Spain analysis - Ferrari strike back in style

After their disastrous Bahrain outing, Barcelona proved a near perfect weekend for Ferrari - and a tough one for Red Bull. As Fernando Alonso delighted his home fans with victory, team mate Felipe Massa joined him on the podium, a superb drive all but nullifying his qualifying grid penalty. And as the Scuderia cut Red Bull’s championship advantage to only 14 points, Kimi Raikkonen’s second place for Lotus reduced Sebastian Vettel’s lead atop the driver standings to just four. We take a team-by-team look at the Spanish form…
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, P1
Felipe Massa, P3
If Bahrain was a disaster for Ferrari, Spain more than made up for it. Alonso had to be patient early on after sprinting up to third, then made his moves stick as he undercut Vettel in the first stops and then overtook Rosberg on the track. Thereafter, though he had to keep a wary eye on Raikkonen, he was able to exploit clean air and control the race, and once he’d made his fourth stop and stayed ahead of the three-stopping Lotus, he knew he was home and dry. Massa made a strong start from ninth and was soon running sixth, then fifth, and was in the mix all afternoon. He was still disgruntled with his qualifying penalty, but was also delighted to finish on the podium for the first time in 2013. The 1-3 success puts Ferrari right back in contention.
Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen, P2
Romain Grosjean, Retired lap 9, rear suspension breakage
Raikkonen admitted that the Lotus didn’t quite have the pace to challenge the lead Ferrari, but a solid three-stop strategy was sufficient to reap him another excellent second place and move him within four points of Vettel’s championship lead. Grosjean should have been there in the mix, but retired early when something in his right-rear suspension broke and gave him rear-wheel steering.
Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, P4
Mark Webber, P5
Red Bull just lacked pace, though the team insisted it was the tyres rather than any intrinsic lack of speed in the RB9 that was the limiting factor in their performance. Vettel couldn’t stay with the Ferraris or Raikkonen’s Lotus, while Webber had to fight back after making a poor start.
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, P6
Lewis Hamilton, P12
Mercedes had another horrible race. After all the pace of qualifying, Hamilton faded almost instantly in a car he found ruined its tyres the moment he pushed, even though such tactics had worked superbly in Bahrain. Rosberg led for a while but soon found his car destroying its tyres too, and faded to an eventual sixth. That was not as desperate as Hamilton’s plight, however, as the perplexed 2008 champion was at a loss to explain his lowly 12th place.