I had a shock to the system on Saturday during the third qualifying session. I found myself cheering Kimi over the line desperate to ensure Alonso did not start from pole in front of his home crowd. I had not realised my views towards Alonso were quite so strong!

The race started with Kimi on pole and he managed to hold on to that lead to finish first. Team mate Massa qualified third but got past Alonso going into the first corner and finished second. There were two safety car periods which prevented them disappearing into the distance.

This was not an interesting race and I am aware that I appear to be saying this after each race. The loss of driver aids seem to be making overtaking pretty much impossible. It also appears the cars cannot get closer than 0.5 seconds to the car in front. This became apparent during this race when we had Kimi, Massa, Lewis and Kubica never really gaining on each other. Although this is not a great circuit for overtaking, there has always been overtaking going into the first corner but during this race, it did not seem possible. This loss of driver aids may mean that we see Lewis sliding the back of his car and it makes for dramatic watching but that is no good if we have lost the racing element. The race is being decided by strategists on a Saturday night.

Lewis did well to finish in third having qualified on the third row in fifth. He made a great start cutting across his team mate Kovalainen who qualified sixth and passing Kubica and Alonso. Although he was pushing Massa, he never got close enough to threaten to take second place from him. Both the McLarens were heavier on fuel and this may have reflected in the qualifying pace although it does seem that McLaren have not made as many steps forward since the last race as some of the other teams. Kovalainen, however, was the talking point of the weekend. On lap 22, Kovalainen crashed into the tyre barrier at around 140 mph. The car was embedded with Kovalainen being surrounded by tyres. It is great credit to the safety of these cars and the new high cockpit that Kovalainen was unhurt. The safety car was out for seven laps whilst he was seen to on the track before being taken to the medical centre and then flown to the local hospital where he was given the all clear. Truly remarkable!

The BMW Saubers kept up their strong position with Kubica qualifying fourth and finishing fourth. Heidfeld was unlucky this weekend, qualifying and finishing in ninth. He was caught out by the second safety car period. Drivers are unable to pit when the safety car is out until the pit lane is declared open. The pit lane was closed just after Heidfeld had passed the pit entry which meant he had to pit during a period of closure resulting in a 10 second stop/go penalty when the race re-started. It was that or stop on track having run out of fuel.

The Renaults that turned up this weekend seemed to have more pace than in the last race and their new aero-package for the European stint of the season appeared to be working well. However, neither car finished the race. Piquet qualified tenth and made a mistake early on spinning off the track. He was able to re-join further down the field but on lap 8, he went off the track for a second time and this time when he rejoined he tried to get past Bourdais in his Toro Rosso failing miserably and ending not only his race, but that of Bourdais. Alonso who was fuelled light to try and grab pole in front of his home ground, did not finish when his engine spectacularly blew. He has tried to say that the car was competitive and he was dicing with the Ferraris and the BMWs but that is not the case. Although there are improvements, he is way off the pace of the top runners and the best he can hope for, is to lead the second division.

Although this was a race where we lost nine of the pack through retirements or accidents, it was still a good result for Webber to bring his Red Bull home in fifth, having started at seventh. The gap between him and DC is widening each race. The team have clearly moved forward with their new aero-dynamic parts and it was interesting to see that Renault have copied their engine cover design. There was no explanation for Coulthard qualifying back in seventeenth. The problem he has with his bad qualifying performance is that it puts him at the back of the grid where there are always accidents. He got hit by Sutil on the first lap picking up some damage to the car but able to continue. He was then hit by Glock causing a puncture. He did well to finish at all but he was well out of the points in twelfth.

I admit it was a shock to see Button finish in sixth and he seemed just as surprised. Again the team claim that their new aero package is working well for them but that did not appear to be the case in qualifying as he started thirteenth and team mate Barrichello in eleventh. Barrichello was working well until he had a meeting with Fisichella in the pit lane. Fisichella overtook him, clipping Barrichello’s front wing. Barrichello managed to make a whole lap with the wing caught under the car but such extensive damage was caused to the body work, he was unable to continue.

It was an interesting result for Williams with Nakajima scoring points by finishing seventh, having qualified twelfth. Team mate Rosberg qualified behind him in fifteenth and then retired on lap 42 when his engine blew. He said the set up in qualifying and practice was wrong but they were able to change it for the race, hence Nakajima’s finishing position.

The last point’s position went to Trulli who finished eighth in his Toyota having qualified there. He felt that he was heading for sixth but the team mistakenly called him into the pits early. Team mate Glock qualified in fourteenth and finished eleventh, despite his collision with DC. He had damaged his car in the first corner and he had to change the nose at the pit stop. He dislodged his new front wing when he had his meeting with DC.

It was a brilliant weekend for the Force India team with Fisichella finishing in tenth. Although he was out of the points, the cars looked greatly improved. Adrian Sutil who qualified in twentieth, failed to finish, crashing on the first lap.

Neither Toro Rosso finished the race and this is a team that is beginning to look as though there may be problems. Bourdais qualified sixteenth but was taken out by Nelson Piquet having done quite a good job up to that point. Team mate Vettel qualified eighteenth and was taken out in the first corner incident on the first lap. He has not finished a race yet this season but you have to feel sorry for him as this was not his fault, there was nowhere left for him to go. The team are still running last year’s car and let’s hope the new car is going to move them further forward on the grid.

We finish with Super Aguri who were lucky to make it to Barcelonia. They seem to stagger from race to race but without any development, they are doing nothing but race themselves at the back. That said, Sato did well to finish thirteenth, having qualified twenty-second. The high number of retirements obviously helped him. Davidson had a disappointing weekend having qualified twenty-first, he failed to finish, retiring after only nine laps. Piquet had run wide dragging a lot of gravel onto the track. A stone from that damaged Davidson’s water radiator, putting him out of the race. Clearly, nothing can go right for him at the moment.

The next stop is Istanbul. For the last few years, this has been a good race and let’s see if the new aero packages on the cars are going to allow us any overtaking.