It's probably not Grand Prix 1, 2, 3 or 4, but, you know, it could be fun - Web-based motorsport gaming? Yes please.

Apparently you work your way up the motorsport heirarchy, eventually arriving in F1 or NASCAR (which, to be fair, we're not sure is the "ultimate challenge").

According to the blurb you have to "listen to our drivers - winning isn't just about speed and reactions, it's about understanding the technology and how Mobil 1 keeps engines running at their peak." Not quite sure what this will involve. Something about oil, probably.

Like death, taxes and penalties for Lewis Hamilton - That's right, another one of life's inevitabilities has struck again: Bernie's getting married.

And, as is de rigueur with aging billionaires, his bride to be is only the small matter of 46 years younger than him.

We're sure it's his sparkling personality.

P.S. Tamara's not going.

Are you a small business? Look this way  - You can enter a competition with Vodafone to put your logo on the McLaren cars at the British Grand Prix, which is pretty nifty. The information we've got isn't exactly the most clear, but it appears you have to have Vodafone phones for your business and sign up for their VIP service online.

Last year's winners were Swimhut.com.

To be fair, this could have been a lot worse - While it feels a bit rich for The Sun, albeit their Scottish scion, to be criticising someone for being sexist, we do feel that given Bernie's track record this could have been a lot worse.

Referring to Scottish racing driver Susie Wolff, he said:

Word association with Mark Webber - Russell Ford, designer of Minimal Movie Posters has had a crack at a Mark Webber poster on the theme of True Grit.

To be completely honest, POP prefers some of Russell's earlier work. But what do we know? And that's a rhetorical question.

True (Aussie) Grit

This article "Podium or Pits? It's Grand Prix POP!" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

This year sees a reworking of the Hot Rod or Hot Dog feature. Rather than looking in detail at all of the grid, we'll be selecting drivers who we think deserve recognition for strong performances and those who, quite frankly, should be ashamed of themselves.

Pastor Maldonado

We've already done him - read it here.

Sebastian Vettel

Just how fast was Vettel this weekend? On Sunday, he got a bad start, but fought back. He had to undertake a drive-through for ignoring yellows - allegedly - but fought back from that too. Broken front wing needing a change? Not our problem for our World Champion.

Couple in a few fantastic overtakes on Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg (twice) and it was a breathtaking performance. Our only wish was that the race had been 5 laps longer - imagine the scrap him and Kobayashi would have had. Can't have it all though!

Charles Pic

Photo: Dunbar/LAT

Last time out in Bahrain Charlie-boy was here for beating his team-mate and looking fast in only his 4th race. Three weeks later, and it's all forgotten thanks to his direct influence on the race result.

In the crucial phase of the race when Pastor Maldonado pitted, and Fernando Alonso needed to put in a solid in-lap, there was Charlie in his Marussia. After not letting the Ferrari past after three blue flags, the Spaniard finally got past - but the damage was done. At least Fernando shot off the obligatory "I'm not very happy" left-handed wave.

The stewards slapped a drive-through on Pic, but the Marussia gave up at the same time. Must try [to get out of the way] harder.

Nico Hulkenberg

Photo: Force India

Nico Hulkenberg ended a three race pointless streak in Spain by taking 10th, but despite his solid drive it's impossible not to look at the ontrasting fortunes of the young German and the man who won the race.

Hulkenberg mercilessly destroyed Pastor Maldonado when the two were GP2 team-mates in 2009, then lost his drive to the Venezuelan at the conclusion of the 2010 campaign by dint of Pastor's hefty backing. Even after Sunday's result few in the know (Sir Frank included) would argue Maldonado to be the better driver but fate - and the downturn in the global economy - have pointed their careers in very different directions.

Romain Grosjean

Photo courtesy of Octane Photos

He had a quiet run - almost invisible, in fact - but Romain Grosjean was again impressive in Spain. He is now vindicating Eric Boullier's shrewd decision to partner him, not Petrov or Senna, with Kimi Raikkonen this season.

