finish and the first driver this year to win from pole. He was, however the tenth driver in a row to win at Catalunya from pole which just goes to show what an exciting circuit this isn’t. Perhaps they could introduce a random volcano next year to spice things up a bit.

    Or maybe the sudden and unexpected appearance of a stegosaurus or an Irish priest would do the trick. However, I digress. The Hoon had no real problems holding Vettel off either and it soon became clear that not all was well with the second Red Bull. It became clearer still a bit later on that Seb’s left front brake disc had powderized itself which was causing just a hint of handling dramas. The poor little bugger really isn’t having a great deal of luck so far this year. These dramas resulted in a second pitstop on lap 54 where Seb dropped behind the home ground hero, Fernando Alonso.

    All this would have left the unfortunate German off the podium had not the Hoon had a Hoon Hub Horror moment himself. Some will argue that it was just the Hoon’s great generosity and that he arranged for a stone to wear away at his left front wheel hub although there are those that will argue that it was all the result of an enraged Spanish spectator with a sling-shot that did the damage. Whatever the case with just two laps to run the Hoon hammered the tyre wall at turn three and added his front left to the pile.

   The accuracy of the Spanish slingshot sniper meant that King Fernando the First would finish second in the first Ferrari while Vettel lucked onto the podium. Alonso was generally half a second quicker than Massa all weekend and the dominance that the Spaniard is starting to show over the brave Brazilian will be piling on the pressure with the gathering rumours of Felipe’s replacement at Ferrari by one Robert Kubica.

   For once the Unter-ubermensch actually got uber Rosberg and was the quickest of the silver slings drivers all weekend. Could this have anything to do with the upgrades to the car that the team has been trying hard to convince everyone that would not suit the Unter-ubermensch more than Nico? Hmmm. Be interesting to see if Rosberg can get his head around a very oversteery car and regain his dominance. Monaco will be interesting for this alone. The Unter-ubermensch even got uber Jenson Button and unter his skin with a fairly ballsy passing move around the outside at turn one after the Brit’s pit-stop. On this occasion there was nothing unfair about it, despite Button’s whining, it was just damned brave driving.

   So the unter-ubermensch went on to finish a season best fourth ahead of Button, followed by a listless Massa in sixth, a listfull Adrian Sutil in seventh and a steady Kubica in eighth. A fine recovery drive from a horror qualifying saw Barrichello take ninth in the Williams while Alguersuari again impressed by taking the final point in the Toro Rosso. Bulls at the top and tail of the points. How appropriate.

 For full results go to;

 http://www.mmmsport.com.au/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=150&dir=ASC&order=name&limit=5&limitstart=5 

Sam Snape 

11/05/2010       

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