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.

FIA post-race press conference - Spain

Q: Fernando, as you were saying, the first time the race has been won from that far back on the grid. Obviously your third win on home soil. Can you describe the emotion you’re feeling right now?
FA: Very good again. It’s very special winning at home. It doesn’t matter how many times you can do it, how many you repeat it, it’s always like starting from zero and you have again very emotional last laps, very long last laps because you want to finish obviously as soon as possible. Extremely happy for the team to have both cars on the podium after a difficult qualifying that maybe we were not too fast yesterday. But we knew we had the pace on the long runs and we wanted to have some clear air to exploit this potential in the car. We did it. Everything worked perfect. Happy for the team, for the fans and hopefully this is not a one-off.
Q: Obviously you took a lot of points today out of Sebastian Vettel as well. The start was clearly crucial, as was the timing of the first stop - you undercut Vettel at that point but at what stage of this grand prix did you feel you had it under control.
FA: Let’s see, after the last stop. Until that point you never know what can happen. We had more or less an easy race in terms of traffic etc but we know Kimi was on a different strategy but you never know how the tyres are going to behave. When we pit two or three laps later than Kimi and we were first, at that point.
Q: Kimi, we heard you say on the podium there you were disappointed you didn’t win. You had a different strategy to Fernando, doing one stop less than the Ferrari today. Was there a point at which you thought you might have an opportunity to challenge Fernando for the win today?
KR: Maybe half way through. Obviously, we were leading but when we were on old tyres and he had newer tyres, it’s too easy to overtake. There’s no point to really fight against [him] because you cannot hold him behind. I knew if I could somehow stay a bit more closer, even with old tyres, maybe I have some chance, even if I’m already behind and will be with old tyres in the end but you never know. But they were just too fast. He had a good start around the outside of me. I don’t think the end result really was decided there but we just did a different way of doing the race. It wasn’t a winning way today but… We’re never happy if we’re not winning. We’re only here to try to win. But we kind of caught up with Vettel few points and obviously Fernando caught me up [by] some points but we’re still in the hunt and we’ll keep ourselves there and hopefully in the future just try to win a bit more.
Q: Consistency is the key though, isn’t it? It’s the fourth time in five races you’ve stood on the podium, including that win in Australia and as you say you’ve got it down to just five points to Vettel. How do you feel about your championship situation and what comes from here?
KR: Obviously it’s better than before the race now. It will not be easy. We cannot fight against… it’s the same for everybody. Everybody wants to win it, but sometimes you have a bad day. You try to minimise those and make the most out of them and give yourself a chance to be up there and fight for wins. I think if you can do that often it will give a good chance in the end to fight for the championship. It’s only a five race-old season, so there’s an awful lot to be raced. We’ll see what happens. We’ll try to do well and see where we are in the end.
Q: Felipe, your first podium of 2013. You recovered from your penalty in starting ninth to finish in third today. What does this result say about you and Ferrari this season?
FM: Well, I think a bit disappointed for what’s happening yesterday. These things happen many times and no penalties happen so I’m disappointed with that. I didn’t cause him any issues for him in the qualifying, so I’m disappointed for that. The race was good. Very good start; very good beginning of the race; overtaking cars; trying to be aggressive, you know and passing people, which was the case. I tried to undercut people as well, stopping before. Maybe it was a little bit early as well. Looking at the end of the race I thought I maybe had the opportunity to fight with Kimi. But I think it was a great race, we did a good job. Our car was really superb for this track. The degradation on the tyres was not Lotus but I think we did the best as we’re supposed to do and we showed a good performance that I expected to have from Friday. I think we are [heading] in a good direction so I hope from now on we are fighting for the podium every race, especially in the race, which is where it counts. Qualifying we know is not easy for us. We are pushing very hard to improve the car, to make the car quicker in qualifying. But we know we have a good car for the race so I hope me and Fernando are having great races from now and until the end of the year.
Q: And looking at your performance across this weekend, from what you felt in the car, do you feel that you could be winning races soon?
FM: Yeah, definitely.

Pirelli to reduce number of pit stops by British Grand Prix

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery has said that the company are aiming to bring the number of pit stops per race down in time for the British Grand Prix on June 30 following Sunday’s pit stop-dominated race in Spain.
The Italian manufacturer has helped to promote some fantastic racing since becoming Formula One racing’s official tyre supplier in 2010, but Hembery admitted that the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España 2013 at Barcelona - won by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on a four-stop strategy - featured too many stops.
“Our aim is to have (each car make) between two and three stops at every race, so it’s clear that four is too many: in fact, it’s only happened once before, in Turkey during our first year in the sport,” he said.
“We’ll be looking to make some changes, in time for Silverstone, to make sure that we maintain our target and solve any issues rapidly.”
In total, there were 79 pit stops in the race at Barcelona, with the majority of runners (12) opting for a four-stop strategy. Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen finished the highest of the six three-stop runners, coming home in second.