After out-qualifying Kimi, Grosjean got a poor start but recovered to P4 by the flag, 14 seconds off the win and over a minute clear of world champions Vettel, Hamilton and Button. We'd never have predicted it back in January, but Romain could well join the growing list of 2012 race winners some time this season.

Jenson Button

A weekend to forget for the McLaren man. His season has been a touch up and down, to put it mildly. His qualifying performances have, in general, been better than last year - two seconds, a fifth, a fourth and a tenth, with the latter coming in Barcelona. However, his race finishes are all over the place - a first, a second, a fourteenth, an eighteenth and a ninth. Really Jenson, what's been going on?

Concerningly, the man himself doesn't seem too sure, apart from that it's to do with the tyres:

"I think we're struggling in terms of pace and I'm definitely struggling in terms of finding a balance with the car. We haven't had the pace in the last two races. In reality we don't understand the tyres.

We still have a good car and I think the next race we could be quick again. But we won't understand why we are quick. We might pretend to but we won't understand."

To fix the problem you need to understand the problem. Good luck with that, Jenson.

This article "Driver Performance Analysis: Spain" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

With this, and another performance to forget, Massa Bashing is back.  If I'm honest, there had been an article planned after Bahrain, but a combination of a points finish from Felipe and yours truly being abused by his day job - where Radio 2 and Engelbert are regular features - prevented its production.

Following qualifying, a Ferrari spokesman told the Sunday Times that "We are disappointed in the outcome of Felipe but not with Felipe himself."  This, in response to an earlier "grammatical error" on the Ferrari twitter feed that had said the team were "disappointed" in Felipe.  As a sense of humour goes, this is pretty fantastic - we are not quite sure what's worse, disappointment in "Felipe himself" - the man - or disappointment in his outcomes.  Hats off to the Ferrari twitter person and their PR, you made me chuckle.

Of course, this only made me smirk at my hobbit-size kitchen table on Sunday morning because it eludes to the truth: Massa has been the pits.  I'm surprised this 'error' hasn't been made before.

At the Catalunya Circuit the Brazilian scaled heights previously scaled at earlier races, finishing ahead of the 'new teams' only.  He qualified 17th (pre-Lewis infringement saga) - the worst of the Q2 performers - and succeeded in not being faster than anyone that had qualified above him during the race.  His 15th place finish was awarded by way of Michael Schumacher's increasing reaction times.

To compare him with Alonso, he was 1.1 seconds slower in quali and 1 lap behind in the race.  That's right, he was lapped by his team-mate.  This time, however, there is much that needs to be said in Massa's defence.

Felipe Massa - 2 points - credit: felipemassa.com

In Massa's Defence

I think we'd all be kidding ourselves (and my F1 loving granny) if we thought that the developments Ferrari have made to their (unfortunately still dog ugly) car have been made to suit Massa's style.  The fact that he made a step backwards from where he was in Bahrain shows this.  Indeed, he struggled to get on top of the car all weekend.  And then there was the traffic he encountered on his flying Q2 lap.

If you take away his drive through penalty, there's still no way he would have been able to score a point.

On the drive through, it didn't come at the best time.  As he was about to pit - likely the lap that he took the penalty - he was forced to do an additional very slow in lap on worn tyres.  "Small potatoes", I hear you say.  Fair, but it really hurt his track position as this episode dropped him to the back of the competitive field - a field that he had jumped on the first lap.  And what a first lap!  He masterfully moved from 16th to 11th, a position that, from the lap charts, looked like a likely finishing position had he drawn the stewards eye.

With the way the cars have been eating there tyres when running behind each other this season, track position has become very important strategically, especially when, as in Barcelona, the DRS did not guarantee an overtake (take Rosberg's valiant defence and the fact that Kamui and Vettel passed at rather odd corners as evidence).

In Conclusion

Nonetheless, raw pace was nowhere to be seen.  After his last stop he remained in 15th place, behind all the competitive cars.  And there he remained, occupying the position for 20 laps, unable to make use of the fact that he fresher tyres than all the cars in front of him.

