Fernando Alonso, Pastor Maldonado, Kimi Raikkonen, Circuit de Catalunya, 2012

Maldonado ends Williams’ eight-year wait for a win

2012 Spanish Grand Prix review

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Pastor Maldonado made history by scoring his first F1 victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

He ended an eight-year win drought for Williams, leading home Fernando Alonso who had been ahead for the first half of the race.

A charging Kimi Raikkonen reeled them in over the final laps and finished within striking distance of Alonso.

Having been handed pole position by Lewis Hamilton’s penalty the day before, Maldonado made a slightly slower start than fellow front row sitter Alonso.

He squeezed the Ferrari to the inside of the circuit, the Ferrari’s wheels touching the grass. But this was familiar territory for Alonso – he’d been in the same position last year, and neatly slotted past to take the lead.

Behind them Raikkonen moved up to third ahead of Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean. Sergio Perez, who had started fifth, picked up a puncture and skidded onto the run-off at turn four, the long trek back to the pits ruining his race.

Mark Webber had got away slowly and fallen behind the fast-starting Jean-Eric Vergne and Felipe Massa – the latter climbing five places from 16th. Unable to make progress, Webber repeated his tactic from China of making an early first pit stop.

He returned to the circuit having lost track position to the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, who he almost ran into the back of at turn five.

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Sebastian Vettel came in the next time by as the other front runners responded by pitting to avoid losing time and places.

Schumacher and Senna collide

Grosjean had been under pressure from Michael Schumacher but after they pitted Grosjean was quicker to pass the Williams of Bruno Senna, who was yet to pit.

Schumacher had a run on Senna at the first corner on lap 13, but misjudged the move and ran into the back of the Williams, putting both out. A fuming Schumacher branded Senna an “idiot” – the stewards said the incident would be investigated after the race.

The collision brought the yellow flags out which caused a problem for Vettel, who was found to have slowed down insufficiently and was handed a drive-through penalty.

Maldonado jumps ahead

Alonso retained the lead through the first round of pit stops but Maldonado closed in on him during the second stint. On lap 25 Williams were first to blink, pitting Maldonado first in an attempt to use the ‘undercut’ to get him ahead.

Maldonado’s out-lap was superb – covering the middle sector 1.3 seconds faster than Alonso had. Ferrari kept Alonso out despite him catching the driveshaft-troubled Marussia of Charles Pic to lap him.

Pic made way at turn one, Alonso gesturing angrily at the driver, who was later issued a penalty but never served it as his car problem became terminal.

Alonso’s lap 27 pit stop saw Maldonado easily take over the lead. Within two laps he had a seven second margin over the Ferrari.

Hamilton fights back

Meanwhile Hamilton had made good progress having started last. By lap three he had passed Senna for 17th at turn seven, and in the following laps he picked off Kovalainen, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg – the latter running wide at Campsa.

He rose as high as fourth place during the first round of pit stops as the team edged towards a two-stop strategy, counter to the three stops being favoured by most. But the plan nearly went off the rails when he clipped his discarded left-rear tyre while exiting the pits, losing several seconds – another problem on pit lane for McLaren.

On his return to the pits he picked off Hulkenberg and Webber. Hamilton spent much of the remainder of the stint stuck behind Massa until the Ferrari driver was found guilty of the same infraction as Vettel and was also penalised.

His second and final pit stop came on lap 36. Despite needing to look after his tyres he lost no time passing the two Toro Rossos, squeezing past them in the first corners.

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Alonso gives chase

During the third stint Alonso gradually eroded Maldonado’s advantage. By lap 41 the gap was down to 4.1s. On the next lap Maldonado came in but a problem with his right-rear wheel delayed him.

Ferrari left Alonso out for three more laps, and he returned to the track three seconds behind the Williams. But now they had another problem: Raikkonen, who was yet to pit and now right in front of Maldonado.

The Lotus driver was also three-stopping. Raikkonen’s engineer told him Alonso and Maldonado were likely to make four stops, which turned out not to be the case.

