Webber speeds to Spanish glory
We’re five races into the new Formula One season and slowly something resembling a pattern is beginning to emerge. Red Bull has taken pole position in all five races, but has won only two of them. Only one of the races – the most recent in Spain – has been totally dry, and there have been four different winners, with only Jenson Button making it to the top step of the podium more than once.
The race in Spain last weekend wasn’t particularly exciting and only provided drama when misfortune befell a couple of the runners towards the end. Mercedes had revised its car so that it suited Michael Schumacher’s style of driving more and the German out-qualified his team-mate Nico Rosberg for the first time this year. The new car may have suited Schumacher more, but it still isn’t at the performance level of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.
Mark Webber led away from pole at the start with Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel slotting in behind him, ahead of the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. These three began to pull away from the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and the second McLaren of Jenson Button, with Schumacher dropping back in sixth place.
Webber was absolutely flying but a pitstop problem for Button meant that Schumacher jumped him for fifth place, while Hamilton passed Vettel coming out of pits into the first corner. Button was now stuck behind the Mercedes, which was obviously slower than the McLaren, but Schumacher used all his skills to keep the Brit at bay. It just goes to show that overtaking is still difficult to achieve in Formula One despite the efforts of the rule makers to try and make it easier.
The cars are so sensitive aerodynamically, that as soon as they get close to the back of another car, they tend to lose downforce and can’t overtake. Having said that, one of the more amusing incidents in the race occurred after Felipe Massa had damaged the front wing on his Ferrari. Part of the endplate was sticking up at a crazy angle and the Ferrari mechanics were all ready for him to pit for a replacement when his engineer told him to stay out. Massa, who had struggled with the handling of his car all weekend, was suddenly lapping half a second quicker. ‘I think we’ve found the solution,’ was the comment to the Brazilain over the radio. So much for the sophisticated aero packages…
By halfway through the race Webber led by ten seconds from Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, Schumacher, Button and Massa. Vettel was closing on Hamilton but Schumacher was now 25 seconds adrift of Alonso and holding the rest of the pack up. By lap 48 he was a full minute behind the leaders.
It was only towards the end that things livened up a bit. Vettel ran wide and lost third place to Alonso and then, six laps from the end, was warned on the radio that his brakes were about to go and to slow down. Two laps later he was told the situation was critical. Hamilton, hoping that a similar problem might afflict Webber in the lead, began to push hard but on the penultimate lap crashed out as a tyre punctured due to either wheel rim or suspension failure. Either way, it was a bitter blow for the Englishman who needed to get some more points on the board and was set for a solid second place.
This put Alonso into the runner-up spot which delighted the Spanish crowd. Webber cruised home to a convincing lights-to-flag victory while Vettel somehow managed to nurse his stricken car to the line in third. Schumacher took an undeserved fourth, from Button and Massa.
So the pattern that is emerging is that the Red Bulls are by far the fastest cars but are still fragile. McLaren is next up with Ferrari close behind. For once, Mark Webber had more of the luck than his team-mate, while Hamilton is still lagging Button in the championship table.
The Magic of Monaco
Monaco: the jewel in the crown of Formula One motor racing. Yes, I know that’s a cliché, but it’s also true. There is nowhere quite like it for atmosphere, spectacle, scenery and the chance to get close up to the action.
Monaco is Ferrari territory. Italy is just over the border and the Tifosi – the enthusiastic followers of the Prancing Horse – flock to the Principality to support their beloved scarlet cars.
It looked at first as if they might have something to celebrate as well, since Fernando Alonso was quickest in both of Thursday’s practice sessions and was leading the Saturday morning session when, about twenty minutes through, he creamed his Ferrari into the barriers at Massenet – the entrance to Casino Square.
Game over. The car was too badly damaged for the Spaniard to be able to take part in that afternoon’s qualifying session and so he had to start the race from the pit lane. His team-mate, Felipe Massa, managed to qualify fourth but hopes of a Ferrari victory looked forlorn.
