A DRY race should have made it tough at Catalunya for all but Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in the Spanish Grand Prix last Sunday.
But as it was, fate played its hand and one each of the three top teams fell out due to incidents, giving some of the others a chance.
Lewis Hamilton drove at his usual best and a combination of good driving, the imposition of the virtual safety car and tyre strategy gave him the upper hand over Sebastian Vettel.
They gave us an exciting race to the chequered flag and were less than four seconds apart at the finish.
A little way back in third was a hard-working Daniel Ricciardo. He deserved his podium spot but both he and Max Verstappen really deserve some extra Renault power which they expect soon.
Qualifying had been an exciting affair with Hamilton beating Vettel into pole position.
On the second row were Valterri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen.
HERE WAS ROD’S PREVIEW: Let it rain in Spain
Notably, Fernando Alonso had hauled his McLaren Honda up to seventh position.
At the start Vettel got away first and held off Hamilton comfortably to the first round of pit stops. This all changed in the latter part of the race as I have explained above.
There were a number of incidents and, in one alone, Bottas, Raikkonen and Verstappen clashed.
None of them finished the race although, in the case of Bottas, it was due to his engine expiring on lap 39.
Going back to Alonso, his luck for his home race just did not stay with him for, after a good start, he was pushed off the road.
He tried hard during the race to make a comeback but could not make it back into the top 10.
News of the weekend was that Bernie Ecclestone is considering buying the Force India team and bringing back the famous Brabham name which goes back to the sixties.
With our Gordon Murray as designer, Ecclestone won two world championships with Nelson Piquet driving.
In two weeks’ time the Grand Prix circus moves on to Monaco as Fernando Alonso goes across the Atlantic for his drive at Indianapolis.
We will see Jenson Button take his place for the one race at Monte Carlo, the jewel of the Grand Prix crown.
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