Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Ferrari’s 1-2 By Steve Slater Special Contributor
FERRARI delivered its rivals a double whammy in Barcelona, with the team’s second successive one-two victory. More than that, Kimi Raikkonen admitted after the race that he was cruising, with pace in hand.
Kimi’s comment, that “If we had wanted, we could have gone a bit faster. But there is no point in pushing it when you don’t need to,” is probably the last thing that his rivals want to hear. They are already on the limit to match Ferraris’ current pace!
Equally interesting though, is the fact that it is no longer a two-horse battle at the top. There are now maybe as many as four teams that might just challenge Ferrari in the next few races.
McLaren made a good comeback after their lackluster performance in Bahrain. Lewis Hamilton’s aggressive start paid off, moving him from the third row of the starting grid, ahead of BMW’s Robert Kubica and into fourth place.
When Alonso made his expected early pit stop on lap 17, Hamilton took over the third place and closed in on Massa’s Ferrari on the run to the checkered flag.
Accident
Heikki Kovalainen too, demonstrated that his McLaren too had front-running pace. But for his horrific accident, he would surely have been battling with Kubica’s BMW for fourth place. Thankfully the Finn has sustained no serious injuries from his head-on 250kph collision with the tire barrier. It appears a damaged wheel rim was the initial cause, leading to the tire blowing out, a very similar shunt to Hamilton’s last year at the Nurburgring.
Ironically, if it hadn’t been for Kovalainen’s accident, Nick Heidfeld would have been battling for fifth, further demonstrating BMW’s pace.
The German was unlucky to be caught on his way to the pits just as the safety car was scrambled and under a rule initiated this year, you are not allowed to stop while the pace car is on track until the officials declare the pit lane open.
Nick had two choices, run out of fuel and stop on the track, or come into the pits anyway and take a penalty. Unsurprisingly he did the latter and the penalty dropped him to 13th and last place. A pretty daft rule don’t you think?
Two teams which have improved dramatically in comparison with the start of the season were Honda and Toyota.
Welcome sign
Jenson Button’s sixth place was a welcome sign that the Honda’s aerodynamic package is at last working and although the Briton complained that the suspension wasn’t riding Barcelona’s many bumps as well as the opposition, he has high hopes for the smoother Turkish track in two weeks time.
Jarno Trulli’s eighth place for Toyota could so easily have been better.
The Italian was in fact heading for sixth place behind the Red Bull of Mark Webber when a mix-up led to his team calling him into the pits for an unnecessary extra stop. I’ll bet that Jarno wasn’t best pleased!
Of course the hero of the hour in Spain had to be Fernando Alonso. His qualifying laps, which came oh-so-close to pole position, were heroic, but his race performance until the Renault engine wilted under the pressure was just as impressive. The Renault team says that it’s a clear sign that the car has hugely improved. I hope they’re right because it means we’ll have battle royal for the rest of the season.
Yes, I think Ferrari is the clear title favorites at the moment. But it’s no longer just a Ferrari-McLaren battle.
It’s a Ferrari-McLaren-BMW-Renault-Red Bull-Toyota-Honda battle. Any of them could still challenge at the front—and I think that’s just perfect!
(Steve Slater is the expert half of the popular F1 commentary duo on Star Sports. Slater is a veritable encyclopedia of motor racing and has been involved in the sport at many levels including as journalist, race-organizer, and now commentator.)
