An interesting result from another dull race. The aim of removing driver aids may have been to spice things up but it has made it even more apparent that it is impossible for these cars to overtake.

It was a good weekend for the BMW Sauber team and in particular, Robert Kubica, who got his first pole, and the first pole for the team. He was light on fuel but not so light as to compromise his race strategy. He came home third, his second consecutive podium. With Heidfeld qualifying sixth and coming home fourth, the team now lead the Constructors Championship. This should send shock waves to McLaren who were massively off the pace this weekend. It is certainly going to make for a more interesting season if we have three teams capable of winning places. BMW Sauber need to take the extra step to be a race winning team but surely, it is only a matter of time.

Massa silenced his critics with a fantastic weekend. He should have taken pole but a mistake on his qualifying lap put him second. He made a good start overtaking Kubica and then forged ahead where he stayed to bring home his first win of the season. He ran a good race and certainly better then Raikkonen all weekend. Raikkonen appeared to be off the pace, never really getting going all weekend. He qualified fourth and finished second which left him leaving Bahrain at the top of the driver’s championship. I am intrigued by the system Ferrari are running in the pit lane. They no longer have a lollipop man, but rather a traffic light system which tells the driver when to go. The only problem with this, is the TV cameras are not able to pick up when the lights change and I think this is going to make it easy for the team to keep a driver back, probably Massa, to enable the other to take the lead. Team orders are of course banned, however, this is a team who will favour one driver in order to take the Championship and surely an “error” in their electronic pit lane system is going to be easier to argue in front of the stewards than a direct order over the radio to allow someone to pass. I may just be cynical and this of course could be a system to save the lollipop man from being run over, however, I would not put anything past this team and they need to be watched with a careful eye.

McLaren failed to set the world alight this weekend. Kovalainen is quietly clocking up points, qualifying in fifth and finishing fifth. Lewis qualified third but finished thirteenth. His weekend was a disaster from beginning to end, starting with an accident on Friday. He messed up the start of the race by not pushing the right button at the right time so the correct engine setting did not engage. He fell back to tenth and then on lap two, when trying to pass Alonso, he in fact ran into the back of him. He lost his front wing and had to pit. There were calls that Alonso brake-tested him but Lewis claimed it was just a racing incident and in fact the team have said his front wing was already broken when he ran into the back of Alonso. The team promise significant aero-dynamic changes before the next race in Barcelona but then so do most of the other teams.

Trulli in his Toyota showed that they have made big steps forward over the winter months. They are not in a position to push for a podium but they should be taking regular points this year. Trulli qualified seventh and finished sixth with team mate Glock qualifying thirteenth but finishing ninth.

Webber in his Red Bull scored points again, qualifying eleventh and finishing seventh. He spent most of the afternoon chasing Trulli. It was another torrid weekend for Coulthard who qualified seventeenth and finished eighteenth. As usual, he did not make a good start and that has been the story of his career. By starting so far back on the grid, he gets caught up in first corner incidents and this race was no different. He suffered a puncture which caused him to pit on lap 3. He had some good battles with Jenson Button which resulted in them tangling and DC having to visit the pit once again to change his front wing.

The last point paying position went to Rosberg in his Williams which the team should be grateful for as they appeared to be struggling all weekend. Rosberg is emerging as one of those drivers who can bring the best out of a difficult car. His team mate Nakajima, qualified sixteenth and qualified fourteenth after having a spin on oil on the track on lap two. He managed to keep going but made little progress.

Alonso finished where you would expect to find the team. The points he has pocketed so far this season have been as a result of other teams falling by the wayside. He came home in tenth having qualified there. His team mate Piquet qualified fourteenth but failed to finish the race with a gear box problem. Bearing in mind Flavio’s harsh way of dealing with his drivers, I am starting to question whether Piquet will see out the end of the season.

Barrichello showed up his team mate once again in their Honda. He finished eleventh and qualified in twelfth. He did not have a good start, losing places. He ended up behind Fisichella in his Force India but with a good pit stop got him out in front. Team mate Button somehow qualified ninth but failed to finish the race after his coming together with DC. However, before that it had not been a good race for him. He had made up a couple of places off the line but was hit from behind, got a puncture and had to pit. He was doing ok until he was forced to retire with damage from his accident with DC.

As for the rest of the pack, there were some interesting fights going on between the Force Indias and the Toro Rosso. Fisichella qualified eighteenth and finished twelfth which was good to see. He had a good start making up some places and if the team continues to improve, they could be a definite mid-runner for the rest of the season. Team mate Sutil qualified twentieth and finished nineteenth after an accident in the first corner when he lost his front wing and punctured his left tyre. He got back to the pit, repaired and out again and managed to finished race distance but was way off the pace.

Bourdais in his Toro Rosso finally managed to finish a race, having qualified fifteenth he finished fifteenth. His team has the air about it of one whose funding is drying up and progress is not going to be made. There is a risk they could find themselves sliding backwards as the season progresses. When a driver describes their race as a “useful experience” there are problems. His team mate Vettel qualified nineteenth but did not finish having collided in the first corner and damaged his front wing and then colliding again later in the lap when he was hit from behind forcing him to retire.

This leaves us with the Super Aguris who are quietly going about their job. Both cars finished the race and bearing in mind they have not done any winter testing and are not attending the Barcelona tests this week, this was a good result. The sale of the team is due to go through shortly and hopefully after that there will be an injection of cash to help them. Sato qualified twenty-second and finished seventeenth. Davidson qualified twenty-first and finished in sixteenth.

We now have a three week break until Barcelona. Everybody is promising changes for the next race and it is a question of waiting to see if anyone can break ahead. I am intrigued to see how the Spanish crowd are going to react. The Spanish are into motorbikes rather than Formula 1 and have only become involved in Formula 1 because of Alonso. I have been to the last three Spanish Grand Prix and as soon as Alonso is out of the race or it is apparent he is not finishing on the podium, they leave the circuit before the race is over. If Alonso is going to languish in the middle of the field, it could be an easy journey home for anyone who stays to the end of the race!