Buzzin F1 - Formula One Blog

Kimi Raikkonen dominated the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position until the end for the Ferrari team ahead of teammate Felipe Massa.

Lewis Hamilton came in third for the Mercedes McLaren team while his teammate Heikki Kovalainen suffered a front left wheel failure which saw him going at full speed through the gravel trap and buried in the tyre wall. The medical team were quickly on track attending to Kovalainen who was taken from the circuit in the air ambulance.

He will be staying the night in hospital after it emerged that he was knocked unconscious in the high speed crash. Ron Dennis has said that he had a CT scan which has revealed there is no head injury other than concussion and added “The team is optimistic that he will make a full recovery over the next few days”.

Robert Kubica continued his impressive form with a fourth place for BMW Sauber with Mark Webber taking a fortunate fifth. The position should have belonged to Nick Heidfeld who needed to stop for fuel while the safety car and the medical team were on track meaning that the pit lane was closed. Heidfeld with no choice, refuelled and incurred a ten-second stop and go penalty putting him back down the field.

Jenson Button finished in sixth place getting some much needed points for the Honda team followed by Kazuki Nakajima who took seventh for the Williams Toyota team, his first points since joining them.

Jarno Trulli finished in eighth place for Toyota after a three stop race followed by Heidfeld.

Force India driver, Giancarlo Fisichella continued with a steady race pace to finish in tenth place. He fought hard to hold Heidfeld back but finally lost the position to finish ahead of Timo Glock.

The second Red Bull driver, David Coulthard, had an eventful race from the start. He was hit on lap one when Adrian Sutil lost control of his car and then later was hit from behind by Timo Glock. He had to make an extra stop due to a rear tyre problem but amazingly still managed to finish in twelfth place.

Many of the drivers retired during the race. Nico Rosberg in the Williams had a great start and was running in seventh place but an engine failure ended his race.

Fernando Alonso was second on the grid but was left behind as Massa shot passed him at the start. He was in for his first pit stop on lap fifteen and rejoined the track behind Rubens Barrichello who was lapping two seconds slower than Alonso had managed before. At the end of the first set of pit stops, Alonso had lost his position to Hamilton, Kubica and Heidfeld but half way through the race, he to retired with engine failure, a disappointing day for the Renault team and the Spanish fans.

Nelson Piquet took a trip through the gravel early on in the race and later made a bad move on the Toro Rosso driver, Sebastien Bourdais taking them both out of the race. The second Toro Rosso was out on lap one after getting caught in the accident between Sutil and Coulthard.

Plenty of incidents but a pretty boring race overall. Thankfully Kovalainen wasn’t seriously injured after the high speed accident which practically crushed the car and will undergo a medical check before he attends the next Grand Prix in Turkey.

Here are the results;

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1 min 21.813 secs
2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:21.904
3. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:22.058
4. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22.065
5. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren - Mercedes 1:22.096
6. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren - Mercedes 1:22.231
7. Mark Webber (Aus) RedBull - Renault 1:22.429
8. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:22.529
9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:22.542
10. Nelsinho Piquet (Brz) Renault 1:22.699
11. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:21.049
12. Kazuki Nakajima (Jap) Williams - Toyota 1:21.117
13. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:21.211
14. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:21.230
15. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams - Toyota 1:21.349
16. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:21.724
17. David Coulthard (GB) RedBull - Renault 1:21.810
18. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:22.108
19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India - Ferrari 1:22.516
20. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India - Ferrari 1:23.224
21. Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri - Honda 1:23.318
22. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri - Honda 1:23.496