The reason was that at the front of the grid were two Red Bulls, separated by a Renault. Mark Webber, the winner of the previous week’s race in Spain, had set a stunning lap to take pole position and his team-mate, Sebatian Vettel, was third. The Red Bulls have demonstrated their sheer speed on every track they have visited this year, but their rivals were hoping that on the narrow confines of Monte Carlo it might be a different story. Wrong. Only Robert Kubica in his Renault managed to challenge them in qualifying, though if Alonso hadn’t been watching from the sidelines while a new car was built up for him, things might have been different.
At the start, Webber led away cleanly and Vettel out-gunned Kubica to the first corner. Half way round the lap, Nico Hulkenberg crashed his Williams in the middle of tunnel, bringing out the safety car, and Jenson Button retired his McLaren on the next lap with an overheating engine, caused by a blanking plate having been been left in one of the radiators by mistake.
With the race underway again it was Webber who led from Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and the Williams of Rubens Barrichello. The top five began to break away with Massa chasing the back of Kubica’s Renault hard.
Ferrari eyes were on Alonso though. He pitted after one lap to change to harder tyres, meaning he didn’t have to stop again. He got stuck in 20th position behind Luca di Grassi’s Virgin for a few laps but once past closed rapidly on Jarno Trulli’s Lotus and overtook him with ease. Next it was Timo Glock’s Virgin and he eventually got by that on lap 14.
Webber, meanwhile, was pulling away in front, 5.3 secs ahead of Vettel.
Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus was the next target for Alonso and he passed him at the chicane. At this point, the leaders began to wake up and realise that the Ferrari driver could become a real threat if they didn’t get their pit stops out of the way quickly. Hamilton pitted on lap 18 and rejoined just ahead of Alonso.
Massa, Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes and Barrichello also pitted, with Schuey jumping ahead of the Brazilian in the stops. Kubica was in on lap 22 and Vettel the following lap. Race leader Webber was in next and came out ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who was yet to stop.
At half distance, Webber was 10.3 secs ahead of Vettel from Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Alonso – now in sixth! -, Schumacher, Rosberg, Adrian Sutil’s Force India and with Barrichello in tenth. This didn’t last long though as the Williams driver crashed heavily going up the hill to Massenet, bringing out the safety car again on lap 31. This bunched the field right up and all Webber’s hard work was undone.
He managed to pull away again afterwards though, until the race was neutralised for a third time due a loose drain cover, but the Australian at once began to build up his lead for a third time. By lap 48, the top ten cars were covered by just nine seconds but, despite this, things got a bit processional towards the end, though Kubica closed on Vettel and Hamilton dropped back from Massa with brake problems.
Webber, meanwhile, was still setting fastest lap after fastest lap out in front.
Three laps from the end Trulli made a lunge at Karun Chandock at Rascasse, riding up over the top of the Hispania car and triggering a safety car for the fourth time. By the time the wreckage was cleared it was the last lap and so the safety car pulled into the pits to allow Webber to lead the field over the line at the chequered flag.
At this point a controversial incident occurred involving a driver who has courted controversy all his career – Michael Schumacher. There is a line across the track by the pit entrance known as the safety car line and the rules state that when the safety car pulls in, once you have crossed this line overtaking is permitted. In the past cars had to wait until they had crossed the start-finish line but this is no longer the case.
Ever the opportunist, Schumacher decided to make a lunge at Alonso’s Ferrari, catching the Spaniard completely unawares and snatching sixth place. However, there is another rule which says that if the race finishes behind the safety car, then it will peel off into the pit lane on the last lap and the cars will complete the lap with no overtaking. Schumacher was subsequently given a 20 second penalty which dropped him to twelfth place.
But really there was little for the Ferrari fans to cheer, other than Alonso’s storming drive through the field from the back, but sixth was as far as he could have hoped to get. His team-mate Massa finished fourth, where he started, behind the pair of Red Bulls and Kubica’s Renault.
A great race for Webber then, who led from start to finish, not even losing the lead when he made his pit stop.
The Red Bulls look capable of crushing the rest of the opposition this year, and it’s just a case of which of their drivers will keep up the initiative. At the moment, Webber is on a roll.
