[StarrySky]

Alonso drove a brilliant race to finish 1st. Fantastic overtakes on lap 1.

Kimi also drove a good race with some good overtakes. Maybe a 4-stopper would've been better for Lotus yesterday, but then again, he beat all 4-stoppers bar Alonso with his strategy.

Massa was probably the biggest positive for Ferrari yesterday, starting 9th and finishing on the podium, taking points from all of Alonso's rivals to the WDC, except Kimi.

The race on the whole was pretty much decided by about 2/3rds of the way and did not provide any big moments of interest during the latter parts.

Not surprised to see Mercedes dropping back in the race, although I was surprised to see Hamilton dropping so far back. Maybe he had some technical issues as well.

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

He did provide some moments with a brilliant overtake on Vettel. How often do we see Vettel being overtaken like that?

I think Kimi did well to make it side-to-side with Vettel, but after that I don't think Vettel fought him very hard. Kind of like what Kimi said about Alonso's overtake on him - there was no use fighting and damaging own tires.

[asr245]

So no matter whether you are on BS or Pirellis, Barcelona maintains the reputation of producing boring races. I think there were more interesting moments in the pits (with almost everyone on 4 pit stops!!!) than on the track.

At least, championships remain interesting. Would love to see Kimi win again though.

[Fullrevs]

A supreme drive by both Ferrari's. Alonso won the race from 5th and Massa came third after being penalised on saturday and dropped to 9th. I am pretty sure he could have had second place had he not lost the 3 places on saturday. Its great to see the Ferrari's not put a foot wrong after the disasters in Malaysia and Bahrain.

Also great not seeing vettels finger on the podium. I'd be really glad if yesterdays results carry on for the whole year.

[sgiitk]

I somehow feel that the tyre issue is getting too far. We need somewhat more durable tyres. Four tyre changes a race are two too many in my view.

Forza Ferrari is back with a vengeance. The situation of the Mercs was pitiable, good for one lap (qualifying) but pathetic for the race. I hope they improve. Good to see it becoming a multi-horse race, and also reduction in the importance of the DRS.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

[ACM]

Yep that is what this race was to me. It was dull and drab. Yes the win order makes the season more interesting for the future.

It seemed to be more about tyres than anything else. We never got to see who actually is a better racer for the track. It was about which car copes with the tyres best and figures the right number of stops required.

It did not even showcase the drivers tyre management skills either for that matter every one more or less played safe and changed tyres when they lost grip. They also did not push too much knowing that they would pay for it later in terms of tyre longevity.

[PuntoMania]

Watching drivers lift on fast corners throughout the race, and complaining on the radio "I cant go any slower" was just depressing. I dont know which racing fan in their right mind can support this nonsense any longer. Pirelli should have been replaced a long while back.

One aggressive hard braking into a corner, and you can say goodbye to your race. If you get off the line in an attempt to overtake, you'll lose 3-5 seconds over a lap. These tyres are simply ridiculous. And almost every radio call revolves around tyre temperature, tyre this tyre that blah blah blah.

This is not motor racing anymore.

[Baddychat]

As mentioned in quite a few posts already, the race was a rather average one. The only thing it did was that it made the drivers championship interesting. The difference between Vettel and Kimi is down to around 5 points. Alonso is also catching up.

As sg_iitk mentioned, the tyre thing is getting worse this season. Did anyone notice the condition of the rubber on Alonso's tyres at the end of the race.

The scarlet cars were the quickest by a distance and Alonso overtaking Kimi as if he was standing also showed how good the Ferrari's were this weekend. The only concern IMO is that they need to be consistent to challenge Red Bull for the constructors championships. The second half of the season has races where Vettel will come into his own and a few circuits where he absolutely loves driving.

Alonso looks poised to take away the drivers championship from Vettel this time !!

[gsb350]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

What a Boring Race this has been, None of the team strategies going as per plan.

The Mercedes GP is making a joke of themselves this year too.. LOL They dented and damaged Schumacher's reputation, and the same is happening with Hamilton, looks like he is not going anywhere after his switch from Mclarens. .

Storngly agree to this. The Mercedes have just one lap pace and in the actual race they just seem to fall back. Yes the tire issue is getting hot this year, 4 pit stops. Did any one have a look at the front Left tyre of all the cars while racing in slow motion.

