Five races into the 2012 season, five different winners.
The last race winner in Spain could not have come as a bigger surprise. The Venezuelan driver, Pastor Maldonado, often referred to as a "rental driver", won the race from start to finish for Williams-Renault, who hadn't won a race since 2004.
When the red starting lights went out (signaling the start of the race), Fernando Alsono (P2) made a great start in his Ferrari and going into the second corner had passed the Williams driver for first. However, Williams' pit strategy paid off when Pastor got out in front of the Ferrari, who was held up in traffic, and even though Alonso put on a strong charge towards the end of the race, he was not able to maintain the pace and eventually had to settle for second place.
The Lotus boys put on a helluva run, with ex-champion Kimi Raikkonen making a hard charge towards the front in the closing stages of the race. He finished in third place, in spite of a costly tire strategy mistake that hurt his chances to fight for the win.
Below the post race interview with the top three, in their own words. Maldonado: "Winning is an unbelievable feeling". Kimi: "we could've won"!
The interview with Sir Frank Williams was interesting enough to merit it's posting below. Among others, he mentions that he didn't see Pastor make a single mistake throughout the race and commended him on his great drive and first win.
It looks as if the season is going to be very exciting. The different winners up to now are: Jensen Button (Mclaren-Mercedes), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault), and Pastor Maldonado. Soon to be added: Kimi (just my humble opinion).
Next race is the GP de Monaco, to be held on Sunday, May 27.
NASCAR, at Darlington, S.C.:
Called "The Lady in Black" for the black streaks on its retaining walls at the end of each race, in spite of them being white at the start, is considered among the top three must-wins for any Nascar driver.
Overall, a good race under the lights won by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, and in doing so, earning team owner Rick Hendrick finally his two-hundredth win.
Johnson controlled much of the race on Saturday night, leading some 134 of the 368 laps. The race stayed green for the longest (until lap 172) and the first round of green-flag pit stops came on lap 48, when pole-sitter Greg Biffle relinquished first place to Kyle Busch. The two swapped the lead until Johnson came into the picture after the second round of pit stops. Tony Steward ran a great race and in spite of braking his clutch with 85 laps to go, he remained a top contender.
There is no Nascar race without any wrecks or near misses. Marcos Ambrose had a big save on lap 140 and Jeff Gordon had a rear tire problem on lap 196, and subsequently again just a couple of minutes later. Jamie McMurray ran into the wall after an incident with AJ Allmendinger, putting both out of the race.
Towards the end of the race, there was a severe case of flipping the "ignition on" switch, in a valiant effort to conserve fuel. And the race winner wasn't taking any chances.
The race would end in a shoot out. Watch the exciting last laps on the video below.
Next race is the Sprint Showdown and All-Star Race, held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, home of the Nascar Museum, this Saturday night, May 19.
Thanks for reading.
Source: Formula One Management, Nascar, Crash.net, Fox Sports, Wikipedia
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