F1 2011 - Turkey, Spain & Monaco: The Bull's European Adventures

So, after three races where I've been away, I can now sit and write about them. Albeit briefly, but hey, better than nothing...

Let's start in Turkey. Vettel on pole, Vettel on podium. That's the story of this season so far. Red Bull had a dominating weekend, with Mark Webber finishing second too. But driver of the day? Got to be Kamui Kobayashi - again. Having started on the grid in 24th due to issues in qualifying, he managed to make his way through the laps and up the leaderboard, to finish 10th and gain another point. Cracking drive.

Next was Spain, in particular Catalunya - helps distinguish between Spain and the European GP in Valencia! Again, Red Bull dominate - Webber on pole, Vettel wins the race. But this time around, we finally saw the raw pace McLaren had been digging for for the previous four races. A Hamilton-Button two-three, with Hamilton being pipped at the line by 0.6 of a second, gains points, and also, starts making other teams worry about their pace. Quite incredible.

Finally, this afternoon we saw Monaco - the crown jewels of Formula One. And it was a brilliant race. After Sergio Perez's horrific crash during qualifying, we started with 23 cars on the grid, and finished with 18. We had everything throughout the race - tyre degradation led to great driving, overtaking was seen strewn throughout the race, we had kamikaze driving, drive-through penalties, poor pit-stops, and Red Bull losing it. Then, just as we were set for one of the greatest finishes of all-time in F1, with a 0.7 second gap between Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, Petrov and Alguersuari decided to plough their cars into the barriers, leading to not only another safety car, but a red flag.

What was believed to be the end of the race never occurred, but a restart was ordered, with all cars taken back to the grid. Had no red flag been waved, we'd have been looking at dead tyres, the possibility of further accidents, leading to an extraordinary finish. However, the one-two-three remained the same, leading to a bit of an anti-climax.

So that's five out of six for Sebastian Vettel, and four fastest laps over the last four races for Mark Webber. Red Bull look to be the dominant force, but they've got to start looking over their shoulders at the pace of McLaren. In two weeks we'll be in Canada - now that's where we'll see what happens.

Taken from General Musings of an Idiot: http://www.gmoai.com