AS THE WEEKEND of the European GP came closer, fans and media were expecting an 8th winner out of 8 races and had the Lotus F1 team has strong favourites to win in Valencia. However, it was Alonso who clinched victory making him the only driver to have won twice this season. The Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen fought hard to finish 2nd followed by the Mercedes AMG car of Michael Schumacher in 3rd. This meant that on the podium we had three former Formula1 World Champions; two who were making a comeback after winning and retiring with the Scuderia and the third, who currently leads the Drivers’ Championship and is one of the favourites to win this year!
The 2012 edition of the European Grand Prix was unlike the previous years which typically saw a pole-to-flag procession with the pole-sitter winning 3 out of the last 4 editions; Alonso’s victory came from 11th on the grid and Schumacher’s podium finish from 12th. There was ample excitement offered on track due to varied tyre strategies and crashes; most notable being the crashes involving the Caterham and Toro Rosso drivers and that of Maldonado and Hamilton, which saw the Briton scoring no points. The weekend started off well for Narain Karthikeyan who managed to qualify 22nd and ahead of the Marussia driver Charles Pic. In fact, the HRT cars registered their best qualifying performance ever.
However, the HRTs were beaten by Marussia in the race and ultimately finished one lap down in 17th and 18th place. While Karthikeyan was beaten yet again in qualifying and in the race, his fastest lap of the race was nearly half a second quicker than his team-mate. If their qualifying performance in Valencia wasn’t a fluke and if they can replicate their pace in the races, there is a chance that they could overtake Marussia in the Constructors’ Championship table.
Talking of the Constructors’ Championship, the battle between the mid-field teams intensified after Sahara Force India finished 5th and 7th scoring 16 valuable points for themselves. Paul Di Resta was the only driver on the grid to use a one-stopper to finish the race. The icing on their performance was that their nearest competitors Williams and Sauber were only able to score 1 and 2 points respectively. The Indian-owned team still lies 8th in the Constructors’ Championship table with 44 points. However, they are only 1 point behind Williams and 16 points behind Sauber. The battle of the mid-field teams is as exciting as the battle between the front-running teams.
There are other Indian talents that deserve special mentions in this fortnight’s column: a big applause for Karun Chandhok, who competed in Le Mans last weekend with the JRM Racing team. He finished 6th overall on his Le Mans debut and was 2nd in his class. I am glad that the Chennai-born racer has switched from Formula1 to Endurance Racing and found more opportunities to prove his talent and taste success. Chandhok also became the only Indian driver to start and finish a Le Mans race.
Mahindra Racing, the Indian-owned two wheeler racing team has tasted continuous success in the Italian Championship that they have been participating in this year. The team has secured multiple victories and currently lead the Championship table with 6 points over team Aprilia. However, it is their Moto3 campaign that interests me more and I believe that while their debut in the series hasn’t yielded the results one would expect, gaining experience will be key in the first year. They have over 10 rounds yet to possibly try and score their maiden championship point.
Coming back to the European Grand Prix held over the weekend, the unofficial attendance numbers indicated that the total 3 day figure in Valencia was a mere 105,419 spectators. These are the numbers that one would expect on the Race Day alone at the upcoming GP at Silverstone! However, it is known that Valencia has struggled to attract the expected attendance since its inception and will alternate with the Circuit de Catalunya (in Barcelona) from next year to host the Formula1 Grand Prix. This decision was taken to ease the financial pressures on the Spanish government in times of the economic crisis in Spain and to free up a slot to host a Grand Prix elsewhere for Bernie Ecclestone!
And here’s an answer to a question that I have been asked multiple times in the last few weeks, ‘Why is Spain the only country on the calendar to host two Formula1 Grand Prixs?’ While the answer is best known to Ecclestone, my guess here is to encash on the popularity of the Spanish double World Champion, Fernando Alonso. Back in 2008, when Valencia was added to the calendar, Hamilton was only in his second season and yet to win a championship while Vettel was still finding his feet in the Red Bull camp. Button was yet to win his Championship and Raikkonen was the only other World Champion on the grid! So with that, I hope I have answered the question satisfactorily. Now over to Silverstone!
