Welcome to Badger’s fickle barometer of F1-related stories from the Spanish grand prix, otherwise known as the Badgerometer! Here’s our top 5 from the race…
At No 1 it’s the Red Bulls. ‘In their own league’, staggering, untouchable, speedy-gonzalez, lightningly-quick, ‘Whoah!’, wowzers, Gordon Bennett!! Call it whatever you like, the pace of the Red Bulls in Spain was quite simply embarrassing for all the other teams on the grid. Although they still can’t quite shake off their unreliability gremlins, with poor Vettel having to drive the final 6 laps with effectively ‘no’ brakes.
But with that kind of pace, and two very talented drivers, it’s a potent mix for potential championship success.
At No 2, it’s Hamilton’s gravel-splashing spectacular crash in the dying minutes of the grand prix. Ok, so the race at Catalunya wasn’t as dull as the season opener in Bore-rain, but Hamilton’s exit from 2nd place certainly livened up the finish. Of course, I’m not advocating crashes – they’re very dangerous. However, Formula 1 simply wouldn’t be Formula 1 without its fair share of smashes and crashes.
And yes, it was very disappointing for Hamilton to score a big fat ZERO when he was lining up nicely for a podium (and 2nd place in the drivers’ championship). There are no prizes for guessing how the Spanish crowd reacted to Hamilton’s demise, and Alonso’s corresponding elevation to 2nd place.
Making his first appearance in the Badgerometer’s top 5 this year is …. Michael Schumacher at No 3. Having been miffed with him in a past Badgerometer, Schumacher has finally turned the corner in what has so far been an uncharacteristically poor start to the season. 4th place isn’t too shabby when you consider the relative performance of the cars ahead of Schumacher.
Clearly the updated Mercedes (they changed the weight distribution) very very much suits Schumacher rather than his team-mate Rosberg, who until now was quite firmly putting the granddaddy of Formula 1 in his place.
At 4, it’s the Virgin Racing team, who officially popped their F1 cherries (so to speak) and managed to get BOTH cars to finish a race. Well done chaps, you are now real men. All you need to do now is, err, get quicker. A LOT quicker in fact. Otherwise they’ll simply be slow-moving (and highly irritating) roadblocks when we arrive in Monaco on Wednesday.
No 5 is a small mention of Jaime Alguersuari’s race. Being his ‘home’ race (Jaime is Spanish and therefore knows Catalunya pretty well), this was always going to be a better-than-average weekend for the Toro Rosso driver. It was all looking so peachy for Jaime off the start, making up an advantageous 7 places up to 9th. But then came a drive-through penalty for knocking the front wing off the car of the unsuspecting Chandhok. At the chequered flag he took 10th, and an all-important point for the Toro Rosso team. Plus we got a nice little mid-field story unfolding thanks to Jaime’s penalty. Good stuff!
This week I’m a tad miffed with the absence of David Coulthard. Eddie Jordan having his own free-reign over our televisions screens is not a pretty sight, but I’ll give him his due, the shirt this week wasn’t too bad. I’d probably give the shirt a 6 out of 10, and that’s me being extremely generous. When DC is around at least someone talks some sense. It is no coincidence that the best of the BBC crew are ex-F1 drivers.
Frankly if anyone should be missing for a week it should be Jonathan Legard.
What are your top stories from the Spanish grand prix? Here at Badger we love a good old natter!
