Frustrating afternoon for Mark in Barcelona

After claiming the seventh pole position of his Formula One career on Saturday, Mark finished today’s Spanish Grand Prix in fourth place. There were phases of the race when his RB7 was the fastest car on the track, but he lost a lot of time in traffic. In fact, Mark spent 38 out of today’s 66 lap race in the shadow of the Bandiera d’Italia on the rear wing of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari!

“I was quick when I had a clear track ahead of me,” says Mark. “But I quickly found myself behind other cars and the damage to your tyres is exponential when you’re in dirty air. In years gone by you could race hard when you were behind people, but that’s not the case in 2011 due to the tyres.”

Mark made a clean getaway from pole at the start of the race, but he emerged from Turn 1 in third place after Fernando Alonso pounced on him and fellow front row starter Sebastian Vettel.

“My reaction to the lights was good,” says Mark, “and I got away reasonably well. But Fernando had an absolute flyer and he got the jump on everyone. I got done by Seb under braking, which wasn’t great, but I still thought I could challenge for the win at this stage.”

Mark would have benefited from pitting for the first time on lap nine in order to get the undercut on the cars ahead of him. But Vettel – Red Bull Racing’s lead car at this stage of the race – got priority and that was the beginning of a difficult afternoon for Mark.

“I spent the next two stints behind Fernando,” says Mark. “I lost KERS in the middle of the race and that made it very difficult to pass him because the DRS zone wasn’t that effective. We were on the rev limiter from halfway down the pit straight, which made it difficult to execute a pass. By the time I cleared Fernando on lap 39, I was too far behind Jenson [Button] to challenge for the final podium position.”

Vettel went on to win the race, with Hamilton and Button rounding off the podium. Alonso came home a distant fifth.

“It’s bizarre that Fernando finished eight seconds behind the winner in Turkey and he was lapped here, having led the race for 18 laps,” says Mark. “But that was the thing about this race: we saw different cars and drivers poles apart in terms of performance. It was as though some cars were involved in a different formula.”

Mark has just four days until he’s next on-track, ahead of next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. Mark won the race last year and he’ll be looking for a podium finish once again.