After all the excitement of the Canadian Grand Prix the world of F1 racing came back to earth with a thud in Valencia. Well maybe not even a thud, more of an oozing squelchly sort of slop really. The only things that kept the eyelids apart were Kobayashi’s last two lap banzai and Mark Webbers attempts to prove that Red Bull really does give you wings. Whereas the excellent Ile Gilles Villeneuve circuit was designed to provide plenty of overtaking opportunities it seems that the circuit in Valencia was designed with a pretty background in mind. It’s a pity for the Spanish that of the four most tedious circuits (Albert Park, Catalunya, Valencia & the Hungaroring) they have two of them. It is a display of King Fernando’s popularity that so many turn up to be bored witless at each of the Iberian races.

Vettel won an excrutiatingly dull European GP

  It is a short and easy report to write this one. Vettel took pole, won the dash to the first corner, albeit with a little bumping from the Hoon, and won the race. That’s it really. The Hoon had a fine drive and might have interrupted the snooze-fest but for a drive through penalty for passing the safety car. This penalty was applied twenty minutes after the safety car had come back in so it had no effect on the Hoon’s position in the race, just his position on the track and made sure that he couldn’t challenge for the lead. Button spent the entire race backed up behind the determined Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber and only inherited third when the Japanese driver pitted with five laps to go for his stint on the soft tyres.

   Snooooore…………….  

  Mark Webber briefly gave everyone a collective cardiac moment on lap nine when he applied to join the Red Bull Air-Race series and launching himself off the rear of Kovalainen’s Lotus. Mark had made an average start from second on the grid and got hung out on the dirty line through the first few corners. By the end of lap one he was down in ninth place and was destined for probably no better if he stayed there. An aggressive pit call saw him pit early and he charged back onto the track behind the Lotus. The performance differential between a Red Bull and a Lotus is colossal, and so was the accident that ensued. Unbelievably, Kovalainen decided to “defend” his position and changed his line slightly several times. He then braked earlier than Webber was expecting and the Red Bull was launched skyward after running up the back of the Lotus. After wiping out an overhanging advertising hording the Red Bull then landed upside-down at tremendous velocity and fortunately flipped back upright before ploughing into the tyre wall at undiminished speed. Visions of Webber’s ’99 Le Mans campaign sprang to mind and he was able to walk away from this one as well. Not so many years ago this accident would not have been survivable.

Webber survived his Red Bull Air Race moment

  The procession continued with out much change in the order until Nico Hulkenberg retired the Williams with an exhaust “issue” that had burnt through the bodywork and delaminated his right rear tyre. No more retirements to change the order. After not pitting behind the safety car Kamui Kobayashi held down third place in the Sauber until just five laps from the end. He then bolted out on fresh super-soft tyres and being the only guy out there with any grip, made immediate progress. To the horror of the crowd he took King Fernando with two laps to go and then dived up the inside to Buemi’s Toro Rosso entering the final turn of the final lap. More passing manoeuvres by one guy in two laps than in the entire rest of the field during the rest of the race.

    Team Willi made a step forward with both Barrichello and Hulkenberg making Q3 for the first time in the dry. Barrichello converted this into a fine fourth place by the finish for Williams best finish of the year. The Silver Slings, in contrast, took a hefty step backwards and even Nico Rosberg could only manage one point. The Unter-Ubermensch had an even more dismal, but at least less thuggish, time and finished an uninspired fifteenth. No surprise then that the rumours have started about his impending retirement. We shall see.

 Apart from that, the sun shined, the back-drop was pretty, the beautiful people watched from a roof top swimming pool and bugger-all happened. The other point-scorers, after nine drivers had been hit with a wet lettuce penalty of five seconds for being too slow behind the safety car were Robert Kubica in fifth place, Sutil in sixth in the Force India ahead of the Banzai kid in seventh, King Fernando, Buemi and Rosberg. Poor old Pedro de la Rosa would have scored his first point since his comeback but was the driver who copped the worst of the wet lettuce and dropped two spots to twelfth.

  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=10 

Sam Snape 

30/06/2010  

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