photo credit: Flickr/Ezio Armando
Fox rant: they totally sped the race up, did anyone else notice? I am usually pretty sensitive to movement on TV and I just noticed the race seemed WAY more chaotic than it should have been, plus the cuts in commentary seemed edited. It was just weird. Thankfully towards the end it seemed like the cars were moving at their actual speed.
So, we finally have a two-time winner in home country hero Fernando Alonso. Alonso started 11th and managed to finish first after both Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean suffered alternator problems. His move up the grid was not as impressive as Mark Webber finishing fourth, given the fact there was clearly a problem with Renault powered cars.
Okay I don’t like Alonso.
On the plus side, this was actually an interesting race in Valencia since not every car finished. Hell, not every car even started. Timo Glock did not race because of his stomach bug.
Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in the very last lap by Pastor Maldonado. Hamilton would not give up the position to Maldonado and squeezed him out.
Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen collided, as did Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna (and later Massa), as did Vitaly Petrov and Daniel Ricciardo, and so on. So there were cars taken out, which sadly makes this race more interesting.
Maldonado and Vergne both received penalties. Vergne has a 10 spot penalty and a $25,000 fine for the next race. Maldonado was penalized 20 seconds this race, dropping him down to 12th. He had finished 10th, and Hamilton had been unable to continue. Fair enough.
Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher joined Alonso on the podium.
Jenson Button managed to finish in the points, although it was just 8th. Both Force Indias finished in the points, as did Nico Rosberg, Sergio Perez, and Bruno Senna.
Senna had to serve a drive-through penalty after Kamui Kobayashi smashed into the back of his car. It did not look like Senna’s fault whatsoever, especially given Kobayashi later also hit Felipe Massa.
Next time around we head to the UK for a race that sucks less.
Results
01. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
02. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
03. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
04. Mark Webber, Red Bull
05. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
06. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
07. Paul di Resta, Force India
08. Jenson Button, McLaren
09. Sergio Perez, Sauber
10. Bruno Senna, Williams *
11. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso *
12. Pastor Maldonado, Williams *
13. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham
14. Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham
15. Charles Pic, Marussia
16. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
17. Pedro de la Rosa, HRT
18. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT
19. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
* – Pastor Maldonado finished 10th, but received a 20 second penalty dropping him to 12th
Retired/not classified: Romain Grosjean on lap 41, Sebastian Vettel on lap 34, Kamui Kobayashi on lap 34, Jean-Eric Vergne on lap 27, Timo Glock did not start.