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Spanish GP: Fernando Alonso takes commanding home win for Ferrari

Fernando Alonso sent the Spanish Grand Prix into ecstasy as the Ferrari driver and home hero charged to his first Barcelona victory since 2006.
Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus emerged as Alonso's main rival, while Sebastian Vettel and the front-row-starting Mercedes faded in the race.
Felipe Massa moved in the opposite direction, recovering from a penalised ninth on the grid to take the final podium spot.
In a race full of tyre conservation, Alonso's approach from the outset was to charge.
While Vettel split the Mercedes into Turn 1, Alonso accelerated around the outside of both Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton at Turn 3 to move into third.
Rosberg clung on at the front of the field through the first pitstops.
By the time they were done, Alonso was his main rival, having pitted one lap ahead of Vettel and jumped the Red Bull.
Rosberg's plunge down the order began on lap 12, when Alonso passed him into Turn 1, and Vettel and Raikkonen further demoted him before the lap was complete.
Once in front, Alonso began to pull away.
Despite running longer, Vettel turned out to be on the same four-stop strategy as Alonso, but unable to match the Ferrari's sheer pace.
Raikkonen, however, could pull off a three-stop. He lost time behind Vettel in the middle of the, then raised his pace after overtaking the Red Bull on lap 33.
Lotus had a potential edge going into the closing stages, with Raikkonen a few seconds ahead of Alonso at a point when both had a single stop to go.
But on his fresher tyres, Alonso stormed up behind Raikkonen at a rate of two seconds per lap, breezed past the Lotus then vanished into the distance, swiftly building a 12-second advantage.
Raikkonen was left to keep half an eye on Massa, who had been rapid all afternoon and got a green light from Ferrari to try to catch the Lotus. Tyre wear stymied this and forced Massa to back off again, but third was still safe.
Vettel's attempts to run longer on tyres ultimately cost him so much pace that he fell behind the earlier-pitting Massa.
The world champion had to settle for fourth, followed by his team-mate Mark Webber.
Mercedes' fade ended with Rosberg pulling off a three-stop in sixth and his despondent team-mate Hamilton right out of the points in a lapped 12th, having gone into freefall following his first stop.
Paul di Resta's Force India chased Rosberg home.
McLaren ended up eighth and ninth. Jenson Button had tumbled to 17th in the opening laps, but nursed his tyres through three stops and emerged ahead of his early-charging, but four-stopping, team-mate Sergio Perez.
Daniel Ricciardo fended off Esteban Gutierrez to give Toro Rosso the final point.
It was still a breakthrough day for Gutierrez, as a long first stint meant Sauber's rookie managed to lead a Formula 1 race for the first time.
Last year's Barcelona winner Pastor Maldonado struggled home 14th, recovering from a pitlane speeding penalty to get there.
Romain Grosjean was an early retirement with skewed right rear suspension on his Lotus.
Two pitlane incidents attracted stewards' attention.
Caterham could face sanctions after Giedo van der Garde lost a wheel on his out-lap, while Nico Hulkenberg had an unsafe release penalty following a pitlane clash with Jean-Eric Vergne, prior to which both had been points contenders.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team 
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari
 2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 3.  Massa          Ferrari
 4.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault
 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes
 7.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
 8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes
 9.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes
10.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
11.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari
12.  Hamilton       Mercedes
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes
14.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault
15.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari
16.  Bottas         Williams-Renault
17.  Pic            Caterham-Renault
18.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth
DNF  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari
DNF  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault
DNF  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault

World Championship standings, round 5:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel         89        1.  Red Bull-Renault          131
 2.  Raikkonen      85        2.  Ferrari                   117
 3.  Alonso         72        3.  Lotus-Renault             111
 4.  Hamilton       50        4.  Mercedes                   72
 5.  Massa          45        5.  Force India-Mercedes       32
 6.  Webber         42        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           29
 7.  Di Resta       26        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          8
 8.  Grosjean       26        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5
 9.  Rosberg        22       
10.  Button         17       
11.  Perez          12       
12.  Ricciardo       7       
13.  Sutil           6       
14.  Hulkenberg      5       
15.  Vergne          1