Sometimes Webber Feels Like He's In Barcelona!

The Grand Prix circuit made it to Europe today, despite the continuing disruption caused by the ash cloud over Spain, France and Italy. All the sides made it, with Jenson Button leading the Drivers’ Championship on 60 points, followed by Nico Rosberg on 49. Yet, once again it was the Red Bull Racing team that took qualifying by storm, with Webber and Vettel heading the grid.

The Red Bulls fought off any real chance of anybody passing them on the dart to the first corner, both driving side by side, blocking off any advancing competitors. Come the end of the first lap there had been, surprisingly some may say, no change in the top 6 starting grid positions. Although, Spanish driver Alguersuari, in his home Grand Prix, did manage to weave his way through the field on his way to the first corner from 15th to 9th with some superb driver awareness.

Senna was less capable, compounding a bad weekend by driving off into the tire wall on lap 4. Still, at least he drove a little, Kovalainen’s Lotus failed to make it out of the pit lane.

The fuel was then burnt as the cars raced aimlessly round, attempting to open up gaps to make pit stops remotely interesting, something which the FIA tried to prevent by outlaw refuelling.

The pits proved to be a turning point, as Rosberg provided some excitement in the Mercedes by driving off before his front right wheel was completely on. Rosberg’s Mercedes partner Schumacher managed to pass Button during the pits. Before Hamilton then jumped into second place, thanks to the backmarker di Grassi and, of course, a quicker pit-stop then Vettel.

The next few laps witnessed a fierce battle between former World Champion Michael Schumacher and the current World Champion Jenson Button. McLaren versus Mercedes. German versus Britain. Both challenging for 5th. Not where either driver will have wanted to be. The pair meandered around the track enough to be caught by Massa to make it a three-way fight. But as all three caught up with traffic, Massa misjudged a backmarker and the Brazilian drove straight into the back of Chandhok causing slight damage to his front wing, ending his brief fight for 5th.

Schumacher was using all his knowledge on a track with virtually no passing possibilities to prevent Button from getting ahead of him. With the World Champion seemingly unable to bring the spark or nerve required to do anything about the situation.

As the race continued, it became evidentially clear that I could have spent a good 45minutes of the middle part of the race doing something a little more productive, walk the dog, cook my dinner, gnaw my own eyes out, for the latter would certainly at least prevent me, and would certainly be less painful, from watching the monotony of cars driving around a track going nowhere.

But then, drama on the 55th lap of the 66 lap race, as Sebastian Vettel in 2nd had reliability problems with the Red Bull requiring another pit stop to fix the front right wheel, leaving Lewis Hamilton and Spaniard Fernando Alonso to pass the German. Vettel’s car continued to not working properly giving Schumacher’s pack the chance to catch up. This failed to materialise though.

On the 65th lap though, one lap away from finishing in second place, with Lewis Hamilton pushing frantically in a vain attempt to catch leader Mark Webber in the hope the Australian has a similar problem to his teammate, agony occurred for the Brit. Hamilton got a front left puncture and went off into the tire wall, much to the delight of the Spanish crowd, as Alonso went into the 2nd podium position.

Pole sitter, Mark Webber, crossed the finish line in 1st, having held that position through-out the entire race, for his third ever grand prix victory. Alonso and a limping Vettel claimed second and third. They were followed by a slow Schumacher, a disappointing Button and Massa. Sutil, Kubica, Barrichello and Alguersuari, with the latter two having very good drives, took the remaining points.

So, for the 10th time in 10 years, the pole sitter at Barcelona won, proving Jenson Button’s comment at the start of the race to be profoundly true - ‘Hopefully we can get onto them [the Red Bulls] into Turn One and have a chance of overtaking, otherwise it might be difficult to challenge for a win’. I just wish I had the foresight to have listened.