Results of the 2007 Spanish F1 Grand Prix.
At the circuit de Catalunya, Filipe Massa again blew away the field for his second straight chequered flag, winning by 7 seconds over the most exciting rookie F1 has ever seen - Lewis Hamilton. The Briton bagged another 8 points to take outright lead in a season that is shaping up as a four-way challenge for the title.
It should have been teammate Fernando Alonso easing his McLaren home for second place in front of his home crowd, but he lost his front row grid position on the first corner after an ambitious overtaking move on Massa pushed him off the track and he found himself in fourth. The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikonnen slipped by as did Hamilton who stole past the Finn before the first corner. Unfortunately Raikonnen's Ferrari suffered an uncharacteristic retirement as early as lap 10.
As usual this season, it was the BMW Sauber's that were the best of the rest, qualifiying 5th and 7th on the grid. Splitting them was Jarno Trulli's Toyota in a surprise third row appearance but he stalled on the grid and started from the pit lane. Nick Heidfeld eventually retired on lap 50, but Robert Kubica finished fourth to cement the team's impressive start to the season. Behind him a storming David Coulthard had one of his best finishes recently to snatch fifth for Red Bull Racing. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg gained some more points for Williams, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the unimpressive Renault and a surprise eighth for Takuma Sato as Super Aguri gained their first ever points.
Apart from the near front-row collision at the start, the race was uneventful with few positional changes at the front, although Jenson Button did well to fight his way up to 9th before clashing slightly with his teammate, forcing an unscheduled pitstop for a new front wing. Alexander Wurz rear ended Ralph Schumacher on the first lap ending his race spectacularly; there were also retirements for Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Ralph Schumacher and the two Torro Rossos.
There was some excitement in the closing stages as the tail end of the points finishers shaped up. Coulthard evidently lost a gear and had to fight hard to hold off Nico Rosberg's Williams-Toyota. Renault will be ruing missed opportunities after unscheduled pitsops for Heikki Kovalainen (faulty fuel rig) and Giancarlo Fisichella (splash-and-dash) cost them positions.
After four weeks of testing, Ferrari have returned with a frighteningly quick car, but the retirement of Raikonnen means McLaren still have the edge over them in the constructors' Championship, due to their consistency this season. It's also clearly emerging that Michael Schumacher's replacement in the team is playing second fiddle to the Brazilian Massa. Meanwhile, reigning Champion Alonso is being upstaged by his rookie teammate Hamilton, who has yet to win a race. The Briton leads his teammate in the drivers' standings by 2 points, with Massa a further point adrift and Railkkonen now trailing the leader by 8 points, with only 22.
Ferrari and McLaren seem to be dominating the 2007 season, with the England based team enjoying a nine point lead over their Italian rivals, on 58 points, while BMW-Sauber are third on 33 - more than double that of reigning champions Renault at this point in the season.
Result of 2007 Spanish Grand Prix
- Felipe Massa (Brz) (Ferrari) one hour 31 minutes 36.230 seconds
- Lewis Hamilton (GB) (McLaren-Mercedes) at 6.790sec
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) (McLaren-Mercedes) at 17.456
- Robert Kubica (Pol) (BMW Sauber) 31.615
- David Coulthard (GB) (Red Bull-Renault) 58.331
- Nico Rosberg (Ger) (Williams-Toyota) 59.538
- Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) (Renault) 1:02.128
- Takuma Sato (Jpn) (Super Aguri-Honda) one lap behind
- Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) (Renault) 1 lap
- Rubens Barrichello (Brz) (Honda) 1 lap
- Anthony Davidson (GB) (Super Aguri-Honda) 1 lap
- Jenson Button (GB) (Honda) 1 lap
- Adrian Sutil (Ger) (Spyker-Ferrari) 2 laps
- Christijan Albers (Ned) (Spyker-Ferrari) 2 laps
R Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 50 laps completed
R Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 48 laps
R Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 18 laps
R Scott Speed (USA) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 11 laps
R Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 10 laps
R Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 9 laps
R Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 8 laps
R Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota 0 laps