Renault expected little from the Spanish Grand Prix weekend but Robert Kubica once again made sure the team scored points.
| Robert Kubica | Vitaly Petrov | |
| Qualifying position | 7 | 19 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’21.599 (-0.54) | 1’22.139 |
| Race position | 8 | 11 |
| Average race lap | 1’28.148 (-0.78) | 1’28.928 |
| Laps | 66/66 | 65/66 |
| Pit stops | 1 | 1 |
Robert Kubica
Kubica suffered a setback on the first lap when he collided with Kamui Kobayashi:
The first three corners were very tough. I was in a battle for position with Felipe in the first corner, then unfortunately on power I nearly lost the car, so I nearly spun, that’s why Kobayashi went on the outside on turn three. He didn’t leave any space, we touched – he was closing and I had some understeer – and I damaged my front wing and lost a couple of places.
Robert Kubica
He’d didn’t change his front wing because it would have help up his first pit stop too much. Instead, he persevered with it until the end of the race.
He amde a couple of attempts to get past Adrian Sutil but remained stuck behind the Force India driver to the flag.
Compare Robert Kubica’s form against his team mate in 2010
Vitaly Petrov
Was half a second off Kubica’s pace in qualifying, which is the closest he’s been all year. But he crashed in final practice for the second time in as many races and had to take a five-place grid penalty as the team replaced his gearbox.
Stayed 19th on the first lap before working his way past the new teams’ cars, then got ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Kamui Kobayashi via his pit stop. Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton’s retirements promoted him to 11th by the end of the race.
BasCB
11th May 2010, 7:50
To be fair to Petrov, he did crash out after gettin on the wet kerbs, not really a driver error (maybe in-experience does help here though).
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th May 2010, 9:08
How is that not driver error? It had rained before, he didn’t take into consideration that the kerbs might be wet.
bosyber
11th May 2010, 12:45
inexperience causing a lack of proper judgment of track conditions, leading over eager use of kerbs? … yeah, that is probably a (rookie-)driver error.
Damon
11th May 2010, 16:29
What inexperience? Haha. Nonsense.
Petrov is not a rookie racing driver, he’s only a rookie F1-driver. 2010 is his 8th year in a single-seater racing series.
Since 2002 he has competed in 135 single-seater races in Europe and in Asia.
Inexperience is a ridiculous excuse.
stren
11th May 2010, 16:55
Incredible consistency in Kubica’s lap times !