First Maldonado, then Alonso picked off the Lotus on the pit straight. Raikkonen’s late final pit stop would bring him back into contention later on. After clearing Raikkonen, Alonso drew close enough to Maldonado to activate his DRS on the straight.

He wasn’t close enough to pass, and when they lapped Massa and Paul di Resta Maldonado took the opportunity to use his DRS and pull away from the Ferrari.

Alonso came back at him and closed to within six-tenths of a second of the Williams at one point. But just as he looked poised to strike the Ferrari began to slip back, Maldonado gaining time in the final sector of the lap and edging back out of DRS range.

Now Raikkonen was catching the pair of them – but the laps were ticking away too quickly for him to do anything about the leaders.

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Victory for Maldonado

After 66 laps, Maldonado came home to win by 3.1 seconds, ending Williams’ eight-year wait for a Grand Prix victory. Raikkonen slashed 1.6 seconds out of Alonso’s advantage on the final tour, crossing the line six-tenths behind the Ferrari.

Grosjean and Kobayashi completed the top five, while Vettel recovered to sixth place, passing both McLarens and Rosberg as he recovered from his penalty. Hamilton was climbing over the back of Rosberg for seventh place at the end, team mate Button seven seconds in arrears.

Nico Hulkenberg was the final driver in the points, narrowly fending off Webber – both Red Bulls needing front wing replacements during the race.

The Toro Rosso pair of Vergne and Ricciardo finishing in front of di Resta and Massa. Kovalainen, Petrov, Glock and de la Rosa were the remaining finishers.

It should have been a day of unbridled joy for Williams, who scored their first Grand Prix victory since Juan Pablo Montoya won the Brazilian Grand Prix eight years ago. It came on the weekend Frank Williams celebrated his 70th birthday.

But their celebrations were marred by a serious fire which broke out in their pits a few hours later.

2012 Spanish Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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85 comments on “Maldonado ends Williams’ eight-year wait for a win”

  1. I hoped Alonso to be winner but this is good as well. at least we know F2012 is not so bad dog for now.

    1. Was Massa using an unupgraded car then?

      1. @the-last-pope No, the Ferrari was using an unupgraded Felipe Massa.

        1. lol good one.

        2. Hahaha I swear I laughed, I swear. But in his favour, I saw him overtake a Force India! (LOL)

          1. Er… when?

          2. When he was ahead of Button if I’m not wrong. Don’t remember who it was. Heh ;)

  2. I don’t think it was picked up in commentary, but Perez’ puncture after the start must have been a result of the battle with Grosjaen (I’m not saying it’s anyone’s fault, as they were obviously racing). It fairly ruined his race, but also Kobayashi’s who was right behind Perez before he had to peel off and up to that point probably had the best start of anyone on his fresh tyres.

    1. ya, it was Grosjean, they mentioned it in the american broadcast

      1. I was wrong about Kobayashi’s position at that point though. Ah well. Good result from him regardless.

        Also amazing race by Maldonado, obviously. Driver of the weekend for me though: Hamilton.

  3. for manaco i hope sauber can make 6 manufacture win out of 6 race

    1. More likely to be Lotus though no?

      1. can be but i would like it to be sauber.

        1. My money’s on Karthikeyan.

          1. why not! The way ‘Car’thikeyan gives way – or the lack thereof – to cars about to lap him, and given the fact that Monaco is the tightest track of ’em all, all he has to is keep bumping off cars that come to lap him, and voila, before our ‘slick’ stewards can react, Karthikeyan would have long crossed the finish line…….ANd then comes the info from race centre ‘Incident involving Carthikeyan and all other cars will be investigated after the race!!!’

          2. Charles Pic here.

      2. Sauber were really quite strong today,unfortunately,they lost Perez(who had qualified better) after he tangled with GRO on lap 1,but KOB’s race pace was superb. They’ve taken a huge step forward imo. However,i’m worried at the amount of oversteer their cars generate..it will take superhuman efforts on the part of KOB and PER to avoid the Monaco barriers.