After Jackie Stewart shocked the motor racing world by endorsing Paul Di Resta, what do the reader's think of him stepping into the Ferrari before year's end?  Although this Badger still wants to see the painfully hip Alguersuari in the Ferrari it'd be a pity to lose him from 5 live, he's been fantastic.

This article "Massa Bashing: Round 5" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

It is a common misconception that if you cut a worm in half you get two worms. You don't. What you actually get is two dead pieces of worm. They will wriggle about a bit - as you would if someone chopped you in half - but ultimately it's just dead worm cutlets.

And that's no good, is it? You're better off with one complete living worm than two dead halves. Yet that's what we have this year with split F1 coverage on British TV screens. Instead of one great product - be it on BBC or Sky, I really don't care - we have two inferior broadcasts. Two wriggling bits of half-dead worm trying to catch our attention before the giant foot of destiny lands on their expiring bodies.

For the first time this year I split my strategy and watched the BBC for build-up and Sky Sports F1™ for the race. Returning to the BBC pre-race was very familiar and comfortable, like a big warm jumper made of men. It's Jake being overly earnest, basically turning his role into a drawn-out (and brilliantly executed) audition. DC meanwhile runs about in those tight white jeans like one of Mick Jagger's wives from the eighties, deadpanning all over the place and generally acting as the unlikely voice of reason.

And then there's Eddie Jordan. Eddie's like a captive bear, tethered to an unmovable pole made of his own ego and dancing to a tune that exists only in his own head. One day it will drive him mad and he'll chew off his own paws, but until then the children will come and throw money at his feet and he'll dance like his life depends on it.

If you hadn't twigged from the above ramble, I like the BBC presenting trio. The Three Stooges have a level of chemistry that is lacking on the Sky Sports F1™ effort. The familiar way in which Jake, EJ and Coulthard horse about can't be bought or created overnight. If Sky Sports F1™ anchor Simon Lazenby slung his arm around Johnny Herbert that way I think the little man would chin him. Johnny is, after all, from Romford, which is where the act of chinning someone was invented.

Furthermore, Coulthard's stroll around the track with Pedro de la Rosa was a laugh, if you like middle-aged millionaires having a joke in the sun (I do). You can't imagine Damon Hill doing that, can you? Damon has the look of a man who is always thinking about his tax return forms. Maybe you could have a laugh with him while he was filling out his tax return forms, but that would make for odd TV.

Elsewhere on the Beeb Lee McKenzie remains her brilliant doom-mongering self. She has not quite inherited the mantle of trailblazing proto-punk-rock feminist pioneer Louise Goodman yet, but she's in that league. In a sport that generally relegates women to the role of decorative lycra-clad baubles with bleached teeth, Lee holds her own, retaining her uncanny knack for accosting drivers and demanding to know how disappointed they are.

And that's not all. Following on from my post-Bahrain music rant, the BBC dropped a bit of Beastie Boys into the pre-race show. Now that's a proper choice of tune, and fitting following the recent passing of Adam Yauch. Mega.

But despite what a recent newspaper article may have said about me I'm not biased. Hey, it's not all perfect on the BBC. Technically brilliant as he may be, Gary Anderson scares me too much to really enjoy his contribution. He's like a girlfriend's dad with that lingering air of menace he carries about with him. You'd like to get on with him, but it's quite difficult given the fact that he knows what you're doing with his daughter. That's no basis on which to build a friendship.

But it could be worse - imagine being Gary Anderson's wife and having him saying he loved you. It would be like any normal person detailing some horrific murder in extreme detail.

Anyway, after the BBC build-up it was over to Sky for the race. I have nothing against Ben Edwards or DC as commentators, I'd just rather watch a GP with Martin Brundle calling the action. I'm used to it. It's like a big warm jumper made of a man from Kings Lynn.

I think I'll do this again in future, watch The Stooges do their thing pre-race and then entrust commentary duties to Martin and Crofty. It's not always going to be an option, but I can take the Sky only events as a chance to do some comparison work.

