Formula 1 Race Eleven: Race

Front Runners
Today's race saw few retirements, and one big controversy: Ferrari. The two Ferraris qualified second and third, but as Vettel tried to force Alonso into the wall, he forgot about Massa and the Brazillian was able to come flying through. Alonso fell in behind Massa, and Vettel went third. Webber was fourth, and Button and Hamilton were fifth and sixth.
Vettel was first to pit, followed by Alonso, Webber and Hamilton. Button was last of the front runners to pit, gaining a reasonable lead that put him into the race ahead of his teammate – who was ahead of Webber.
For the most part, this formation didn't change for the rest of the race, except at the front. Massa was, at some points, going slower than Alonso, and eventually Alonso caught up with his teammate. This is where the controversy comes in. While everyone would have loved to see a battle between the two Ferraris, instead, engineer Rob Smedley was told to tell Massa that Alonso was faster than him – a 'coded' message that anyone could interpret: let Alonso overtake.
But in the end, they didn't finish so far apart, and it ruined a good race without any safety cars. It marred Alonso's victory, and will probably put a lot of tension within the team too. It is illegal to manipulate race standings in this way in the FIA regulations, and has been since Ferrari did the same thing in 2002. It remains to be seen what, if any, penalty will arise.

De La Rosa
De La Rosa, second-oldest man on track, had a great race at first. His team, BMW Sauber, seemed to be doing the same thing that they'd done for Kobayashi in Valencia. He did pit in lap 53, but a tap with Kovalainen near the end meant that he had to take a second stop. But Kovalainen didn't come off so well, being forced to retire in lap 63 – four laps before the end of the race.

Force India
Both Force India drivers had five place penalties because of unscheduled gearbox changes. Sutil started 19th, and Liuzzi started 23rd (Di Grassi was last for the same reason). They did well enough, but had some bad pit stops right at the start of the race after getting the two cars mixed up. Each driver was given tyres for the others' cars, which was against FIA regulations, so they had to stop again to get the right tyres. In the end, Sutil finished 17th because he had a third pit stop, and Liuzzi finished 16th.

New Teams
None of the new teams did fantastically – in fact, all six drivers came almost last, with only Buemi having a worse position thanks to losing his wing in the first lap. Trulli was next out with car problems, and although Lotus got him going again initially, he only made one more lap before retiring properly. Senna (Hispania) and Glock (Virgin) were the only two drivers from the new teams to finish.


The next race is in Hungary, in just one week's time. See you then!