Having started from 14th (Buemi) and 15th (Alguersuari) on the grid, one place up from where they had qualified, as other drivers had been penalised, both our drivers made good starts, especially Jaime who made up a massive six places on the opening lap to be ninth as they came round for the first time.
Poor Séb had yet another first lap shunt, this time as he tried to pass De La Rosa’s Sauber, which meant he had to come in for a new nose, inevitably dropping down the order before battling hard to make up some places again. However, a hydraulic failure forced him to retire the STR5 in the garage, having completed 42 of the 66 laps.
Already in the points, it looked like Jaime might give his huge fan club in the main grandstand something super to cheer about. Unfortunately, when he made his only scheduled pit stop, the left front wheel nut got stuck and the lost time dropped him down to twelfth. A collision as he tried to lap the Hispania of Chandok, didn’t go down well with the race stewards, who gave him a drive-through penalty for his troubles. All the same, our Catalan man never gave up, pushing hard, setting impressive lap times and he got his reward when problems knocked out two of those ahead of him, handing him the final point for tenth place. To say Jaime is pumped up about Monaco, another new circuit on his learning curve, would be an understatement.
Mark Webber started from pole and went on to win for Red Bull Racing, the first driver to win from the top grid position this season. He had to fight hard for it at the start and kept team-mate Sebastian Vettel behind him in no uncertain terms immediately the lights went out. The two team-mates seemed to have the race sewn up, but in the run of pit stops, Lewis Hamilton, who had been a close third, managed to get the jump on the German to go second. Behind this trio was Alonso in the Ferrari, followed by the dice of the race, as Michael Schumacher fought off Jenson Button, with Felipe Massa tailing them closely. To be honest, this circuit does not lend itself to much overtaking, so the finish order looked set in stone. But the closing laps held some surprises. First of all, Vettel ran off the track and through a gravel trap and pitted for new tyres, which dropped him to fourth, so that Webber now led Hamilton and Alonso as the podium trio, but then with two laps to go, the McLaren man crashed out with a puncture so the order at the flag was: Webber, Alonso, Vettel, Schumacher, Button, Massa, Sutil, Kubica, Barrichello, with Jaime rounding off the top ten.
The Jaime and Sébastien show will be back in action on Thursday when practice starts for the most glamorous, but also toughest date on the calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix.
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