The 2018 Spanish Grand Prix – or should we say, “Spainish” Grand Prix – is officially in the books and we have a new leader after Lewis Hamilton’s overwhelmingly easy win.
It was another Mercedes 1-2 snoozer from yore but Hamilton could have had a ham sandwich as he began as the pole-sitter and promptly drove off by himself for a somewhat surprising easy victory and full points from ASN. Battling for the podium scraps were his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen and, also surprisingly, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Eventually, after some various race incidents and tactics, it was Bottas who nabbed second place and Verstappen the third and final podium spot – so ASN awarded the points, thusly. With the win, Hamilton now overtakes Vettel by one point for the 2018 ASN Formula One driver standings lead.
After five races, Verstappen finally has a competitor in the Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award and his name is Romain Grosjean from Haas. Grosjean not only spun himself out on the first lap but also took two others out of the race with him in very Maldonado-esque fashion. Verstappen made a late run at getting the point by bashing into the Williams of Lance Stroll – but it was too little, too late and the point is all Grosjean’s this week. Verstappen, of course, still holds a commanding lead in the category.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award goes to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso who was busy issuing weather reports of “black clouds” in the sky on the 55th lap of a 66-lap race and his McLaren two time zones behind the leaders, to which his pit responded rather succinctly “The weather forecast hasn’t changed.” Alonso enters the wild fray of a five-way tie for first.
The Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award is a no-brainer – nearly literally – as it is split between the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix officials for painting “Spainish” instead of Spanish on the track and then McLaren magnifying the problem by not noticing the glaring misspelling before tweeting it out on their official Twitter account [and then deleting it later when the damage had already been done] – half-points all around for both of them. That half-point is crucial for McLaren as it now puts them in a tie with Hamilton for the season lead.
The 2018 ASN Formula One Driver Standings – after 2018 Spanish Grand Prix
1] Lewis Hamilton – seven points
2] Sebastian Vettel – six
3] Valtteri Bottas/Sergio Perez/Kimi Raikkonen/Daniel Ricciardo – three
7] Pierre Gasly/Nico Hulkenberg – two
9] Max Verstappen – one
The 2018 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award – after 2018 Spanish Grand Prix
1] Verstappen – 3-1/3 points
2] Romain Grosjean – one
3] Red Bull/Ricciardo – 1/3 point
The 2018 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award
1] Fernando Alonso/Bottas/Hamilton/Verstappen/Vettel – one point
The 2018 Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award – after 2018 Spanish Grand Prix
1] Hamilton/McLaren – 1.5 points
3] Ferrari pit [Raikkonen] – one
4] Azerbaijan Grand Prix cleanup crew/Spanish Grand Prix officials – .5 point