NICO REBORN
German’s win takes fight back to Lewis
NICO ROSBERG stood on his car and waved his hands like a conductor bringing in t he percussion section of the Berlin Phil.
For the German, yesterday’s Spanish Grand Prix was a symphony of relief.
It proved the title fight is not a closed issue, the whoops of delight from the cockpit of Rosberg’s Mercedes a musical celebration — of sorts — of his victory in the Barcelona sun.
He hugged his pregnant wife Vivian, attending her first race of the season. Lewis Hamilton, who finished second, congratulated his teammate, less enthusiastically but with perfect magnanimity.
Hamilton’s lead in the drivers’ championship is 20 points over Rosberg as they head to Monte Carlo to gamble t heir hopes on t he narrow streets made famous by the Casino.
This track at Catalunya is no match for the magic of Monaco and not only because it is not redolent of Grace Kelly and Belle Epoque splendour, but because it usually serves up a soporific race. (True, Monaco has few overtaking opportunities, but it offers thrilling danger at every turn in a way Barcelona does not.)
This event had a strangely subdued atmosphere all weekend, and the manner of Rosberg’s win was in keeping with the wider mood: serene rather than exciting, a masterclass in front-running having started from pole position.
Instead, such tension as there was played out down Hamilton’s radio. This frustration was born of the Briton losing a place at the start — going from second to third on the 800-yard run to the first corner. It left him behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Then a poor first stop due to a slow left- wheel change — he was stationary for 5.4sec compared to Vettel’s 2.3sec a lap later — meant he was still behind the red car.
Hamilton got close to Vettel’s tail but could not f orce his way through. The Ferrari had too much speed for that.
Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington said: ‘Were going to have to do this on track, mate.’ That was met by Hamilton’s response: ‘I can assure you that’s pretty much impossible to do, so you’re going to have to come up with another plan.’
A few minutes later Hamilton snapped: ‘Please, Bono, please, try not to speak to me in the corners.’
Hamilton finally got ahead of Vettel in the second round of pit stops. It put him into second place through the middle section of the race, but he was never close enough to reel in Rosberg.
Hamilton moved to Plan B — three stops — and led the race for 10 laps after Rosberg had made his second and final stop.
It was short- l i ved, and the natural order of the race was restored when Hamilton peeled in for his third stop. He was back into second place, ahead of Vettel but too far off Rosberg.
Hamilton was soon told it wouldn’t be possible to catch the other Silver Arrow and that he should ‘consolidate’ his position.
‘Is it impossible?’ asked Hamilton for clarification. ‘ That is the question.’ The answer came back ‘Yes’. True, as Rosberg won his first race since Brazil last November by 17.5sec. Vettel was third.
‘A perfect weekend,’ was Rosberg’s take. Hamilton called it a ‘hiccup’ and promised to ‘ sort it out for the next race’.
The warm weather did little to lift the mood at McLaren-Honda.
They arrived here speaking about upgrades but left embarrassed by their f orm. Fernando Alonso retired with a brake problem that caused him to run into the jack as he entered the pit box. He simply could not stop his car.
Alonso said: ‘It was scary. I had no brakes for the whole in-lap, and for the pit stop even less. We are a long way off and we need to make double steps because everyone else is improving.’
Jenson Button finished 16th in the other McLaren. ‘ The first 30- odd laps were the scariest 30 laps of my life,’ he said. ‘Any time I touched the throttle, the rear was gone. It just wasn’t normal. The rear felt as if it wasn’t connected to the front — as if every gust of wind had a massive snap.’
This kind of performance from a rich team dedicated to winning, an organisation its chairman Ron Dennis compares to Manchester United, must prompt a serious investigation into what has gone so spectacularly wrong.
McLaren’s last constructors’ title came in 1998 — too long a fallow spell, as they would be the first to admit, and one that may hint at structural problems.
Button, who has been upbeat t hroughout t he unremitting travails of the season, made an extraordinary forecast. ‘I don’t expect points at all this year, but hopefully today was an off-day. It didn’t feel right,’ he said.
Red Bull, who won four straight titles between 2010 and 2013, are not in much better shape and team principal Christian Horner admitted reliability is so poor that he wants Renault to use the season to develop their engine.
He said: ‘This year is pretty much a write-off. It would be better to learn in preparation for next year.’