Spanish GP: Ring-ding-ding-ding-a-ling, what a race!

My expectation after yesterday´s qualifying was that the race was going to be a battle between Seb and Mark - and those two only. So I was positively surprised when the red lights went off. First of all, what an amazing start from Fernando Alonso in front of his home crowd!! He made his way to the lead before the first corner! And very soon it turned out that the McLarens wouldn´t give the victory to Sebi easily... Once again Button had a different pit stop strategy compared to other top drivers, him making only 3 pit stops while the others made 4.

Overtaking didn´t seem to be as easy as it was in Turkey two weeks ago. But the race was certainly entertaining, the battle between Alonso and Webber was very enjoyable to watch! Despite the phenomenal start Alonso´s pace sort of faded away during the race and he finally finished in the very familiar 5th place.

Usually you know who is going to be the race winner already several laps before the chequered flag but today it was different. The last 10 laps there was absolutely thrilling and intense battle for the victory between Vettel and Hamilton. What made the battle even more exciting was the fact that once again the young Red Bull driver had some problems with the KERS system in his car. After the race Vettel told that the KERS had been going on and off during the race... My heart was pounding when I sat on the couch and watched the closing laps! I mean Hamilton was so close! I just kept on hoping that due to Hamilton´s more aggressive driving style he would have had less life left in his tyres than Sebi.... I was soooo relieved to see the chequered flag, with more laps to go I would certainly have had a nerval breakdown!!!

So what was obvious, in race pace there isn´t a second splitting the McLarens and the Bulls like we saw in the qualifying yesterday. Hamilton finishing 2nd and his team-mate Button 3rd McLaren managed to get some valuable points in chasing the Bulls. But Sebastian Vettel.... He has won 4 of the 5 races and has a 41-point lead to his closest rival Hamilton in the championship standings! Quite an overwhelming difference you could say! Before going to Monaco in a week there´s only one question to be asked: Can anyone stop Vettel? My answer to that would be: Hopefully not :)