        1. Not necessarily. With monaco you can put up maximum flap angle to generate more downforce without having to deal with the drag consequences, as the straights aren’t long and corners are mostly low speed. So a huge increase of downforce at the front and it’s back in balance.

    2. I guess that the winner will be Hamilton here, and if not, then Raikkonen as the car is quick, or Maldonado as he’s notoriously quick at street circuits, and was running really well in an underdog last year. But it could still be Raikkonen for a 6 in 6 result, and if Hamilton wins, 6 in 6 for the drivers. But I’ve got money down on Ham and Mal, so I hope it’s either of them :P

    3. @amiranuar I would like to see that. It will be a special weekend for Sauber, given how Perez had that awful crash in qualifying last year and missed that race and the one in Montreal.

      1. they do have good race pace and have a very good strategist just to conservative…

  4. For me a key moment was when Maldonado quickly got in front of Di Resta before the tighter corner and eked out a bit of a gap to Alonso. And his in and out lap before with his last pitstop and the good job of keeping his tyres alive made the win.

    Good driving from Hamilton, Rosberg, Kimi and Kobayashi, who were able to show us some overtaking skill again. Lets not forget Vettel in that overtaking pack though, he had some really nicely done moves on track as well. Hulkenberg seemed to really come alive defending the last point from Webber as well.

  5. With the way this season seems to be heading, what are the odds on 12 or more drivers taking the chequered flag by the end of the season? I can see Lotus taking victory in Monaco… Great job by Williams and Maldonado though, he’s impressed me this weekend while his teammate has struggled. Still yet to forgive him for swiping at Hamilton though… But he managed to pull a whole weekend together very well.

  6. Idk why all these positive vibes for Lotus,they hugely disappointed me with their race pace and their strategy today. Why the hell did RAI not take his last stop earlier?? On the operational front,they’re just about as good as McLaren at the moment!!!!

    1. @thekingofspa had he pitted earlier, the wouldn’t have such a big advantage in terms of tyres to Alonso and Maldonado. I think Lotus were expecting them to fight hard on track, thus ruining their tyres, allowing Kimi to catch up.

      As the fight didn’t quite materialize, Kimi just got near to them. In hindsight, you can say it was a mistake for them to use softs in their second stint, but their decision to leave him on track in the end paid off brilliantly, though it didn’t gain them any position.

      Kimi was some 20 seconds behind them before and after he last pitted, and he managed to close the gap to just 3 seconds on the checkered flag.

      1. Yes these tyres really produce great racing, but how did Kimi get 20 seconds behind when he was so fast?

      2. still Lotus not aggressive enough with their stops like Bahrain

  7. sagar atgamkar (@)
    13th May 2012, 18:20

    and now its not if ferrari replace MAS,but its about when?

    1. Massa was actually driving pretty decently today, and if it wasn’t for his penalty, I think he could have finished in P6 or P7. A p6 finish is as good as a race win for Felipe right now…

      1. I really doubt Massa would be able to keep both McLarens behind him and even then he wouldn’t be higher than P8. I think that P9 or P10 would be more realistic expectation without the penalty.

        1. I think Massa could have kept Button behind him with ease. Button was incredibly poor

    2. But he starts well, if only he could drive like Webber! If only Webber could start like Massa!

  8. Just read that Michael has been given a 5-place grid penalty for Monaco. He can’t catch a break this season, can he?

    I don’t think this penalty was necessary. It was a racing incident and both drivers paid the penalty by retiring from the race. Why another penalty then?

    1. sagar atgamkar (@)
      13th May 2012, 18:25

      cause the marshals think his only his fault. something that could have been completely avoided.

  9. Congratulations Williams. Very mature display from Maldonado.
    Ferrari still in the fight.
    Lotus a serious team.
    RBR still keeping themselves ahead.
    Mclaren..a team on a suicidal path.
    Hamilton put up a great drive but could not achieve much. Button and Kobayashik started 10th and 9th, shows just how woeful Button’s race was today.
    Kobayashi great performance, and Sauber are getting some things right.
    Tyres???????

