Button wins Monaco Grand Prix as this is his fifth victory of sixth race of this season. Button followed by Barrichello who secured second position at start of grand prix. Despite he had rear tyre graining with super soft tires in the first stint he succeeded to stay ahead of Raikkonen who seemed faster than him in the first stint with harder tires. Raikkonen followed by his team mate Massa in fourth who posted the fastest lap of the race.
Webber who managed to pass Rosber with the strategy was fifth. Alonso was seventh after a very long first stint with harder tires. The last point was Bourdais’s who secured to stay ahead of Fisichella. Vettel and Kovalainen retired after they crashed while they were in a position to score some points. Hamilton who started at the back of the grid could only be 12th.
Jenson Button once again got pole position this season at Monaco Grand Prix. Despite his struggle in early stages of Qualify today he did an exceptional lap at dying moments of Q3 and secured pole position. Raikkonen was second just 0.025 seconds behind Button despite he was the fastest man in Q2 with almost six tenths quicker than last years best Q2 time. Barrichello from Brawn was third ahead of Vettel in fourth who didn’t seem to be on pace this week. Massa was fifth who crashed his car at the beginning of Q1 but was lucky enough to continue. Rosberg was sixth, Kovalainen seventh and Webber was eight before tomorrow’s race.
The real drama was Hamilton’s crash at first session after posting the best first sector time. Hamilton seemed very strong all week here and he could deliver a very strong performance today if he didn’t crash. Another big surprise was seeing both cars of teams BMW and Toyota to be knocked out in Q1 while Force India and Torro Rosso drivers were in top 15. Car weights are yet to be published by FIA, but most of the time strategy is more important at this circuit than the raw speed.
Jenson Button wins Spanish Grand Prix as this is his fourth victory of this season. Despite he has been passed by Barrichello at the start, Brawn changed him to a two stop strategy while Rubens was on a three stop. Barrichello finished second ahead of Webber who has made best use of softer tyre in his second long stint. He is followed by team mate Vettel. Vettel’s race passed at the rear of Massa thankls to a good start with use of KERS.
Due to a fuel rig problem at Mass’s last pit stop, Massa was forced to conserve fuel and drop two places during the closing laps. Alonso passed Massa at last lap while he was 16 seconds behind him until Massa started to slow down. Alonso finished fifth. Massa finished sixth just 1.6 seconds in front of Heidfeld. The last point scorer was Rosberg ashe finished eight.
Button will start tomorrow’s race from pole position as he secured his third pole position of this season. He managed to start his last flying lap in Q3 when just a couple of seconds left to the finish and he described his last lap as the best of the weekend after qualifying. Vettel was second only one tenth of a second slower than Button. Barrichello was third as he was first until the very last moments of Q3.
Another good performer of Qualifying was Massa who will start fourth on the grid, the only man with KERS at top ten. He was fastest at Q1 and was only two tenths slower than the fastest man Barrichello in Q2. It seems Ferrari improved a lot after their latest updates. Webber will start fifth in front of both Toyota’s as Glock sixth and Truli seventh. Countryman Alonso was eight fastest as he managed to pass to Q3 at last second. The last two drivers at top ten was Rosberg and Kubica who will start ninth and tenth respectively.
The Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona is one that every F1 team knows well from the hundreds of kilometres of testing carried out there over the winter. Few venues offer such a variety of medium and high-speed corners and it is widely acknowledged as the definitive aero circuit that provides a stern test of an F1 car. With few big braking zones and so many high-speed corners, overtaking remains extremely difficult and a good qualifying performance and sensible strategy are paramount for a successful weekend.
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamic efficiency is always a key factor at Barcelona, although the introduction of the chicane at the end of the lap in recent years has replaced on of the most critical high-speed parts of the lap and means the track is not as demanding as it once was. Even so, the circuit remains the ultimate test of a car’s aero package and teams will run with high downforce levels to ensure competitiveness over the whole lap.