14.48 All smiles in the podium green room.Alonso especially smiley.
14.46 Ferrari takes a new record finishes without a mechanical failure.
Here’s the top 10:
14.45 Alonso off on a victory lap. Waving a flag. Crowd responds by
waving flags. I feel left out. Someone get me a flag!
Lap 66 So Alonso takes it. By miles. Kimi second and another Ferrari,
Massa, in third.
Lap 64 Trying to relay any interesting news as we reach the end of the
race. But there isn’t much to add beyond: “How good is Fernando Alonso?”
Lap 63 Four laps remaining, folks.
Lap 61 Perez gets a message on the radio telling him not to risk any
damage trying to overtake Button.
Lap 60 Latest from Oliver Brown:
Lap 59 Not sure this has been a particularly compelling spectacle
today. An Alonso romp has limited interest to neutrals. If you’re Spanish
and a Ferrari fan, or even better a Spanish Ferrari fan, then you’ve
probably been loving it.
Lap 57 Massa sets a fastest lap of the race as he digs his heels
in to try and secure a podium place.
Lap 55 Top five is: Alonso, Kimi, Massa, Vettel and Webber.
Lap 54 Jean-Eric Vergne is going to have to retire for some damage to
the rear. That’s the third today following Grosjean and Van der Garde’s
early exits.
Lap 52 Vettel pitted. Going to have to go some to get a podium today
though. He’s never really been in it this afternoon.
Lap 50 Walking in an Alo wonderland:
Lap 49 Superb pit stop from Alonso. Under three seconds and he emerges
in front ahead of a 16-lap procession the concluision of
the race.
Lap 48 “Let’s look at three more then box “, advise Massa’s
team.
Lap 47 A recap on the leaders then: Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen.
Lap 46 Raikkonen with a 3.5sec pit stop. Safe to say he would have
preferred that to have gone better but no major damage done.
Lap 44 Alonso is cruising in P1 but colleague Massa is giving it some
in third. Would be a massive boost for him to make the podium.
Lap 42 Alonso’s lead some 6.4sec at the moment. Kimi second and Massa,
10 seconds off his team-mate, in third.
Lap 41 Button has moved up into seventh position but he’s got a pit
stop coming in the next few laps or so.
Lap 40 “Kimi your front breaks are too hot, rear brakes cold. Your
break-balance needs to come to the back,” Raikkonen hears in his ear.
Lap 38 So Raikkonen is the current race leader from Alonso and Vettel.
But not for long. Alonso, fresh from his recent pit stop, uses DRS and
regains the lead, much to the delight of the crowd.
Lap 37 Leader Alonso in for his third pit stop. He takes some mediums
in 3.2sec. His colleague Massa also goes in for some mediums in a quicker
time of 3.1sec.
Lap 36 Latest from our man Oliver Brown:
Lap 34 Alonso enjoying a good afternoon so far:
Lap 32 Now then! Raikkonen is straining every sinew to get ahead of
Vettel in that battle for third place. Just 0.4sec or so separating the pair
and a close shave on a corner still ends in Vettel holding third……But
not for long! Raikkonen motors past him and speeds away. Aggression of the
highest order and Kimi’s ahead.
Lap 31 Crikey. Alonso has an 11.2sec lead in his Ferrari.
Lap 29 Alonso still flying out at the front. With Vettel and Raikkonen
battling for third place. Few signs that Vettel is struggling a dash. I’ll
keep a close eye on this one.
Lap 27 Right. Let’s update you on how it’s all going out there. Alonso
is back in pole to complete a Ferrari one-two at the top. Massa working hard
today and seeing the results.
Lap 25 Lot of tyre-related struggles out there.
Lap 24 As expected that man Alonso has recorded a new fastest lap.
Vettel Raikkonen Alonso the current top-three. Vettel will need to
pit soon. And in come the orders.
Lap 23 Now then! It’s all going off. New fastest lap for Massa and Van
der Garde loses a wheel.
Lap 21 The latest from Oliver Brown:
Lap 20 Massa will be pitting at the end of this lap. Must be having
some kind of issue. He takes another set of hard compound tyres to end a
pretty short stint (11 or so) on those.
Lap 19 Alonso has opened up a 3.7sec gap over Vettel. Dominating.