    1. Yes the tyres are giving us different winners every race, we haven’t had this much variety since 1983 when they obviously had similar tyres.
      Oh wait, apparently in 1983 the tyres lasted the whole race, that can’t be right can it?

  10. Stephen Higgins
    13th May 2012, 19:00

    First win for a Williams-Renault combination since Jacques Villeneuve at Suzuka in 1997. One of the great team-engine combinations, back at the top where they belong.

    1. did jacques win suzuka in 97? i thought michael did? it was the classic race with irvine doing so well

    2. Nope, the last one was Nurburgring 97, where the two Mclaren-Mercedes broke down.

    3. Jacqes was disqualified in Suzuka as far as I remember. He ignored two separate yellow flags, I think.

  11. My question is; What on earth happened to Button today? Anywho, I dislike them, but well done to Williams.

    1. Jenson was struggling with car balance, understeer and failed to make his tyres work. It’s quite surprising because he’s know to be one of the best on nursing tyres, turns out that “aggressive” Hamilton was smoother in Spain being the only driver with a two stops strategy and finishing in front of Button.

  12. Nigelstash (@)
    13th May 2012, 19:31

    Amazing race – absolutely delighted for Williams, and I reckon they will be on the podium a few more times this season. Lewis starting from the back was always going to be fun and he didn’t disappoint. With so much going on midfield i was watching the on board coverage on the BBC website as much as the tv. At times there was so much happening I didn’t know where to look. Yet again Alonso was amazing, the difference between him and Massa is just ridiculous but I thought Massa drove well today. The gap between them is more to do with Alonso’s genius than Massa’s ineptitude.

    1. Unfortunately, Massa is loosing credibility in many people’s eyes. I hope his team thinks differently, I though Maldonado was going to make a rookie mistake and lose all points. I am surprise.

    2. Massa did quite well in the race,besides getting penalised for speeding under yellow flags. I think he would have certainly finished in the points had he not got penalised. His qualifying performance was terrible,though.

    3. Alonso is a very good driver, on par with Raikkonen, Hamilton or Vettel, but he is not a genius, he is not some kind of racing god. Massa is decisively unimpressive, he is struggling in every race and probably this should be his last season in Ferrari.

    4. I disagree, although am sure Alonso is driving well the major part of their difference it certainly has to do with Massa’s ineptitude.

  13. His second and final pit stop came on lap 30

    That would be 36.

    Raikkonen’s final stop seemed very late, but in the end it gained him time – he was closer to Alonso at the end of the race than at the end of the penultimate stint.

    1. @adrianmorse Have changed it, thanks.

  14. kowalsky is back
    13th May 2012, 19:42

    i am surprise that the fans are not congratulating williams for getting back to the front.
    I imagine is because most have no memory of the great past of the british team, and may be because maldonado didn’t catch most of the fans imagination.
    But i see this as a very histrorical gp, and i am very happy for sir Frank Williams. A perfect gift for his 70th birthday. A victroy that could be compared with the italian gp at monza in 1988.
    i hope is the first of a bunch.

    1. Now is Bruno’s turn to shine *hides*

      1. I hope it happens for Bruno though. He might be a poor qualifier, but has looked better than Pastor in a couple of races.

        1. Agreed. He seems very positive about the team despite his troubles, and hopefully he can go on to shine a bit this year as well.

          1. Can’t help but wonder: what if Williams would have gone for Sutil instead of Senna?

            Not trying to discredit Senna or anything and I know this may sound like taking the p*** but I’m still living with the impression that Sutil would have deserved a racing seat more than Bruno this season. And following Maldonado’s drive today, a humble “what if” seems in order. :)

      2. It would be awesome to see a seventh victory in Monaco to the Senna family *joins in hiding*

  15. Great drive by Maldonado, I would be surprised if many people thought he would ever win a race in his F1 career. Also great drive from Hamilton to beat Button despite starting 14 places further back.

