On Webber in Spain and what could have been
The 2010 Spanish GP won’t go down in history as a classic and you could be forgiven for forgetting who won it as Webber just disappeared and was untouchable out front with a flawless drive from beginning to end. All the action went on behind him. It seemed that Michael Schumacher had finally got the better on Nico Rosberg, but then Rosberg had such a poor race it could have just been a bad weekend for him. Problems at pit stops caused issues for Button and Vettel and some dodgy driving put pay to some other’s races.
Sebastien Vettel again showed that Red Bull do have a weakness even if it isn’t speed, unfortunately for the others they don’t seem to have reliability either. Hamilton will also be ruing the lost points and they may cost him later on in the season as Button continues to pick up points. Button himself will be frustrated that a problem at his pitstop dropped him behind Schumacher as with Vettels problem he could well have picked up another podium – though it was not to be as despite what Eddie Jordan was saying in the BBC commentry he did make all efforts to get past Schumacher but he didn’t quite have the pace he needed.
Jaime Alguersuari showed some of the rashness that nearly cost him his seat over the winter when he cut into Karun Chandhok’s car as he passed the Indian. I think that the young Spaniard was lucky to get away with just a drive through. The other unlucky driver was Pedro de la Rosa who was taken out early on, he’ll be disappointed that he couldn’t use some of the Sauber’s new pace with some of the big names dropping out and leaving the points up for grabs.
Massa didn’t seem to have the same pace as Alonso again and seemed to go faster after he’d broken his car, it seems that the Brazilian may have found the reason for his lack of pace, too much front end grip. He needs to up his game if he’s going to stay in touch with Alonso this season. Another driver who needs to pull something out is Hulkenberg, he’s had a very low key entry into formula one and though he out qualified Barrichello this weekend it was the older and wiser head that brought home the points. Frank Williams will be expecting more from him I’m sure.
The new rules still seem to be making the races more predicable and I wonder what three of four dry races in a row will do as the drivers have little to work with in terms of strategy. We’ll see how it pans out, next stop Monaco.
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