The first European F1 race of the 2007 season took place in Barcelona this weekend. Here is the roundup of how each team did at the Spanish Grand Prix:

McLaren (Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton): They cannot be totally happy about their results. Alonso and Hamilton dominated the early part of the weekend, but by the end of qualifying, Ferrari were on pole again. Both Hamilton and Alonso finished on the podium, but the way they got there was not pretty. Hamilton had an uneventful race. He never managed to get close to Felipe Massa and nobody managed to challenge him.

A solid drive from the rookie. Alonso, on the other hand, showed his aggressiveness right off the bat. He held position with Massa into turn one at the very beginning and actually looked like he would be able to squeeze in front. But Massa matched his aggressiveness, nudged him out and Fernando fell back to fourth place as a result. He did not look like he could challenge Kimi Raikonnen for third. In the end he did not need to as Kimi’s Ferrari gave up way too early.

Renault (Giancarlo Fisichella, Heikki Kovalainen): If we disregard the fact that Renault were a championship winning team last year, and look at their situation as the team they are this year (one that is in the chasing pack), then their Spanish GP would have been pretty good. Up until the last pit stop, that is. Renault should have had two cars finish in the points, but due to the pit crew’s error of not giving Fisichella enough gas at his last scheduled stop, only Kovalainen finished in the top eight.

Ferrari (Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen): Ferrari can mark this down as a weekend of good and bad. Massa won the race, had the fastest lap time and won pole position. Meanwhile, Kimi struggled most of the way, and he was forced to retire in the race due to car trouble. Massa clearly put forth the best performance of the weekend, but his questionable move at the first corner altered the race completely. I’m sure the FIA will mark this down as a typical race incident, with no follow-ups necessary. Having looked over and over again at the replay, I’m starting to feel maybe Massa went against the rules to keep his position.

Make no mistake, it is a close call, and even Alonso has not been all that vocal about it (only dropping a slight hint of bitterness in the interviews after the race). In all fairness, Alonso was ahead of Massa going into the turn, he stepped on the brakes later and gained about half of his car length. He shut the door on the Brazilian, who ran into him. According to the rule book, in these cases the car in front has the right of way. Massa was not in front by the time they went into the turn.

Honda (Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello): This season has been an absolute catastrophe for Honda so far, and the Spanish GP was no better. Failed qualifying followed by another race out of the points. Button and Barrichello fought valiantly again, but this car can offer no more. Both Jenson and Rubens deserve to be in a much better situation than this. I still like the car painting that they have, though.

BMW Sauber (Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica): We can now clearly state that BMW might be trailing the mighty Ferrari and McLaren, but they are just as far ahead of the rest of the pack as those two are from them. Consistency, mechanical malfunctions and pit work are still major issues. This time Heidfeld was the one who had to retire. His pit crew had him leaving the pits while they were still bolting on his front left tire. After numerous problems it was time for him to park his car into the garage. On a positive note, Kubica finished fourth this time. He again showed that talent that had us drooling at the end of last season. BMW look like a solid third in the constructors standings.

Toyota (Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli): To say that this was not Toyota’s weekend would be the understatement of the year. A terrible qualifying result from Ralf as he did not even manage to get into the second session. Trulli did manage a top 10 spot, only to lose it before the start as he stalled his engine seconds before the lights went off. Neither came even near the points and both retired before the race was over. Rumours about the younger Schumacher being cut to save some expenses are to intensify after a race that the team should forget.

Red Bull (David Coulthard, Mark Webber): Red Bull still have too many car problems. Webber retired due to gearbox trouble. On the bright side, Coulthard was the hero of the race. He finished fifth, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen, despite losing third gear for the last 4-5 laps. Coulthard got Red Bull their first points of the season and he did it with an inspiring drive.

Williams (Nico Rosberg, Alexander Wurz): The Toyota-powered Williams was looking good once again. Alex Wurz retired early as he rammed into Ralf Schumacher in the very first lap when Schumacher braked hard due to an incident in front of him. Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg was having another sensational race - he finished sixth. Rosberg was trying to catch Coulthard in the last three or four laps as the Red Bull car was clearly slowed by some malfunction. He managed to get close, but in the end Coulthard had held enough of a lead to finish ahead of Niko.

Toro Rosso (Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed): Not much to analyse here as both cars failed to finish. Speed managed 19 laps whilst Liuzzi was out after nine.

Spyker (Christijan Albers, Adrian Sutil): They did finish the race, which is a step in the right direction. The car, however, is starting to show that it lacks the power necessary to keep up with the others. Of all the finishers they were the only two who were two laps down from the leader.

Super Aguri (Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson): Sheer joy, all night partying, happy faces. This is probably what identified the Super Aguri team on Sunday after the race. The team collected its first point. Takuma Sato was a man on a mission and thanks in no small part to the mistake made by the Renault pit crew, he was able to finish eighth, picking up a point for Super Aguri. It was close at the end, but Sato had a fantastic race and kept it together for the marvellous finish. Just as Sato pointed out in an interview following the race, the next milestone the team have to reach is their first podium finish.

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