Ferrari one-two in Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

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The Ferrari drivers were voted the best racers of the Spanish Grand Prix by F1 Fanatic readers.

1. Fernando Alonso

Started: 5th
Finished: 1st

A great start to the race helped Fernando Alonso on his way to his second victory of 2013. Although he got off the line well, he wasn’t able to gain any places until he sprang a pass on Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton as they went into turn three.

After that Alonso jumped Sebastian Vettel at the first round of pit stops, and passed Nico Rosberg for the lead. A puncture ahead of his final pit stop failed to put him off his stride.

He took control of his strategy from turn three on lap one when he passed Raikkonen and Hamilton on the outside and just pushed (as much as the tyres allowed him to) until he had built a good gap on Raikkonen. Perfect race, surely.
@Dragon88

Despite being only fifth in qualifying and just pipping his team mate, I have to give this to Alonso. He’s shown once again that talent in F1 can come in many forms, and although he’s not the best qualifier or the most aggressive on track, he knows how to get the most out of himself and the tools at his disposal every time the lights go out.
@Colossal-Squid

Alonso drove a spectacular race. Measured, calm and on the money at all times. He passed when he had to, saved tires when he needed to and put the pedal to the metal when required to. It’s been quite rare over the last couple of years to get a landslide win for the vote, but this week, there can be no other. What really struck me was the confidence Alonso has on the Catalunya track, it’s like he knows every inch and every kerb. The start was especially impressive with those committed passes he made. I’m not a big Alonso fan, but I wonder if I should really been one.
@MahavirShah

2. Felipe Massa

Started: 9th
Finished: 3rd

Felipe Massa would have started alongside his team mate on the third row but he was docked three places for holding Mark Webber up.

He recovered quickly in the race, however, moving past both Red Bulls but was unable to get ahead of Raikkonen to give Ferrari a one-two.

Massa’s performance was great and I still think his penalty was stupid. How could he move in that position? If he had moved to the side, he would have crashed into Webber, so tight is the track. I feel Webber should have driven past him, apparently he wasn’t on a good lap anyway. If it hadn’t been for the penalty he might have won. Great to see Felipe back in form.
Rick (@Viscountviktor)

Fastest in practice and came sixth in Q3. Did remarkably well to come back from ninth on the grid to take 3rd on the podium. Had the impeding incident and the penalty not happened, he would have had the chance to challenge for victory and definitely made a Ferrari one-two.
Valan Sammanasu (@Seahorse)

3. Kimi Raikkonen

Started: 4th
Finished: 2nd

Raikkonen took his fourth podium finish in six races in Spain, but finished behind Alonso who he had started ahead of. He lost time in the middle of the race behind Vettel which kept him from attacking Alonso for the win.

Both him and Alonso were perfect in the race with Raikkonen maybe having to fight a bit more for his position. But what makes the difference for me is that Kimi was also perfect in qualifying and beat his team-mate by a country mile while Alonso was only one thousand of a second faster than Massa in Q3. With the dominant pace the car had he maybe could’ve been higher.

With Raikkonen and Alonso both maximizing their results in the race, qualifying has to be the deciding factor.
@Tmekt

2013 Driver of the Weekend results

RaceFirstSecondThird
Australian Grand PrixKimi Raikkonen (51.2%)Adrian Sutil (17.9%)Jules Bianchi (13.6%)
Malaysian Grand PrixMark Webber (34.2%)Sebastian Vettel (17.4%)Nico Rosberg (13.6%)
Chinese Grand PrixFernando Alonso (47.0%)Daniel Ricciardo (18.2%)Kimi Raikkonen (15.6%)
Bahrain Grand PrixSebastian Vettel (32.2%)Paul di Resta (17.8%)Fernando Alonso (11.9%)
Spanish Grand PrixFernando Alonso (61.4%)Felipe Massa (10.8%)Kimi Raikkonen (10.5%)

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Spanish Grand Prix articles

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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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26 comments on “Ferrari one-two in Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. With Raikkonen and Alonso both maximizing their results in the race, qualifying has to be the deciding factor.

    there were more deciding factors….with Lotus’ pit stops averaging 1.2-1.7 seconds slower, undercut is genuinely impossible. Opting for used options instead of used prime for longer stints etc.

    1. Ferrari ‘s rocket launcher???

    2. I don’t really understand what’s your point…?

  2. I think Rosberg’s drive went greatly unrecognised here. Alonso dutifully won – he was sublime except for qualifying – but I really do think Rosberg deserves third more than Räikkönen at least.