    And Keith for the Hamilton section “His second and final pit stop came on lap 30”, he didn’t pit then he pitted on lap 36 I think

    1. thejudge13+
      14th May 2012, 8:46

      He did 31 laps on his final set of tyres

  16. Well done to Williams and Maldonado. That car showed unbelievable pace and performance and I really don’t understand how they gained it. Personally, as a Force India fan, I feel that the team has been caught out by Sauber, Williams and Lotus. Did they miss the experience of Adrian Sutil over the winter? I suppose yes and maybe a bit of his driving skill as well. I hope that they can improve but I’m not going to put my money on it till Spa.

    One of my fears for Williams is that the last time they gained Pole position in a race it lead to their worst season in memory. Also over the last two years, their development tended to slow down halfway through the season and that led other teams overtake them comfortably. I seriously hope that these things don’t happen.

    Are Ferrari back on form? Probably not. Alonso’s skill is still keeping them propped up and I think we may get to a point where as viewers we won’t be able to tell car performance from Alonso’s skill as a racer.

    McLaren have squandered their early season advantage largely due to their own rookie mistakes. A wheel gun failing twice on the same wheel, low fuel? They need to pick up their game fast. Lucky for them people like Maldonado and Perez have scored decent points from their closest rivals. This means that they don’t have a lot of catching up to do.

    On a driver note, Schumacher’s mistake and his sudden lapse of judgement is becoming all too familiar now. I wonder if it is time for him to reconsider his driving and his skill.I wouldn’t mind if it was only the fact that Rosberg was outperforming him. Making errors like that is not expected of someone who has won 7 world titles. He has shown flashes of brilliance and maybe Canada might be the place where he can show some of it again.

    1. “Are Ferrari back on form? Probably not. Alonso’s skill is still keeping them propped up and I think we may get to a point where as viewers we won’t be able to tell car performance from Alonso’s skill as a racer.”
      I was trying to think how to express that opinion, but when I read your post I realised you had it exactly right. Alonso seems to be able to drag the car four or five places higher than it realy deserves. Unfortunately, Massa seems to be in the opposite. Alonso 2nd and Massa 15th, so if you add the positions together and divide by two – maybe Ferrari deserve an 8th place?
      BUT.
      Monster congratulations to Maldonado and Williams! How great it is to see a former championship team return to the top step of the podium; and with a new driver too! And congratulations to Alonso whose skills elevated the car and the team well beyond the heights expected or deserved.
      I do most earnestly hope for a Lotus victory in Monaco as that will seriously set this season as one of the most wide open for years – as long as Alonso doesn’t pick up another second!

    2. Its human weakness,as you grow older, your responds and judgement gets sloppy…
      Its time to move on for MS

  17. Not bad for a pay driver!
    Pastor, who was labelled by many LH fans the worst driver on the grid, has shown what he can do. Easily eclipsed two WDCs, Alonso and Raikkonen, in the machinery that was by no means superior to theirs – incredible drive! If that was not the drive of the weekend, I don’t know what is. Honorary mention goes to Vettel, who did some fantastic overtaking moves, patricularly on both McLarens, especially impressive since he’s ‘the guy who cannot overtake’.

    1. As much as I appreciate Maldonado had a brilliant race, it takes consistency at that level to win championships. He’s shown what he can do, but people will be more impressed if he does it again.

    2. Agreed Maldonado drove a very good race keeping his Latino temperament in check, pity is we don’t have Barrichelllo as a yardstick to tell us how good the car is.

    3. theres a rumour going around Maldonado is headed to Maranello next season…

  18. DOTW Contenders:

    Maldonado – Almost flawless today, a superlative, mature drive from start to finish. Remained calm & collected throughout the entire race, putting trust & faith in his team & it certainly translated into that victory the team have been desperately wanting.

    Alonso – A tremendous lap in Qualifying (likewise Maldonado & Hamilton) Great start & brought every inch of raw performance out of that Ferrari as usual, pushed the Williams of Maldonado till the end although still delivered something spectacular to his home crowd.