Lap 17 Sergio Perez receiving words of encouragement from his team.
They’re convinced that Vettel and Rosberg will have tyre issues down the
line, which he can exploit. Meanwhile Grosjean says of his rear right
suspension failure: “It was not very nice.” Quite.
Lap 16 “There’s a long, long way to go,” says the
commentator. That’s true. But it’s a two-horse race now. Alonso v Vettel
shoot-out.
Lap 15 The latest from Oliver Brown:
Lap 14 “Look after your tyres – the last four laps are the one
that matters,” Vettel hears on his radio.
Lap 13 THERE IT IS! Alonso leads! And the crowd goes barmy! Alonso a
good 1.1sec ahead of Vettel as Gutierrez pits. Rosberg struggling now and
Massa gets past him into third.
Lap 11 Agression of the highest order from Alonso and the home crowd
are loving it! He splits up the Rosberg-Vettel one-two to sandwich himself
in 2nd. He was going for pole but couldn’t quite muscle off the Mercedes.
Lap 10 Yep. Grosjean is done. His rear right suspension is broken.
Lap nine Grosjean’s right rear suspension is done. Looks like it could
be all over for him already:
Lap eight Very early stop from Webber to get some hard tyres on. He was
placed in 11th after six laps. Hamilton is struggling, really struggling.
Massa becomes the latest man to overtake him. What’s going on with the Brit?
Lap seven A little bit of a gap developing between Alonso and Hamilton
now. The Mercedes is digging his heels in but it will take some from him to
break into that top three. And there it is! Raikkonen has pounced! He’s into
fourth.
Lap five Jenson Button’s radio is patched into the coverage. Sounds
like he may have been saying something vaguely interesting/relevant. But a
reporter from Auntie dismisses it and talks over him. BBC reporters
actual athletes.
Lap four Replays show that there may have been a minor collision, a
kiss if you will, between Hamilton and Vettel during that opening salvo.
Lap three Your top five so far is: Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton,
Raikkonen.
Lap two Now then! Massa on the move too, he gets himself up into sixth
place after a battling first lap. Good work from both Ferraris. “Beautiful,
you’re in the pack. Let’s go for it!” comes the call from Massa’s team
radio.
Lap one Stunning start in Spain! Brilliant stuff from Vettel and
Alonso, who force their way up the grid. Vettel tucks in just behind
Rosberg, while the Spaniard bumps Hamilton into fourth.
13.03 It’s lights out!
13.00 The cars are off on their formation lap. Excitement levels are
high.
12.57 The weather is the meteorological equivalent of being really,
really, ridiculously good looking
12.55 Not long to go now. How do we all see this one going? Do you
share Bernie’s viewpoint? Or can Rosberg prevail?
12.47 Some goss from Oliver Brown:
12.44 F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone makes a prediction:
My money’s on Fernando. Rightly or wrongly, I think he’s got the best chance
12.41 Eddie Jordan is on gushing about the transformative potential of
Formula One. He stops short to say of saying an Alonso win could help cure
Spain’s economic ills. But not that far..
12.40 Huge numbers in Barca today. Over 100,000 people there
apparently. Crikey – that’s big.
12.30 Telegraph Sport‘s man in Barcelona today is Oliver Brown.
Here’s an extract of his piece
from today’s paper on the growing chaos surrounding McLaren:
Under mounting pressure, Martin Whitmarsh claimed last night that he would
not step down as McLaren team principal after another abject qualifying
display for today’s Spanish Grand Prix raised renewed questions over his
future. The strain upon Whitmarsh, who has failed to win a title in his
first four campaigns in charge and is experiencing a dire start to his
fifth, is intense, but he maintained last night that he was still the man to
turn around a grisly season.
12.25 Good afternoon and thanks for joining me for the latest
instalment of Formula One fun. Yesterday, Nico Rosberg secured back-to-back
pole positions for the first time in his Formula One career as Mercedes
locked out the front row.
Rosberg beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton by a quarter of a second, with the duo
the only two drivers to dip below one minute and 21 seconds for the lap. The
statistics do bode well, though, as 17 of the 22 drivers on pole for this
race at this track have gone on to take the chequered flag. And only once in
those 22 races has a driver not won from the front row of the grid, that
being Michael Schumcher from third in 1996.
What will happen today? Let’s find out…..