Alonso was his usual self, showing up his rookie teammate Piquet Jr. Although Renault also managed to qualify fairly high up in Barcelona, he was light on fuel, and you can expect the same strategy here.
Race
Massa and Hamilton got of the line well. At the first left-hander, Kimi puts his car inside Heikki's under braking. As Heikki drove his intended line, Kimi was squeezed to the apex, thought better of it, and braked even harder to back off. He would lose so much momentum that he would be passed by Kubica and Alonso on the outside.
Just when you thought everyone had made the first corner, Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India gets launched 4 feet into the air over the rear wing of rookie Nakajima. He braked way too late into the corner and that brought out the safety car.
Heikki comes into the pits within the first few laps—he had a slow puncture in his left-rear tyre. Evidently, he had come into contact with Kimi’s front wing at the first corner, which now also had a broken endplate. Because the safety car bunched the field up, Heikki was dropped to the back of the field. On lap 5 of 58, he was about 3 second behind Sutil, who was previously in last place. Heikki would make it up to 12th place at the end of the race, finishing +1 lap behind the leaders.
Kimi passes Alonso easily on the back straight after Turn 11. The Alonso I know doesn’t really let people by that easily. Watching the replay, Alonso slowed down noticeably before the braking and slipped in line behind Kimi. Perhaps knew that he was racing Webber, and that any time lost in a fruitless fight against Kimi would only harm his race. As much as I enjoy a proper fight, I admire Alonso for what I consider a very mature decision.
It is this ability to see the overall big picture of a race that has earned him two consecutive world championships. On the other hand, it can be construed that Alonso let Kimi past so as to appease the Ferrari bosses, as he would probably like to drive a Ferrari in the future if his Renault remained a midfield car.
Alonso pits early, as expected. This makes Webber’s qualifying lap all the more impressive, as he goes three laps longer. That Red Bull is starting to show some pace in the hands of both drivers and is certainly more reliable that last year’s RB3.
Another early stopper on was Hamilton. This perfectly explains why he appeared slightly dejected yesterday afternoon. He was fueled to go on pole, but he only ended up qualifying third. He would be stuck behind Massa’s heavier car in the first stint when what he really needed to do was open a gap at the front.
After proclaiming, “I own this track” before the race, Massa had a great start from the clean side of the track. He would run the ideal two-stop strategy and keep Hamilton behind him for more than two of Hamilton’s four stints. After Hamilton completed his second of three stops and while Massa had completed his final stop, Hamilton pulled alongside Massa under braking and passed him going into the slow final corners. Massa temporarily lost his composure, and put in a few laps off his previous pace.
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