Any way i am not a RB fan or a Vettel fan and good to see Kimi On the podium.

The only question remains is that if Mercedes are 1 and 2 in Monaco in qualifying, what will happen to the race as overtaking is almost next to impossible on that track. Seem they will control the pace of all the cars.

[vikram_d]

I completely agree with everybody who think that the tyres are getting out of hand. This is not racing at all. This is more or less what Steve Slater used to call 'tyre poker'.

I cringed when I read Alonso's reply to one of the questions in the post race press conference. Driving at 90%? This is not racing at all. F1 now seems like a silly choreographed show.

That being said I have to admire Ferrari's strategy yesterday and the pace that the car showed. They knew they would have to stop 4 times and still they made it work. They didn't run the tyres to the brink of destruction and made early and well calculated pit stops, thus maintaining good lap times.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, you had to catch up the time for one extra pit stop against Kimi. How difficult was it to balance the speed or the pace against tyre saving?

FA: Not so difficult today. We had the pace in the car, we had clean air, no traffic, only a little bit in the first stint behind Sebastian and Rosberg. Then we undercut and we passed Sebastian in the pits and Rosberg two laps later at the first corner, from that point we just pushed 90 percent, more or less. You have enough pace to open the necessary gap and you know that if you push 100percent maybe you kill the tyres, so it’s more or less normal driving, let’s say, in 2013 races. You try to control the pace and the tyres and you put in balance these two things.

Source: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...3/5/14556.html

[anachronix]

A boring Spanish GP as always, but I am not complaining as it was never a surprise and this year was better than the usual Spanish GP.

The Prancing horse has proved once again that they have the fastest car going into the European leg of the season which is great news for a tifosi and I hope they dont see the dark luck on sunday, then it will be a straight fit been Kimi & Alonso for the Championship

The Mercedes cars started from the front only to go back and they were a standing silver pole passed by everyone. It was funny when Hamilton complained on the radio about a Williams car that passed him. The Mercedes train at the first stint was a sight to behold!

Always happy to see that nasty finger off the podium after trying a desperate 3 stopper. Sad to see the Mclaren, its probably the worst start to the season for Mclaren after 2009.
EDIT2: Did Mclaren order Perez to hold position behind Button? I hope MW will stop his nonsense about letting their drivers race and stop condemning team orders.

The tyre situation was bad, it was sad to see the cars cruising and the race engineers coming on the radio asking the driver to save tyres. The Catalunya circuit as such is quite abrasive track in nature and eats the front tyres a lot. Pirelli bought the wrong choice of tyres for the Spanish GP, however it was the teams that were trying to do a 3-Stop were nursing their tyres. The 4-Stopping cars were doing relatively good pace. The teams should also take partial blame for putting drivers through such tyre saving exercise and putting on a poor show!

EDIT: Apart from all the complaints about the teams letting the driver cruise on the tyres, I am pissed about the quality of tyres that Pirelli is bringing to F1. Delaminating tyres means absolutely shite construction and material used. The tyres delaminating from the TR car was simple pathetic! Pirelli is doing a pathetic job with supplying tyres to F1.

[vikram_d]

Yes, McLaren did ask Perez to hold station and not race Button. This coming from a team who make the most noise when it comes to team orders.

[polopm]

Originally Posted by anachronix

A boring Spanish GP as always, but I am not complaining as it was never a surprise and this year was better than the usual Spanish GP.

The Prancing horse has proved once again that they have the fastest car going into the European leg of the season which is great news for a tifosi and I hope they dont see the dark luck on sunday, then it will be a straight fit been Kimi & Alonso for the Championship

The Mercedes cars started from the front only to go back and they were a standing silver pole passed by everyone. It was funny when Hamilton complained on the radio about a Williams car that passed him. The Mercedes train at the first stint was a sight to behold!

Always happy to see that nasty finger off the podium after trying a desperate 3 stopper. Sad to see the Mclaren, its probably the worst start to the season for Mclaren after 2009.
EDIT2: Did Mclaren order Perez to hold position behind Button? I hope MW will stop his nonsense about letting their drivers race and stop condemning team orders.
......

