Round 5 brings us to the warm weather of Spain. In Fridays first practice session both Ericsson and Alonso where high up the field finishing 4th and 8th respectively. And in Fridays 2nd session Alonso finished 5th while Ericsson finished just behind him in 6th position. Moving on to Saturdays practice session where Alonso and Ericsson kept the pace from Friday and finished 3rd and 7th. Quite amazingly we managed to finish 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th during all the practice sessions.
In Saturdays qualifying both drivers kept their pace from practice and went with ease thru to Q2. In Q2 Alonso had some trouble getting in a good lap but he managed to do it on his final run. Ericsson was flying in Q2 and went thru quite easily. In Q3 its was Ericsson who had trouble getting in a good lap and unfortunately he could not improve on his final lap and finished in 10th and Alonso had some good pace in Q3 and finsihed 6th.
On race day McLaren failed to submit their coordinates in time which promoted Ericsson to 9th and Alonso to 5th on the grid. Off the line Alonso gets a really good start and overtakes Maldonado at turn 2. On lap 2 Ericsson loses a position to Massa at turn 10. On lap 9 Alonso is right behind Van de Garde and finally gets past him on the DRS into turn 10. Meanwhile Ericsson loses 10th to Hamilton in the same lap and then loses 11th to Magnussen on lap 11. On lap 16 Alonso was gunning after Nasr for 2nd and coming into the start/finish straight Alonso with the help of DRS gets passed Nasr for 2nd as the crowd cheers him on. On lap 35 Maldonado breaked way too hard into turn 6 and flat spotted his tires which meant he had to pit and Ericsson got back 10th during Maldonados pit stop. On lap 41 there is a huge collision between Van de Garde and Hamilton, neither driver could continue with the race. This collision prompotes Ericsson to 8th. During the last 10 laps or so Bottas had some serious pace but just couldn't get past Alonso who finished in 2nd at his home grand prix. Its the 2nd podium of the season and 4th in Sauber MF1 history. Ericsson gets 8th.
We keep extending our lead in the band b race with 37 points down to Lotus. But Manor is closer with a 19 point gap.
In Saturdays qualifying both drivers kept their pace from practice and went with ease thru to Q2. In Q2 Alonso had some trouble getting in a good lap but he managed to do it on his final run. Ericsson was flying in Q2 and went thru quite easily. In Q3 its was Ericsson who had trouble getting in a good lap and unfortunately he could not improve on his final lap and finished in 10th and Alonso had some good pace in Q3 and finsihed 6th.
On race day McLaren failed to submit their coordinates in time which promoted Ericsson to 9th and Alonso to 5th on the grid. Off the line Alonso gets a really good start and overtakes Maldonado at turn 2. On lap 2 Ericsson loses a position to Massa at turn 10. On lap 9 Alonso is right behind Van de Garde and finally gets past him on the DRS into turn 10. Meanwhile Ericsson loses 10th to Hamilton in the same lap and then loses 11th to Magnussen on lap 11. On lap 16 Alonso was gunning after Nasr for 2nd and coming into the start/finish straight Alonso with the help of DRS gets passed Nasr for 2nd as the crowd cheers him on. On lap 35 Maldonado breaked way too hard into turn 6 and flat spotted his tires which meant he had to pit and Ericsson got back 10th during Maldonados pit stop. On lap 41 there is a huge collision between Van de Garde and Hamilton, neither driver could continue with the race. This collision prompotes Ericsson to 8th. During the last 10 laps or so Bottas had some serious pace but just couldn't get past Alonso who finished in 2nd at his home grand prix. Its the 2nd podium of the season and 4th in Sauber MF1 history. Ericsson gets 8th.
We keep extending our lead in the band b race with 37 points down to Lotus. But Manor is closer with a 19 point gap.