Formula 1 Excitement In Barcelona
The Formula One race at the weekend was full of excitement! Lewis Hamilton ought to have started in pole position based on the qualifiers, but he ran out of fuel. The rules state the drivers must be able to get back to the pits with at least a litre of fuel for testing, so he was penalised by being put to the back of the pack for the start of the race. Starting 24th instead of 1st was a challenge for the McLaren driver, but he managed to climb the ranks to finish in 8th position. That is despite doing a 31 lap run on hard tyres at the end of the race – so he can’t take as much out of his car’s tyres as has previously been thought.
Bruno Senna for Williams and Michael Schumacher for Mercedes, both retired during lap 13 as they crashed into each other. Senna braked earlier than expected going into a turn, and Schumacher went into the back of him. They then spun off together with bits of car being thrown everywhere, and narrowly missing Sebastian Vettel who ended up being placed 6th.
Pastor Maldonado won for Renault Williams for the first time since 2004. team rarely win. It was the owner, Frank Williams’ 70 th birthday, so he must have been very pleased with his birthday present!
That wasn’t even an end to the ‘excitement’, although it took a turn for the worse. After the race, a fire broke out in the Williams team garage injuring a total of 16 people. The fire started in the fuel area but the cause isn’t known as yet. Of the 16 injured, 10 were minor enough to be treated at the track medical centre, 5 had to go to the local hospital due to smoke inhalation, and one person had to be airlifted to hospital with serious burns.