Thank goodness, I haven't missed the race yesterday. Was cursing myself when I had to go out during the race time. 4 time stopping on a bright sunny day without stop/go penalties looks terrible. I just hope we see an end to this kind of tyres by end of this year.
With the 1.6L engines coming next year, I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a farce with a strange sound (noise ?) and shredded mozarella tyres.

[TNiranjanT]

Originally Posted by Baddychat

As mentioned in quite a few posts already, the race was a rather average one. The only thing it did was that it made the drivers championship interesting. The difference between Vettel and Kimi is down to around 5 points. Alonso is also catching up.

As sg_iitk mentioned, the tyre thing is getting worse this season. Did anyone notice the condition of the rubber on Alonso's tyres at the end of the race.

The scarlet cars were the quickest by a distance and Alonso overtaking Kimi as if he was standing also showed how good the Ferrari's were this weekend. The only concern IMO is that they need to be consistent to challenge Red Bull for the constructors championships. The second half of the season has races where Vettel will come into his own and a few circuits where he absolutely loves driving.

Alonso looks poised to take away the drivers championship from Vettel this time !!

The state of the tires were exacerbated by the fact that drivers drive on marbles after the race is complete to gain weight they would have lost from degradation. Hence the blister like look.

On the whole, as has been voiced, a procession like race that would have pleased few fans unless they were Alonso or Kimi fans (like me). Pity the silver arrows made a complete mockery of themselves. Those cars are way too aggressive on their tires and are primed for low fuel quali runs instead of heavy load in race trim. One wonders if James Allison is the man who can fix these problems for them?

Glad to see redbull struggle, finger boy can complain all he wants about tires. But then again, Pirelli does need to relook their compound selection for future race. What with 2014 cars expected to be almost 5 seconds a lap slower than current cars, who wants to see F1 cars being driven at 90% already?

Bring on Moncao, another procession, unless it rains?

[viny2k8]

The Race season has been dominated by Tyre wear issues right from the outset. Pirelli's have been nothing short of horrible.
Like the other posts have already pointed out... Four Stop Strategy for just tyres seemed to be getting way out of hand. Save a few teams/driver strategies like Kimi's everyone else seemed to be struggling... The Tyres were in a real bad shape at the end of the Race like that of Alonso and Massa's... The Monaco Street Circuit looks to be very interesting battle with the points pretty tightly packed.
Can't wait for Monaco then!!

[Baddychat]

Originally Posted by TNiranjanT

The state of the tires were exacerbated by the fact that drivers drive on marbles after the race is complete to gain weight they would have lost from degradation. Hence the blister like look.

On the whole, as has been voiced, a procession like race that would have pleased few fans unless they were Alonso or Kimi fans (like me). Pity the silver arrows made a complete mockery of themselves. Those cars are way too aggressive on their tires and are primed for low fuel quali runs instead of heavy load in race trim. One wonders if James Allison is the man who can fix these problems for them?

Glad to see redbull struggle, finger boy can complain all he wants about tires. But then again, Pirelli does need to relook their compound selection for future race. What with 2014 cars expected to be almost 5 seconds a lap slower than current cars, who wants to see F1 cars being driven at 90% already?

Bring on Moncao, another procession, unless it rains?

Thank you for the explanation. I did not know that they drive on marbles to gain weight Yeah and finger boy aint happy but he has got to live with it this season !!

I was reading somewhere that Pirelli has promised to tweak their compounds. Even if they do so, the earliest the teams could get access to these tires would be Silverstone. Even if they get in an improved compound, the need testing right ? And all the teams need to agree on a change for it to be incorporated. Ferrari, Lotus and Force India would not agree to a change, maybe. Yesterday's race had about 66 pit stops which is way too high.

AFAIK Pirelli's contract is yet to be renewed for next season, which is apparently making them rethink on a newer compund. But even if they aren't given a new contract who would it go to. I do not think Michelin is making a comeback anytime soon. Bridgestone did not find the F1 related publicity in keeping with the costs. Teams which back these tires have been saying that the intent of these compounds was to last 20 laps to make the races more interesting. Maybe the this was not the level of degradation they had been expecting.

We have 2 races to go before a possible change in Silverstone, Monaco and Canada. I think you correctly pointed out that Monaco should be a Silver Arrow 1-2. They would be fastest in qualifying and then as it is difficult to overtake, they just need to protect their lead. The procession would be repeated. Schumi took the pole in Monaco last year.