It seems Lewis Hamilton has a habit of underperforming at circuits he doesn't like. A rare chink in his otherwise impregnable armour? Apparently, he mentioned to Toto Wolff before Barcelona that he wasn't a big fan of the track. Sure enough, this weekend, he (relatively) struggled alongside a buoyant Nico Rosberg, scrabbling qualifying, fluffing the start and only really getting stuck in and monstering the car after a bad pit stop left him no option but damage limitation.
Niki Lauda was chuffed for Nico; slightly unfortunate choice of words notwithstanding he said it was great that Nico triumphed after Lewis "blew him off" in the first races. This time, it was Nico blowing off Lewis - and both drivers blew off Seb Vettel, who finished 45 seconds behind in third. [Enough of the schoolboy sniggering already - Ed.]
Drive of the race for me was Kimi's comeback to within a second of Bottas in fourth after yet another disappointing qualiftying. He needs to fix this Saturday jinx so we can really see what he's capable of come race day - he's performing better this year than the results suggest. Controversially, I'll say Pastor Maldonado is doing better than zero points in I don't know how many races indicates too. It was a corking effort to get up to seventh with half his rear wing missing. Now if only he could stop hitting things...
McLaren's moody-looking new race livery debuted to little fanfare, although the team did perform a bit better in the race than we've become used to - Fernando was as high as seventh before he lost all his brakes and almost ran over his pit crew (don't get any ideas, Romain - oh...) Jenson's 100th McLaren start wasn't as satisfying though; he finished a distant 16th after describing the car's handling as 'scary' for the first 30 laps. Many an early S2000 driver will empathise, JB.
BTCC: where great driving matters?
Watching Jason Plato win again in the Team BMR Volkswagen CC one wonders if there's a bit of a trend here. Namely, Jason goes to an underperforming team and turns them into racewinners. He won in a Chevrolet Cruze, won in a box-fresh MG6, is now turning the middling CC into a race winner and title contender too. Colin Turkington too: winning the title in a BMW 1 Series that previously showed just the odd flash of speed, and also now charging in the CC?
Is, then, BTCC a motorsport that we purists dream about - where great drivers still do make the difference? Part of this is thanks to Alan Gow's support of NGTC regulations, where there's much more commonality and so the big difference in performance can be the driver. It heightens the drivers' worth (and the teams' expertise in setting it up), which is how it should be: one-make championship logic in a top-line race series.
If only F1 were like this. If only all the drivers could switch teams and we could start seeing Saubers winning races, McLarens getting podiums and Manors scoring points (well, maybe not that). Arguably one of the world's greatest drivers is already in a McLaren and he's not able to split away from a frustratingly underrated Jenson; we'd love to have seen Schumacher in his prime steering a Prost to victory, but it would never happen.
Many get sniffy about BTCC racing, dismissing it as bumper cars rather than Britain's biggest race series, but look beyond this and you'll see the talent on show. Maybe that's why tens of thousands pour into British circuits to watch it live, rather than the promise of seeing bumping, barging and fisticuffs.
Alex Lynn: is he on your radar yet?
Alex Lynn
made another breakthrough yesterday, scoring his maiden GP2 win in Barcelona, after a keen fight from Belgian McLaren protege Stoffel Vandoorne. The 21-year-old Essex-born DAMS driver is a fair way behind Vandoorne in the championship (the 23-year-old remains title favourite), but yesterday's win (in only his second GP2 weekend) will hopefully mark another breakthrough for the 2014 GP3 champion, whose stock continues to rise.
Indeed, after being part of the Red Bull development team for a while he's this year been made development driver for Williams, working with the team when he's not getting stuck into the F1-following GP3 series. Not bad for 21; is he thus a future British F1 racer in the making? If he's not on your to-watch list now, maybe it's time you started following him ahead of a potential top-line breakthrough in the next few years...