"Smith Fights Back" - Spanish Grand Prix Review
As the sun beated down on the grid of Catalunya, Spain. 22 Cars lined up on the grid, however 1 stole the headlines, the BMW Sauber of David Smith as he took the lead of the drivers championship.
The race started clean with all 22 cars lasting the opening lap with new Red Bull driver, Jamez Shepherd, losing a total of 12 places after a launch control failure resulting in a manual start. Luke Mason was the big winner after starting in 20th, he was classified as 15th at the end of the lap before taking the helpless Kawasie on the very next lap. Things didn't get much better for the Williams driver as he lost another 2 positions to Jamez Shepherd and Lee Davidson, here we have an extract from his radio,
"Um, Patrick, help?"
By lap five, leader Herman Chang was absolutley flying, 11 seconds ahead of Guillaume Dubois and Suzanne Taylor in 3rd. However the Toro Rosso drivers was overtaken by her female counter-part, Laura Rees the very next lap upon exiting the final turn. Probably the most unluckiest guy in Formula 1 right now, Brad Horton, was again found climbing out of his McLaren on Lap 8 as his car pulled up on the side of the road with a transmission failure, Brad obviously dejected with his current form sat out the rest of the race on a bank in quiet consolation. Lap 12 and Rees put a fantastic run on Dubois as she came out of the first corner and got along side the Canadian as they dived into Turn 1, however it was the Renault that came out infront in a fantastic move.
Herman Chang was the first of the front runners to pit, however a mechanic failed to put a tyre on and as Herman pulled away, he was told to stop by the pit wall so the mechanic in question could finish his job. The American was incredibly angered by the mistake as he saw himself drop to 5th when he could have came out easially in the top 3. On lap 22 the pits started to get really busy when Rees, Dunstan, Shepherd and Hallinan all pitted with Hutchinson and Davidson pitting the next lap. Mason completed a very high paced first stint pitting from P5 on Lap 24 before the top 2, Dubois and Smith pitted together the very next lap, the Honda came out first down in 4th.
Jamez Shepherd exited the race on Lap 27 after running off the track at Seat producing extensive damage to the RB2. The resulting Safety Car pulled into the pits 6 laps later releasing the cars in the following order, Chang, Smith, Dubois, Rees, Dunstan, Wonton, Mason, Hutchinson, Davidson and Jef Beyens rounding out the top 10. However Chang, thanks to a pistake by the BMW pit wall, dived into the pits the very next lap again having a botched pit stop. This time the fuel rig wouldn't release the fuel so Dave Smith's rig had to used, the process caused Herman to drop all the way to the back of the field.
"**** sake, German Technology at it's finest" - Chang after his second stop.
Also on the lap, Rees and Dunstan touched wheels into Turn 1 causing a bearing to become loose on Rees's car, she battled on however. Davidson charged up to 6th by the end of Lap 36, 3 laps later and a change for the lead took place as Dunstan nailed a move on Smith through Seat Corner, also on the very same lap moments later, Wonton suffered a huge crash at the end of the main straight as his Rear Wing snapped off the Williams causing him to pitch straight into the wall, he was however able to climb out of the car and only suffered bruising.
Lee Davidson put a move on his off-track partner Laura Rees and succesfully took 5th on Lap 40 before running off track the next lap and pitting to clear dirt from sidepods and take on fuel. Leader Ben Dunstan pitted on Lap 44 handing the lead to David Smith dropping to 7th. Lap 49 and Smith pits from lead however he came out still with a healthy lead of 11 Seconds from Luke Mason who was enjoying a fantastic race, Dubois was running in 3rd before 2 Laps later he misjudged the distance between his Honda and the Toro Rosso of Simon Trendell, he realised to late and was turning into the barrier and ending his race.
Also on the lap, Danny Graham and Monique Hallinan collidided causing Monique's first race at Super Aguri to end appruptley. Lap 54 saw a disastrous race for Williams come to an end as Kawasie had a brake failure going into Turn 4, luckily he went away unscathed. Lap 63 saw Garaham again involved in contact with a Female driver as he collided with Laura Rees causing her to collided with the barrier, Graham managed to continue whilst loosing a number of positions. He luck was to end however on the final lap as damage from the collision caused the left front suspension to rip to pieces and force the Brit off track.
However the race was eventually won by David Smith who raced a very smart strategy to take the win by 11 seconds from second placed Luke Mason, completing a fantastic drive from 20th on the grid. Ben Dunstan put his Ferrari on the podium as he coninues to impress in his rookie year, ahead of Nickolakopoulas who drove a quiet race to 4th for Toyota. Veterans Hutchinso and Butler finished 5th and 6th respectively followed by Tag Schwarz and Jef Beyens. A total of 13 cars finished with Davidson the last of those crossing the line.