    Hamilton – Fought his way through the field, made some great overtakes in the process. Another display of maturity in him being the only driver to two stop & proved doubters wrong , can’t imagine what could’ve been had he not being excluded from Qualifying altogether or just excluded from Q3. Clearly out-performed Button this weekend.

    Vettel – Strategy of saving tyres for the race didn’t seem to have worked but like Hamilton, a good recovery drive from him, making some brave, valiant moves in the process.

    Raikkonen – A very quiet afternoon for him, we’d expected much more from Lotus this weekend but let’s not take anything away from Kimi; clearly reeled in the front runners at the end & nearly snatched 2nd from Alonso, if only the race was for a few more laps.

    1. @younger-hamii – Well said. Those are my top five as well. It boils down to Hamilton or Maldonado for me in the end.

  19. The race didn’t disappoint. Maldonado was on it from the get go. Alonso had him at the start but I think they both made good starts, Maldonado made a brave but respectful lunge into defending his position which I’m sure Alonso will admire, given his comments about respect a few days ago.

    Hamilton was brilliant and focussed, Vettel kept cool and did remarkably well considering his penalty. Massa looked amateurish and really didn’t seem to know what he was doing, Schumacher got it wrong but as yet hasn’t admitted so. Alonso looked competitive so considering that’s his highest finish in normal conditions I expect we will see more of his F2012 at the sharp end. Lotus seemed to have it nailed too so well done to them.

  20. Karthikeyan (@ridiculous) said on 9th May 2012, 10:20
    All boils to who can lock the front 2 rows.

    Reply Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 9th May 2012, 10:35
    Are you sure about that?

    In Australia, the top four finishers qualified second, sixth, first and fifth.
    In Malaysia, the top four qualified eighth, ninth, first and fourth.
    In China, the top four were first, fifth, seven and sixth.
    And in Bahrain, the top four started from first, eleventh, seventh and third.

    So I don’t think that anyone in the top four in qualifying will be guaranteed a good place in the race. especially with Pirelli bringing two compounds with a gap between them (hard and soft as opposed to hard and medium).

    Reply thejudge13+ said on 9th May 2012, 10:59
    Chances last year in first 3 races (No Bahrain) of a top 4 qualifier finishing in the top 4 in the race. 66%

    Chances this year of a top 4 qualifier finishing in the top 4 in the race. 44%.

    However in Spain last year 75% of the top 4 Qualifiers finished in the top 4 in the race. And 80% of the top 5 finhished in the top 5.

    I won’t bore you with further stats, however, PM probably isn’t giving enough weight to the nature of the circuit de catalunya.

    It is more likely that top 4 qualifyiers will do better here than in the previous 4 races.

    What is highly probable is that the pole sitter will do well. Pole both last year and this year in the initial 7 flyaway races has always finished in the top 4 in the ensuing race.

    Reply Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 9th May 2012, 11:07
    You can’t apply sabermetrics to Formula 1.

    I think you’ll find after Hamilton’s exclusion, the top 4 qualifiers were the top four finishers. Maybe F1 version of “sabermetrics” has some value.

  21. Congratulations to Maldonado and the Williams team. Very nice comeback of the team after so many frustrating years. Honestly I thought that Maldonado was going to make some rookie mistakes but he drove marvelously!

  22. Quanttrader
    14th May 2012, 0:18

    Lately, F1 is turning into Nascar or Indy car as a random driver with average talents can win due to lucky tire setup. All throughout the race, commentators were talking about tire degradation holding back full petal to the metal racing.

    Pirelli is destroying the F1 I have been watching for past 15 years. Not to mention the brand damage to Pirelli with tire degradation (when I think of Pirelli, I think of tire degradation and probably would never buy Pirelli for my 510 bhp car).