But I can't help but feel disappointed by this dilution of the coverage, this slicing in two of one good product to leave us with two inferior halves. I'm sure one will expire shortly - and I know which it'll be - and I can't help but feel disappointed about the way this has all played out.

A rouge reporter, Jack Lamure's view do not necessarily represent those of Badger GP or, indeed, his own opinions. 

NOTES AND UNMENTIONABLES 

* This weekend's GP Hangover was induced by a combination of London Pride, an ill-advised tequila, Pims, mysterious cider, Cava and several cans of Red Stripe.

* I don't think Johnny Herbert would ever chin anyone. He's a lovely bloke. That said I've never been to Romford and I aim to keep it that way.

* With some types of worm cutting it in half will not kill it but rather leave you with one very short worm and one dead bit of worm. But that didn't fit what I wanted to say, so I lied - lied about worms!

* Lee McKenzie should do the new line of Scottish Widows adverts. The way I see it, she's dressed in that sweeping black gown, billowing about a cemetery like a spectre at a party. She happens upon a young woman weeping over the grave of her gone-too-soon-husband. Lee proceeds to jam a microphone in front of the bereaved's face and say: "Hannah, the love of your life gone at 29 - sum up your disappointment for me."

* Sky Sports F1™. Just in case you were thinking of stealing it.

* If I found out Gary Anderson was my girlfriend's dad I'd politely break up with her and move to Guam. It simply wouldn't be worth the terror of Sunday dinner at their house. He knows his stuff though and is, jokes aside, an asset to the BBC team.

* Louise Goodman may or may not like punk rock. Regardless of what music she's in to, Louise is a very cool lady who took the wearing of bangels to whole new levels during the nineties.

* I feel bad about how mean I have become towards Damon Hill in this column, having called him 'a beared shop mannequin', implied that his face is haunted by George Harrison and now suggesting he has the look of a man always doing his taxes. Damon, if you're offended by this I'd suggest considering the fact that you're a multi-millionaire F1 world champion while I am a troubled copywriter who works from a tumbledown pub in South East London. You win mate.

This article "The Spanish Grand Prix Hangover" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

And the difference between Felipe and Michael is...

We're into the third season of the "Michael Schumacher Return Tour" and right now, it feels like watching an ageing rock band go through the motions. For us in the Sett, we're just waiting for that spark of old magic to shine once more, even for one single race. We don't know the point - eventually, he'll have to walk away again.

The thing that irks us is that how long can he keep trading on his name and keep making mistakes? If any other driver had hit Bruno Senna on Sunday, there'd be an enquiry into why that driver was there. With Michael, it's started, and then swept under the carpet. Because it's Michael.

Our patience can only last so long. A 40-year-old driver not performing is keeping a potential star away from a good race seat, hampering the development of the W03 and the progress of Nico Rosberg, because Mercedes want to make Michael happier. And after his worst ever start to a Formula One season, the clock is ticking very loudly indeed.

Felipe Massa is getting criticism for not matching up to Fernando Alonso. It's about time Michael got the same compared to Nico.

Some well needed words of encouragement - Photo: Mercedes F1 Media

Vettel had an absolute blinder

Much of Sunday's coverage focused on Pastor and Fernando up front, but Sebastian Vettel had quite the race behind them. The Bahrain winner started 7th (after Hamilton's penalty) and had to deal with the following:

• surviving the aftermath of Senna and Schumacher coming together.
• a front wing change (also suffered by teammate Mark Webber, who finished 11th)
• a drive through penalty (also suffered by Felipe Massa, who finished 15th)

Let's hear it for the champ - Photo: Red Bull Media

"You know when you've been KK'd" - Martin Brundle

There are some real cult heroes developing on the grid this season. Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez - and the list is growing after each race. One driver that had been in danger of falling away from that list was Kamui Kobayashi. Thanks to Sunday's performance, that's now far from the case.

He had loads of attention in 2009 and 2010 for his do-or-die mentality with overtaking, but last season he switched his style to be more consistent in terms of points scoring. Yay if you're a team owner, boo if you're a fan of on-track dicing.

