My (slightly delayed
) opinion on the Spanish GP.
McLaren are officially back! Very fast speed added to a good display of reliability gave Kimi Raikkonen his first (and hopefully not last) victory of the 2005 season. His speed in the first 20 laps of the race was enough to blow away the rest of the field, stretching out a margin of 25-30 second - essentially a pit-stop in his pocket.
From that point on the only realistic race for position was between the Renaults and Schumacher for 2nd place. Bad luck again affected Fisichella's race. It is thought that debris on the track caused the underside and nose of Fisichella's car to become damaged, forcing him in for an unscheduled pit-stop. Schumacher was also affected by mis-fortune when his left rear and front left tyres defleated! The world champion is proving to have a good record at retiring from races so far this season. With about a third of the race left, Alonso was left alone in his quest to finish second. A few more battles raged throughout the field - usually between two cars - but overall this wasn't a very eventful race, just another refreshing one.
McLaren could have finished 1st and 3rd had Montoya had a better race. The problems with his fuel hose coupled with spinning on lap 7 clearly cost him a lot of time, which is fustrating when you have a fast car. I expect McLaren will be very strong again in Monaco and hopefully can have an incident free weekend.
Renault are still a strong team, as Alonso proved by finishing second and Fisichella proved by setting the fastest lap on lap 66 - a little bit faster than Raikkonen's fastest effort! If Fisichella can shake off the bad-luck gremlin, then I expect we'll see a very strong display in Monaco.
Toyota had an off race in San Marino with their pace a little off what we saw in the opening races, but they expected to be stronger again in Spain. They proved themselves right.
Trulli added another podium to his collection and solidified his second-place position in the world championship table. Ralf Schumacher was unlucky not to finish third though. He was a bit faster than Trulli all through the GP, but somehow managed to finish just behind him in 4th.. maybe something to do with pit-stops!?
Williams impressed in qualifying, but once again Webber was compromised by having a slow-starting car. He saw the familiar sight of Trulli's Toyota from the 1st lap until when he pitted (lets not show him the 'car in front is a Toyota' advert anytime soon!
) Webber faded quickly after the pit-stop, eventually ending up 7th once everyone had pitted once. Heidfeld didn't have an impressive race from the back either. Williams still have work to do if they want to challenge for wins soon.
Ferrari.. it happened again! Everyone thought they were back after Imola, but who seriously thought Schumachers pace was down to him + the new car!?
No way! Clearly the tyres were in top condition, working 110%. at Imola.. but I doubt they were much above 50% in Spain. The new Ferrari car on a whole is good enough to win races, but without the right tyres they'll have to rely on tactics, rather than actual racing, to get those wins. Barrichello - very unimpressive..
Red Bull and Sauber had a chance to pick up points with BAR out of the picture for 2 races. Neither team really made an impact on the top 5 teams, with the exception of Heidfeld and Barrichello, and as a result, only Coulthard picked up a point. Sauber's pace all weekend was simply bad.. and Liuzzi didn't impress in the Red Bull. Bring back Klien!
Jordan and Minardi.. well, they ambled round at the back of the field again. I doubt they'll do much more anytime soon.
11 days until Monaco!
I'd also think someone's playing with the buttons. 
