European Grand Prix- Race Review

A safe and sure race from all 24 drivers as they all finished the eighth race of the season in Valencia whose street circuit hosted the European Grand Prix. The headlines though belonged to the Red-Bulls as they secured another 1-2 plus a 6^th win of the season for Sebastian Vettel as he finished a comfortable 10 seconds ahead of team-mate Mark Webber. This extinguished any criticisms of the last race where Vettel ran out of stamina and concentration as he had his lead stripped off him on the final lap of the 4 hour race following a 2 hour rain interval. Sebastian raced through however and never looked in danger of losing the lead yesterday.

Superb race from Vettel

Straight from the start it wasn’t to be McLaren’s day as both the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso found their way past Lewis Hamilton on the first lap. It was to be a frustrating day for Lewis as he crossed the line in 4^th place. Jenson Button despite losing position at the start of the race which he won back with a magnificent overtake on Nico Rosberg, could only manage 6^th place where he qualified. 

Hamilton loses out on lap 1

As for the Ferraris they will have been delighted with their finishes of 3^rd from Fernando Alonso and 5^th from Felipe Massa. A podium finish for Ferrari will have angered the McLarens and after such a positive weekend for McLaren (asides Hamilton) in Canada to be so far off the pace in Valencia will have worried McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh. The only consolation for McLaren is that Hamilton dug deep to beat Massa. Even-Stevens then between the 2 nearest Red-Bull challengers but in my opinion Ferrari have had the better weekend.  

   Other commendations go to Jaime Alguersuari of Toro-Rosso for putting in a superb drive to finish 8^th and pick up 4 points. Adrian Sutil also did well for Force-India Mercedes as he finished 9^th for 2 points.

A good weekend for Ferrari

As a Formula 1 fans we all love to see wheel-to-wheel action and the occasional big smash but this race lacked either of these things. I agree with the FIA that tracks should be sprinkled with water before a race to liven things up. After all we all tune in for entertainment don’t we? I hope the next race will be much more exciting. I also expect the Red-Bulls to be similarly dominant next time out at Silverstone due to the number of high speed corners. The Red-Bulls have a lot of downforce, thus being able to keep their power down in the corners better.  And that next race at Silverstone on the 10^th July. Until then goodbye racing fans!