Not this weekend though. Thanks to some upgrades from the Mugello test, the Sauber looks to be on the move up the grid and KK is seeing the benefits. He seemed more confident on the brakes more than anyone.  Just ask Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg.

It's a welcome return for the Japanese driver, who has been put in the shade slightly thanks to his team-mate's heroics in Malaysia.

Welcome back Kamui, more of the same please.

Photo: Sauber F1 Media

Seriously - did this just happen?

There's a period after every race where we have to take stock of what unfolde, to let it all sink in, then we get on with bringing you a few witty reports with photos.

And right now, it still hasn't sunk in.

Did we just see Pastor Maldonado win a Grand Prix? The same Pastor who only scored a single point over the course of last season, and used sideswiping Lewis Hamilton as a means of voicing his displeasure at Spa last year?

And did he just absorb a tremendous amount of pressure from Fernando Alonso, the king of high pressure driving?

Maybe we were wrong in our judgement of the Venezuelan. After all, before he got to Formula One, he was a dominant force in GP2 and knows how to win races. Why wouldn't he be so assured when the opportunity for race victory presented itself in such a way?

There are going to be many such changes in opinion of Maldonado. He was heavily tagged with the label of being a pay driver - something that we are guilty of - but this weekend showed us what the real Pastor is all about. It was the most impressive of the other "breakthrough" drives from the likes of Sergio Perez and Nico Rosberg that we've seen this season. It's not only the front-running teams that boast some of the best driving talent, that's for sure.

Photo from our very own Adam Mills!

The only thing to mar this weekend's celebrations was the fire in the Williams garage. We hope all involved, especially the injured, make a speedy recovery.

Lewis Hamilton - Pole-Axed

Overshadowing the impressive Maldonado was the whirlwind of excitement that was Lewis Hamilton being excluded from pole position on Saturday evening. The McLaren mechanic in charge of fueling the tank had the rig on "drain" instead of "fill", and the Brit ended up without the required 1 litre in the tank for scrutineering. It was a silly error that caused Twitter to nearly go into meltdown - from shouts of victimisation, corruption, bias, and quite ridiculously, racism.

Why always me? - Photo: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Now, when you break a rule, you should be punished. Because the only time this has happened before was Canada 2010 - by Lewis in his McLaren also - then a ruling was put in place. What this all smells like is the team thought the stewards wouldn't pull out the expulsion ruling and allow them to at least lose the pole position time, ending up a little bit further down. Maybe even be 11th. It was a risky gamble, but it backfired spectacularly.

In a way, it's good for the stewards to make a ruling like that. No other team has had the audacity to try and get away with making such a mistake, yet here's one of the front runners trying to muscle their way into, what they think, is the right. No dice McLaren.

But, there is still no consistency in terms of the enforcement of the rules.

Nahrain Karthikeyan didn't set a time within 107% of the pole time, but was allowed to race. What's the point of having the 107% rule is you are never going to enforce it?

Sergio Perez left the track at turn 3, only to rejoin onto the racing line, with Hamilton not only having to leave the track, but also losing positions heading into turn 4. The last time this happened, with Hamilton in Hungary and Paul Di Resta having to take avoiding action, Lewis got his wrist slapped.

It's about time a full-time panel of stewards are chosen to moderate the rules. Consistency is key is all terms of success in Formula One. The stewards should be part of that too.

This article "The Top 5 from Catalunya" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

Fernando gets a great start to fight for the lead into turn 1

Sheer joy for Pastor as stepped up on top of the podium

Loads more from over the weekend and the race

Photos via Williams, Lotus, McLaren, Force India, Marussia, Caterham, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Mercedes AMG and @AdamMillsF1

This article "The Best Pictures from Barcelona" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

On the other we have the aggressive drivers, those who will push hard, take risks and create opportunities. Men like Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton and a feisty Colombian who in the early years of this century seemed to epitomise this style of driving: Juan Pablo Montoya.

