2012 Spanish Grand Prix Recap
Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

2012 is proving to be a very exciting season so far for formula 1 fans with no "one-team" domination as in recent years, and the Spanish Grand Prix was no exception, providing us yet another new winner.

After what seemed to be a fantastic qualifying round for McLaren, Lewis Hamilton was forced to start at the back of the grid after stewards ruled he was under-fueled for his final run, giving runner-up Pastor Maldonado and Williams the pole and they surely made the most of it.

Pastor Maldonado became 2012's fifth winner in five races holding off Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in a spectacular drive for Williams. This was their first victory since 2004. Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen finished third, team mate Romain Grosjean was fourth, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi fifth and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel sixth.

Pastor Maldonado said in the press conference after winning his first race:

“For me, for the team, we’ve been pushing so hard to try to improve race by race and here we are.

Yesterday we had a great qualifying and today again it was a tough race because the strategy as well was hard because the rear tires after a couple of lap we were struggling.

But I’m really happy because the car was so competitive since the first lap. Fernando did a better start than me but I was just following the pace and it was so great.

It’s my first podium and my first victory so you can imagine what I feel.”

Sources f1fanatic.co.uk & formula1.com

 

It was a great race, and so much fun to see someone new win. This season has been off to a great start so far with so many different drivers and teams mixing it up on the podium! Kimi looked downright disappointed with 3rd place but hopefully we'll see him on the top step soon.

 

^^agreed! Hopefully this has provided enough of a spoiler alerts for those that can't control themselves (like me lol) to log into the site until they can watch the race in full !

 

yeah if the lapping situation was a bit different Kimi could have gotten past Alonso.

Great to have Williams back in action though.

Side note ... the cars are just way too hideous now ... can we go back to early 90s look (and 1200bhp v12s)

 

I guess it was just some more of 'bad luck' for Schumacher.

 

It has indeed, thank you SIR!!!!

 

Did any of you guys watch the end of the Sky Sports coverage showing the huge fire? Whoa!

 

Great Race.. Congratz to Maldonado a Williams..

what do you guys think about the schumi-senna accident?? who was to blame?

 

huge fire?

 

I think Schumi made a poor effort in trying to pass Senna. He had much fresher tires and should have either committed the pass sooner and more deliberately, or just waited a few turns when another (and better) opportunity presented itself.