In The Mirrors: Spanish GP

The start of the European season has arrived and nothing seems to be able to stop Jenson Button at the moment. Ferrari have picked up the pace, but are still embarrassingly unreliable, whilst Mclaren seem to have lost any advantage they had picked up over the past two races. However, it's still very tight at the back of the grid...

Starting off with qualifying, and this time it was Kimi Raikkonen's turn to make the classic Ferrari error of not going for a second run. Why didn't they learn their lesson from Malaysia? Who knows, but it meant that any chance he had of points was now very unlikely.

Both Force Indias lined up on the back row, and it doesn't look like they will be improving any time soon. Heikki Kovalainen proved that the Mclaren has slipped backwards since Bahrain, whilst team-mate Lewis Hamilton didn't achieve much more, starting four places above the Finn.

BMW seem to have made some progress, with Kubica even making the top 10. He may even have qualified higher had the mechanics not confused their left and their right, resulting in the tyres being fitted incorrectly.

Moving onto the race, and a pretty impressive crash in the second corner. Four drivers had to call it a day after Jarno Trulli slid wide in the gravel, collecting Adrian Sutil, whilst the Toro Rosso's ran into each other trying to avoid the accident.

Nelson Piquet, Robert Kubica and Lewis Hamilton were all fairly lucky to get away without being hit - Hamilton's bad start possibly saving him from getting involved and ending his race.

Once the safety car had done it's work, Kovalainen's Mclaren took the opportunity to pack up, meaning another DNF added to his tally. He was soon followed by fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen, once again showing how unreliable Ferrari's of today have become.

Despite his poor start, Hamilton was working his way up the order with his heavy fuel load, and was looking good for a handful of points. However, his habit of taking too much out of the tyres returned, meaning he could only finish ninth by the end.

Robert Kubica remains pointless for the 2009 season, and despite qualifying behind his team-mate, Nick Heidfeld was able to score a couple of points for the team. Robert can't blame KERS this time as neither car had it, so he needs to get a move on.

Ferrari looked like they were back on form with Felipe Massa running up in fourth place. What could possibly go wrong? Surely they must have put enough fuel in the car to finish the race? Yep, Massa ended up sixth, and was almost taken by Heidfeld after his 1:38 final lap.

Brawn and Red Bull seem to be the front-runners, whilst Force India remain as the back-markers. Ferrari and BMW have improved, Renault remain where they are, and Mclaren have slipped back. Who would have thought this back in January/February?

I would just like to finish with a nice statistic:
Jenson Button has 41 points.
Ferrari, Mclaren, BMW and Renault (The four 'big teams' currently in F1) have a combined total of 33.

A lot can change in a year!