From the beginning of his F1 career, where he gave clear notice of his intentions with an audacious overtaking move on defending world champion Michael Schumacher at Interlagos, Montoya developed a reputation for driving every race with a full-blooded determination to win that tended to result in either a podium finish, or a retirement. Over the course of the ninety-five races in which he competed throughout his career, he achieved thirty podiums, including seven wins, and had twenty nine retirements.

Win or bust, the Montoya way - Photo: The Cahier Archive

His attitude towards his career off the track also showed a similar honest directness, which came out most clearly in his early retirement from F1, where disenchanted by his poor second season at McLaren he announced halfway through 2006 that he would be leaving Formula One to drive in NASCAR the following year.  This prompted McLaren to announce that Montoya was to stop driving for the team with immediate effect, his place being taken by their test driver Pedro de la Rosa for the rest of the season. As such fans were denied the chance to see him finish the season and reach his one hundredth race.

Juan Pablo Montoya was born in Bogotá, Colombia on 20^th September 1975, and began his motorsport career in karting, before moving on to Formula Renault in his native country, then moving to the UK and taking part in Formula Vauxhall and Formula 3, before joining RSM Marko to race in Formula 3000.  His performances there caught the attention of Frank Williams and he was invited to testing that year at Jerez with the Williams team, along with three other young drivers.  Montoya’s performance there impressed enough to get him a seat at Williams as a test driver for the 1998 season, which he did whilst also taking the title in his second season of Formula 3000.

Montoya’s performances there, which notably including lapping the entire grid in the race at Pau in France, should have guaranteed him a seat at Williams in F1, but in a strange driver exchange scheme Montoya was sent to the US to race for Chip Ganassi in the CART series, while Alessandro Zanardi moved in the opposite direction to return to F1 for Williams.  Montoya went on to become the youngest ever winner of the CART championship series that season, taking the title ahead of Dario Franchitti on number of wins, while Zanardi finished the season with no points, ten retirements and a highest placing of seventh at Monza.  The Italian was replaced by Jenson Button for the 2000 season.

Montoya spent 2000 again in the CART series, but also raced for Ganassi in the Indy 500 where he won the race on his debut, a feat last achieved by Graham Hill.  That weekend it was announced that Montoya would be returning to Williams, replacing Button, to race alongside Ralf Schumacher for the 2001 campaign.

His first season in F1 was in many ways a summary of what was to come: he finished only six out of seventeen races, but he was on the podium four times, including his debut victory at Monza.  The following season saw fewer retirements and more podiums and by 2003 Montoya had his best year in Formula One, finishing third in the championship with just three retirements and nine podiums out of sixteen races, including wins at Monaco and Hockenheim.

Photo: The Cahier Archive

The 2004 season was not a happy one for Montoya, with a combination of a difficult car and a strained atmosphere caused by the fact that he was due to leave Williams for McLaren at the end of the year, although he finished the season on a high, winning the Brazilian GP in his final race in the blue and white colours of Williams.

Unfortunately he was moving from one team with a difficult car to another and the first half of his debut season for McLaren was disappointing to say the least.  The second half was a different matter as Montoya adapted to the car and the team adapted the car to his driving and of the last nine races of the season he won three, with podiums in two others, and eventually finished in fourth place in the drivers’ championship.  The 2006 season began badly and didn’t improve, leading to his announcement that he would be racing in NASCAR the following season and his being dropped by the McLaren team.  In the event he made his debut in the stockcar at the end of the 2006 season, driving once again for Chip Ganassi, which he has continues to do to this day.

Photo: The Cahier Archive

Looking back, it is unfortunate in many ways that Montoya drove in F1 when he did, at a time when the sport was dominated by the clinical, cynical genius of Michael Schumacher, rather than in the more buccaneering era of the 1960s and 70s, or even in the macho turbo era of the 80s, when he might have had the opportunity to deliver his true potential.  It would be interesting to see what he would do in today’s Formula One, but this regret seems to be something felt more by the fans than by Montoya himself – he is doing very well for himself without the sport, but would Formula One be better with Juan Pablo Montoya?  I have to say, I think it probably would.

