Euro Sports Events

Dani Pedrosa won in his home Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona. He took an early lead and won bya two second margin against championship leader Valentino Rossi.

Meanwhile Jorge Lorenso spent the weekend in hospital after coming off his bike in practice. With two broken ankles already to contend with, he has added concussion and a possible skin graft to his hand too.

The Barcelona Grand Prix took place on Sunday and proved to be hugely exciting, with the safety cars in much evidence. A first lap smash brought them out, and later Heikki Kovelainen’s 140 mph crash following a failure of a wheel rim saw the race under the safety cars again for several laps. Although he was knocked unconscious, the high safety standards of F1 mean that he is expected to be fit to drive later in the week, having sustained no serious injury. There were concerns because of his car being buried so deeply in the tyre wall, but once out he gave the thumbs up while being stretchered away.

Despite qualifying second on the grid, the race didn’t go well for Fernando Alonso. Perhaps due to the safety cars his engine overheated and he stopped his Renault with flames licking behind him. Although it would have been a major disappointment to him in front of his home crowd - many who left the circuit after this incident - Renault have made a major improvement to the car in order for him to produce such a good qualification time.

While teammate Lewis Hamilton got a great start and finished in third place, the Ferraris showed their class again, finishing one and two. McLaren admitted that their cars are proving to be difficult to set up, but they are making progress, which was clear from the race.

Results:
1 Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari)
2 Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
3 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)
4 Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)
5 Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)
6 Jenson Button (Honda)
7 Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota)
8 Jarno Trulli (Toyota)

With the first European race on the Formula 1 circus taking place next weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya at Montmelo, north of Barcelona the teams have been trying to get a handle on how their rivals are doing.

One of the biggest gainers this year so far has been BMW Sauber, with strong performances in all the Grands Prix to date. And Renault have been testing their modified car, with Fernando Alonso hoping to do well in front of his home crowd.

With changes made to the suspension and nose cone it remains to be seen whether the team is really in with a chance this season, or need to go back to the drawing board to play catch up.

Today is the last day of testing at the Barcelona circuit at Montmelo and with the rain pouring down it is unlikely to be particularly useful for many of the teams.

Two teams that it will make little difference to are Super Aguri, missing due to near financial collapse, and Toro Rosso, whose new car was damaged beyond repair by newcomer Sebastien Bourdais yesterday. With no spare care, Sebastian Vettel will miss on on his test drive today anyway.

Meanwhile Michael Schumacher has been testing for Ferrari and has criticised plans to ban tyre warmers next year. With the planned reintroduction of slicks, driving with them cold presents a safety issue, although he has welcomed their reintroduction saying racing with them is “more fun because there’s more grip”.

All teams except Super Aguri are at the Montmelo track ahead of the Barcelona Grand Prix which starts a week on Friday. According to Yahoo Sports, Michael Schumacher will be test driving a car set up for next year’s regulations to start collecting data.

More info to follow as it is released.