F1′s astonishing season continues to live up to the hype, as a fifth driver and constructor on Sunday won the fifth grand prix of 2012.

Not only is the victory Pastor Maldonado’s first, his walk up the steps at the Circuit de Catalunya was the first taste of the podium in his two-season F1 career.

It’s also the first Venezuelan triumph in the sport’s history, and a hugely popular victory for Williams, the once-great British team headed by Sir Frank Williams, whose 70th birthday was warmly celebrated in the paddock on Saturday.

“Boy did we need that,” said Williams on BBC television.

And asked how he feels on Sky television, he smiled: “Relief.”

“Some said Maldonado was a pay driver and he didn’t deserve his place in formula one but they’ll be eating their words now,” commented former team driver David Coulthard.

“That was a fantastic drive,” added Coulthard, referring to Williams’ first win since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2004.

Williams enthused: “I didn’t see him (Maldonado) make one single mistake.”

“You can’t really fault him,” agreed Williams’ 1996 world champion Damon Hill.

Amazingly, however, away from the champagne, Sebastian Vettel’s sixth place leaves him at the top of the drivers’ championship, and he is now neck-and-neck with Fernando Alonso, who finished second on Sunday in the improving Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton, who finished dead last on Sunday and finished eighth, is third in the points classification, ahead of Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen.

Finn Raikkonen finished third on Sunday, and is the favourite to become F1′s sixth different winner of 2012 in Monaco in a fortnight.

“We showed we still have the speed,” the Lotus driver said after the Spanish grand prix. “If we had a few more laps, we could have fought for a victory.”

Kimi Raikkonen has admitted his failed negotiations with Williams ultimately turned out for the better.

When he decided to try to return to F1 this year, the 2007 world champion negotiated at length with Williams.

When those talks faltered, he turned to his second option, and quickly came to agreement with the former Renault team Lotus.

The Enstone based team has been the surprise of the 2012 season so far, and in Barcelona Finn Raikkonen is arguably the overall favourite.

He was asked by Turun Sanomat newspaper if the performance of Lotus, his only actual option for a race seat this year, has surprised him.

“Well, I had another option,” said the 32-year-old, referring to Williams.

“It’s hard to say what kind of results I would have had with Williams. They would have been pretty good as well but perhaps not quite as strong as we are doing now,” said Raikkonen, who finished second in Bahrain recently.

He said he has not been surprised.

“Last year (as Renault) they weren’t bad at the start of the season,” said the former Ferrari and McLaren driver.

“But they had decided to put the exhaust at the front of the car and were not then able to develop the way they needed.”

Lotus did not consider employing team orders in order to boost Kimi Raikkonen’s chances of winning the Bahrain grand prix.

The 2007 world champion ultimately finished second and even had a stab at overtaking winner Sebastian Vettel.

And he might have had an ever better chance at challenging the Red Bull had his Lotus team chiefs ordered teammate Romain Grosjean aside at a crucial moment.

“Yeah,” confirmed Finn Raikkonen, “but there are no team orders and we know the rules.

“I tried to get past as quickly as I can but it’s not easy with two similar cars.

“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second,” he added.

Despite team orders being effectively legal in F1, team boss Eric Boullier confirmed that Lotus does not follow that policy.

“We don’t want to play team orders, so we let them race normally and what happened, happened,” he is quoted by the Mirror.

The most important thing, according to Spanish commentator and former veteran F1 engineer Joan Villadelprat, is that the former Renault team still knows how to win.

“Maybe they don’t have the best car on the grid, because McLaren and Red Bull and Mercedes are probably better, but Lotus have made a car capable of competing with the best in the right circumstances,” he wrote in El Pais newspaper.

Kimi Raikkonen has a simple theory as to why his return to formula one was much smoother than fellow former champion Michael Schumacher’s.

After two less competitive seasons in 2010 and 2011, seven time title winner Schumacher, 43, is finally back up to speed this year.

Finn Raikkonen is more than a decade younger than his German rival and he was off the grid for only two years, not three.

But he thinks there is a simpler explanation as to why he has returned immediately to the pace, while Schumacher took more than two full seasons.

“It’s just about whether you have a good car or not. It has made life much easier for me,” said Raikkonen, who has returned with Lotus.

“He (Schumacher) was not so lucky,” the former McLaren and Ferrari driver told Germany’s Sport Bild.

“The (Lotus) car is good,” the 2007 world champion added, referring to his black and gold E20. “Whether it’s good enough for victory or not, I don’t know.

“At least we are not far away from the top.”

Raikkonen insists not much has changed in F1 since he left for a world rallying foray at the end of 2009 — not even his friendship with Sebastian Vettel.

“He has won two titles since then but it didn’t change him,” said Raikkonen.

“Sebastian is a great racing driver but he’s also a really nice guy,” he added.

As for himself, Raikkonen insists he is just the same.

“Maybe people see me as more relaxed, which I think is down to the (Lotus) team,” he said.

“It’s a different atmosphere to what I’ve experienced before.”

Kimi Raikkonen could be asked to test formula one tyres for the sport’s new exclusive supplier Pirelli.

It has emerged that the Italian company will supply two sets of tyres to each team at a special Abu Dhabi test immediately after November’s season finale.

But Pirelli is also keen to do some testing before then, and – after initially running with a GP2 car – is considering using either an old BMW or Toyota car.

As for the driver, Nick Heidfeld had been touted, but this might have handed an unfair advantage to Mercedes.

According to Finland’s Turun Sanomat, Pirelli’s racing boss Paul Hembery proposed in Valencia that Finn Raikkonen could be an option.

The 2007 world champion left Ferrari at the end of last year and currently drives full-time in the Pirelli-shod world rally championship.

“I don’t know whether Kimi Raikkonen would be interested,” Hembery is quoted as saying.

The 18 grand prix winner’s manager Steve Robertson said: “Currently, Kimi is totally focused on what he is doing.

“But if Pirelli approaches us, of course we will discuss it.  Then, it would depend on whether Kimi is interested in this sort of challenge, and how it would fit into his schedule,” he added.

(GMM)

Red Bull Racing has played down suggestions Kimi Raikkonen was a serious contender for a seat in 2011.

As the team edges closer to re-signing Mark Webber for next year, boss Christian Horner was asked if there was any truth to recent reports linking Raikkonen with the Australian’s seat.

“No.  Kimi has committed himself to rallying and he seems to be enjoying that environment,” he is quoted by The Guardian.

Finn Raikkonen, 30, left Ferrari and formula one at the end of last year to drive a Red Bull-sponsored Citroen in the world rally championship.

The 2007 world champion took in the recent Monaco grand prix from his yacht ‘Iceman’ and attended several parties, but never once stepped into the F1 paddock.

The Telegraph quoted Horner as saying Webber, 33, is close to signing a new deal for 2011.

“We’re just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s now,” he said.  “I would expect something will be announced within the next couple of weeks.”

Meanwhile, Felipe Massa sounded happy with the news that Ferrari is likely to retain him for next year.

“Let’s wait a bit to see what happens, but definitely I would like to stay here,” said the Brazilian.

Renault’s Robert Kubica admitted it is possible he will leave the Enstone team after just one year.

“There will be a time to think about whether I should stay or leave Renault,” said the Pole.