Photo: The Cahier Archive

This article "The last winner for Williams - Juan Pablo Montoya" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

There's absolutely no way we couldn't give the Top Dog award to the Venezuelan today. Truly extraordinary.

Photo: Williams/LAT

If we believed in such things at Badger, we'd say it was meant to be. Frank Williams' 70th birthday, Hamilton demoted to last place after qualifying and all the Williams and Maldonado clans around to witness.

In fact, of course, this victory was long in the making. After a dreadful season last year, the Williams team rejigged themselves, reordered their operations and released the potential we all knew was there [ed. did we?].

Perfect from start to finish, Maldonado dealt with the pressure of being on pole and wasn't fazed when Alonso surged past him off the line. From then on it was a wonderful example of controlled driving, smart strategy and great poise under pressure. The slight problem with the left rear tyre during his last pit stop might have distracted him, but he refocused and held off a charging Fernando Alonso.

It's been a long time coming for Williams, and a time we never thought we'd see for Maldonado. Well done to both.

This article "The Top Dog for Spain is..." originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

By the last ten laps the edge of our sofa was a distant memory – we were on the floor, glued to our televisual box.  Was it to be Pastor, Fernando or the Sett’s favourite Ice Lolly eater, Kimi Raikkonen?  The wily Spaniard attacked, dropped back to manage tyres and attacked again. We waited and waited for the cliff, intermittently entertained by the bravery of Kobayashi and Vettel, who together defied the laws of Catalunya to pass at corners other than turn one.

But Maldonado hung on. It was incredible. Well done Pastor, we doff our caps.  The organisational changes at Williams seem to have done the trick.

Photo Credit: The Cahier Archive

Michael Schumacher decided to continue with his worst start to an F1 season, running up the back of Bruno Senna into turn 1, spectacularly ending each driver’s race. We’re not quite sure whether we feel sorry for Michael yet, although we would side with the amiable Senna over the unscrupulous Red Baron.

It was a below par day for Red Bull with both cars having front wing changes (or a bizarre tactic?).  On top of this, Vettel was given a drive through penalty for not slowing for the yellow flags.  This makes us wonder what the wunderkid would have been able to do without this bad luck – after last season, however, we think he was due some.

In other news, Lewis Hamilton drove a mature race from the very back of the grid – avoiding many a collision in the process – to finish 8^th.  Button’s weekend went from poor to poor.  We think he was suffering from over-steer, or was it under-steer?  No matter.  He ho hummed around to an 9^th place finish.

If Lewis had have started from pole it all would have been so different.  Still no win for the young Briton in 2012.

Five winners in five races, two double world champions tied at the head of the standings and little to choose between the men behind them. We say it a lot but today it's impossible not to repeat our mantra yet again - F1 isn't boring!

This article "Pastor Maldonado wins in Barcelona!" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine

The only snag is that after his super-quick lap, he was told to stop the car out on track, which he duly did.  The rules state that all cars must return to the parc ferme after qualifying - the rule's there so that the FIA can ensure legality of the cars and what not.  The only acceptable circumstances are where the car is technically unable to make it back to the pits under its own power.  Whatever the situation, the car must have enough fuel left in it to make it back to the pits and also the litre sample remaining too, required for checking the fuel compound.

Hamilton's car was found to not have enough fuel left in it - this rule was put in place to stop teams running cars too light to give them more speed, but meaning they have to stop out on track - a huge nightmare for Lewis who now, throughout no fault of his own has to start from the back of the grid for the Grand Prix.

Maldonado is of course chuffed to hear he's inherited pole position, with some calling it a belated birthday gift for his team's owner, Sir Frank Williams (he turned 70 last month) -  Tomorrow's grand prix just got a little more exciting...

Maldonado happy with Pole Position for the Spanish GP - credit: Simon Lazenby via Twitter

Revised Grid for the Grand Prix

This article "Hamilton Disqualified - Maldonado inherits Pole Position" originally found on Badger GP - The F1 Webzine