Valencia GP lives up to its billing

With Schumacher out and Alonso back in most of us didn’t know quite what to expect from the European Grand Prix held in Valencia on 23 August, but in the end the race certainly did live up to its billing. A McLaren one-two on the starting grid didn’t promise much excitement, and in the beginning it seemed to go that way, as Lewis Hamilton charged off into the distance while his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen held up the rest.

However, as the race unfolded the drama crept in, with title challenger Sebastian Vettel retiring with technical problems, championship leader Jenson Button falling out of a points position, Alonso creeping into the points and veteran ace Rubens Barrichello pushing right up behind Kovalainen. The Brazilian driver had done so well on the track that he emerged out of the pit stop ahead of the Fin, now just four seconds behind Hamilton, who started to push but was matched lap for lap by Barrichello. In the end Hamilton couldn’t shake off the tenacious Brazilian, who overtook him after the second pit stop and – though hotly pursued by Hamilton’s McLaren – took the chequered flag for his first win of the season. The popular Barrichello, for whom this was the first win in five years, dedicated his victory to his compatriot Felipe Massa, who is recovering well from his accident in July.

For Valencia, it was another successful high-profile event, watched in the glorious sun by a sell-out crowd as the cars flashed by the city’s port side with beach crowds in the background. Perhaps the most hotly discussed grand prix in years, this year’s European GP has been the exciting turnaround that sets F1 up for a thrilling autumn and once again carried images of the city of Valencia across the globe.

New post on at Tuesday, 25 August, 2009, 10:47 am and is archived in News about Spain, Sport. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.