Pastor Maldonado Wins the Spanish Grand Prix

After a fantastic qualifying session yesterday, the race is finally here. If you missed the big news from yesterday, Lewis Hamilton had the fastest qualifying time but pulled off track after setting his fast lap and did not return to the pits. The FIA have a rule that as long as there are no other mechanical problems, the car must return to the pits and give a one liter fuel sample. Because Hamilton's only issue was fuel, he was moved to the back of the grid. That moved WilliamsWilliamsUnited Kingdom, 1977 > present37 models
255 photos
driver Pastor Maldonado and FerrariFerrariItaly, 1947 > present233 models
5131 photos
37 videos
driver Fernando Alonso to the top two spots on the grid. Also Narain Karthikeyan was allowed to start from 23rd because he had set a time better than the 107% limit during practice, which he was unable to do in qualifying. 

Alonso passed Maldonado immediately in the first corner and entered the lead. Maldonado had drifted far over during the start to try to push Alonso into the tight portion of the corner. The gamble did not pay off though. Sergio Perez had a left rear puncture sometime in the start and pitted on the second lap. Vettel came in for hard tires on the 8th lap. Maldonado changed tires on lap 12 and rejoined in second. 

After Maldonado and Alonso had completed their pit stops, Alonso held an over three second lead. 
Michael Schumacher collided into the back of Bruno Senna on lap 14 to knock them both into the gravel trap and out of the race bringing out a local yellow. 

By lap 22 things had settled down considerably in the race. Alonso lead Maldonado by about 1.7 seconds with the LotusesTeam LotusUnited Kingdom, 2009 > present1 model
93 photos
1 video
Raikkonen and Grosjean in third and fourth, respectively. 
Narain Karthikeyan brought out a local yellow near the pits on lap 25 stopping right after the pit exit. The car appears undamaged, but clearly there is some mechanical fault. He exited the car and left the race. 
After pitting on lap 27, Alonso came out in third behind Maldonado behind in second. Raikkonen lead but still needed to make a pit stop giving Maldonado the de facto first position. By lap 29, Maldonado had a 6.7 second lead over Alonso. 

Massa got a drive through penalty for blocking Lewis Hamilton in the yellow flag area giving Hamilton fifth place. Vettel also got a drive through penalty for ignoring a yellow flag on lap 31. 

Halfway through the race on lap 33 the top running order was Maldonado, Alonso, Raikkonen, Grosjean and Hamilton who had already moved up 19 spots over the course of the race. 

Charles Pic received a drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags on lap 37. Pic pulled the car into the garage and was out of the race.  

Lap 40, another local yellow when Perez had to pull the car off after a bad pit stop where it appears a wheel was not fully attached. 

On lap 44, Maldonado came in but there was a problem attaching the left rear wheel. He came back in third position giving Alonso the lead for the time being. Alonso pitted on lap 44, and Maldonado passed him in the pits. Alonso re-entered in third behind Raikkonen. 

The race began heating up around lap 47. Maldonado got around Raikkonen for first place, and Alonso was hot on Raikkonen's back passing him. Alonso began making his push to the top. Raikkonen was into the pits on lap 49 with quick stop. With 16 laps left, it looked like it would be a shoot out among Maldonado, Alonso and Raikkonen with Grosjean as a dark horse. Alonso and Raikkonen had fresher tires but had to make up time to get to Maldonado. 

Maldonado and Alonso started scrapping around lap 50. Alonso was within less than a second of Maldonado and in DRS range. The concern then was if the two men used up their tires, Grosjean or Raikkonen could collect a win thanks to the top two cars' fighting. Raikkonen was gaining 1.5 seconds or more a lap on Alonso with six laps to go. If Maldonado held Alonso up enough, he could challenge for second. Alonso and Maldonado continued to scrap, but it looked like the Williams might pull out the win. 
In the end, Maldonado won with a 3 second lead over Alonso, and Raikkonen was 0.6 seconds away from  Alonso. 

This is the first race that a Williams has won since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix when Juan Pablo Montoya won the race. Maldonado was the first Venezuelan to win a grand prix.