    1. Agreed. Excellent in qualifying and I’m sure would have been excellent in the race if his car wasn’t a tyre-hungry monster.

      1. would have been excellent in the race if his car wasn’t a tyre-hungry monster.

        Maybe he wouldn’t have been so excellent in quali if his car wasn’t a tyre-hungry monster. :)

        1. He was still a good deal faster than Hamilton in qualifying.

    2. He did really well to hold off Vettel in the first stint and to manage the three stop (keeping a charging, 4-stopping Di Resta behind to boot) and if Hamilton’s performance is any sort of benchmark, he did really well to finish where he did.

      1. Why Rosberg deserves more than Kimi?

        His car is monster on quali and dog in race. He demonstrated that, hardly surprising.

        Excellent in quali?? Look at the gap to the rest…..the car was clearly superior while Lewis clearly underperforming. To use lewis as benchmark is beyond laughable.

        1. Not nearly as laughable as using Grosjean as a benchmark.

          1. no one is using Grosjean as Benchmark. To get into a tenth of seconds behind Vettel and outqualified both Ferraris and Mark Webber showed how good that lap was driven by Kimi.

          2. He also ate through many sets of tyres to get there and so probably didn’t maximise his race potential, unlike Rosberg.

    3. @vettel1 True. He deserves at least 3rd.

  3. @tmekt forgive me if I’m mistaken, but didn’t you say on the Bahrain rate the race, after I commented on Kimi’s poor qualifying, that it doesn’t matter on the grand scheme of things?

    1. @vettel1

      https://www.racefans.net/2013/04/22/2013-bahrain-grand-prix-driver-weekend/comment-page-2/#comment-1232497

      Both Lotus drivers underperformed in quali but that doesn’t really affect my voting this time because they still managed to maximize the result in the race day despite their respective grid positions. The end result is what matters the most to me and I don’t think neither of them would have had the pace to challenge Vettel for the win even if they had started from better positions.

      What makes Vettel’s result better though in my eyes is the margin he beat his team-mate, once again.

      Not from the discussion we had but that was basically how I reasoned it.

      I guess you could see that as double standards but as it says it “[didn’t] really affect my voting [that] time“. I couldn’t find big enough differences between Kimi’s and Alonso’s results from the race (which I found between Kimi and Vettel in Bahrain) so I had to look for them from the quali to determine who gets my vote.

      I don’t know if that makes sense to you but it does to me :)

      1. @tmekt I was just looking for clarification, that’s all, as it could appear as double standards ;)

  4. Amidst the widespread public upheaval concerning the tyres, I still think the current rules package as a whole seems to reward the best driver on the grid during most weekends, based on the Driver of the Weekend polls: four times out of five races the winner of the Grand Prix received the highest number of votes.

  5. Rosberg should definitely have been #2 IMO, he was at least second best behind Alonso this weekend. As for Massa and Raikkonen, I’d have them tied in 3rd.

    1. I struggle to understand how Massa should tied in 3rd with Kimi.

      Ferrari got the fastest car in race, at one point Massa was in front of Kimi after Lotus’ slow first stop. He struggled to maintain that and fallen into 3rd.

      Ferrari duo had 2 fresh primes while kimi only had one…and have to run one more set of used medium for that reason.

      1. Why did he have one set less of new tyres? Because he engulfed them in quali to get that high up the grid. However we look at it, I see little reason for him to be rated higher than Rosberg honestly.

    2. Had there been an option of selecting top three drivers of the weekend, then I would have chosen the following three in the mentioned order: 1. Alonso, 2. Massa and 3. Rosberg

  6. Rosberg’s qualifying lap was pretty remarkable, so I think he should be in the top 3 more than Raikkonen. The two Ferrari drivers were both fantastic, but Alonso had the edge over Massa (i.e. that amazing overtake on Lap 1)

  7. I forgot to vote, but I think I would have voted for Massa. I always think that driving through a pack to score a podium is highly impressive, even more so on tracks like Barcelona and with a pack as talented as this one. This is made even more impressive considering his poor form in 2012. Massa is back to his best (or near enough) and I wouldn’t be surprised if he won a race or two this season. With Alonso as his teammate, I’d also say that Ferrari have got the best chance at winning the constructors championship this year.

  8. It is indeed great to see my comment being part of an article on F1F. Thanks @keithcollantine

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