Spanish Grand Prix 2012 - Allianz Round-up

By Melissa Shanley of Setanta Sports

The Williams Formula 1 team ended their eight year wait for a victory as Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday.

In his first win, Venezuelan native Maldonado finished ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari thanks mainly to his team’s quick work during pit-stops.

Maldonado believes that he can now challenge for the championship despite being 32 points off the lead. When asked by the BBC how he felt about the possibility of winning the title, Maldonado said "Everything is possible... We aren't the best team at the moment. [But] the gaps are close and I'm driving well."

Kimi Raikkonen finished third for Lotus despite putting pressure on Alonso for second position.

It was not a great day for McLaren team mates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button who finished eighth and ninth respectively.

The latest round of results mean that Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel are level on points at the top of the championship with Vettel being the overall leader due to results countback.

Following Williams’ victory, the celebrations of the team were cut short after 31 people sustained injuries following a fire in the team’s garage. Seven of these people required hospital treatment with respiratory problems and a hand injury being the main issues experienced.

The incident was believed to have occurred when a fuel fire was ignited by a Kers unit.

Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher has received a five place grid penalty for the next race in Monaco as a result of his collision with Williams driver Bruno Senna.

The collision, which saw Schumacher crash into the back of Senna’s car leaving both drivers unable to continue the race, was deemed by the race stewards to be Schumacher’s fault.

Schumacher, however, believed that Senna was to blame and claimed that he moved in front of Schumacher in the braking zone therefore meaning that the collision was unavoidable.

As reported on BBC Sport, Schumacher stated, “If you look at the overhead shot you can see he moves right to defend his position and then in the braking point he moves left... And I couldn't avoid him.”

Schumacher also made reference to Senna’s earlier brush with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean however, also as reported on BBC Sport, Bruno Senna stated, “He's not going to say it's his own fault. He had much newer tyres than me... I saw Romain Grosjean braking quite late and hitting me. I didn't want Michael to do the same. When I tried to brake he hit me.”

The grid penalty imposed on Schumacher is the latest in a numbers of difficulties experienced by him in his comeback to the sport.

Sponsored by Allianz Car Insurance.

All comments are moderated before they appear