    1. Well, he was GP2 champion. Pastor put in a great drive this weekend, so don’t pee on his parade.

      1. @David-A, Pastor did put in a great drive but was it only because Williams “understand the tyre” or is it possible that Williams have produced winning car this year , after all Frank has always maintained that it is 95% car and 5% driver.
        I don’t want to go on a rant or denigrate Pirelli but I agree with ..trader that these tyres, (3-4 pitstops using hards ) are detrimental to the racing. I believe Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Sauber and RBR all have genuinely fast cars that have performance strengths and failings ( look at the top speed differences for example) that would ensure different results at different tracks even if they all used the same tyre for the whole race.
        In summary the tyres are adding a random factor that only confuses the situation rather than enhances it.

        1. I agree,there’s something thats very random about these tyres. To me,F1 is more than just about overtakes or excitement,an IndyCar/NASCAR race still features many more on-track battles/overtakes. What made F1 superior is that it captures human endeavour(by both drivers and teams brilliantly). Unfortunately,that is no longer the case with the randomness factor generated by these tyres…i wouldnt want processional races,but i dont think there is any harm in making these tyres a little more durable and doing away with the silly tyre rules.

        2. @hohum , @thekingofspa , it’s okay to not like the tyres, but the poster above just came across as disrespectful towards the drivers who have had good results this year to me.

          Maldonado isn’t the best on the grid at the moment, but Williams have a good car, and he wasn’t average under pressure from Alonso yesterday. If “better” tyres would have produced similar results, then the winners this year haven’t been “average” and “lucky” as he/she senselessly claims, they’ve had the best overall package for the given weekend.

          1. Sorry @davidA I missed the reference to ” average talent”, only registered the comparison to Indy/Nascar with their use of the safety car as a random place generator.

    2. when I think of Pirelli, I think of tire degradation and probably would never buy Pirelli for my 510 bhp car

      510 bhp huh…you’d be better off going for bridgestone, look how many titles schumacher won…

      fyi Pirelli are not making their F1 tyres to last 40,000 miles like their road tyres are

  23. @keithcollantine
    i think that should ne ‘neatly’ in-
    ‘nearly slotted past to take the lead’
    (coz he did tke the lead in 2011)

  24. So now it’s seven winners from the last seven races if you start after Vettel’s final victory of 2011 which occured in India. So starting from Abu Dhabi 2011 it goes – Hamilton, Webber, Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Vettel and Maldonado. Some are saying its “artificial” but for those of us who sat through Schumi’s endless wins not too many years ago this is great! Not to mention of course Vettel’s recent dominance. Who’s next then? Kimi, Grosjean, KK, Perez or even Mr Schumacher? Bring it on.

    1. People are underestimating the importance qualifying still has when complaining about the tyres.

      Last year in the races up to (and including) Barcelona for cars on the front 2 rows of the grid there was a

      68.25% chance of finishing in the top 4 in the race

      This year there is still a

      55.20% chance of finishing in the top 4 in a race.

      In all of those 9 races the pole sitter has finished in the top 4.

  25. Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
    14th May 2012, 8:53

    If Williams continue in this vein, don’t be surprised to see Hamilton considering a move there for next season.

  26. just throwing it out there!
    Does anyone see it as a bit of a lottery? Does it not make a mockery of the brilliance of some of the top teams who probably do have the best cars, but cannot make them work on certain tracks with certain tyres?
    Sorry, I don’t see it as necessarily good for the sport to have as some keep banging on about (6 winners in 6 races)
    Don’t get me wrong, was an entertaining race, all the more so with a 12-1 bet on Pasta.
    But lets throw it out there, someone mentioned earlier 12 winners in 12 races, how would this be a good thing?
    I hope we do start to see representative races where the strongest car/team/driver do start to emerge as this is what F1 is about. not every driver getting some silverware to take home.
    As I said just throwing it out there for you sharks to rip me apart over! :-P
    Begin!

  27. There has been some comments on various F1 sites about how things are getting silly and that F1 needs to settle down and have a bit of dominance by a couple of teams.

    But the confusion this year is just evidence that the old rules of terra-byte computing simulation and flow aerodynamics has gone to be replaced by a new direction – traction. Williams have a car that drives like something from 1968 all mechanical grip. Through the chicane and around the corners Pastor was visibly (on TV anyway) tighter to the radius and way better under braking.

    I love it.

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