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.”

Force India deputy boss Bob Fernley has dismissed reports the Silverstone based team could pull out of the controversial Bahrain grand prix.

Two members of the team were allowed to return to Europe this week following a Molotov cocktail attack en route from the Sakhir circuit to the hotel.

There were high-level meetings involving Force India on Thursday, sparking speculation the entire team could follow its frightened members back to the UK.

But Fernley, admitting that security has been ramped up after the incident, is quoted by Express newspaper: “We are definitely taking part, that is decided.”

Bahrain’s information affairs authority also released a statement featuring quotes by Bernie Ecclestone.

“I have no knowledge of any teams planning to withdraw from the race and we are all looking forward to racing in Bahrain,” the F1 chief executive said.

According to Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary, however, another incident like the one involving Force India this week could force F1 to change its decision to go ahead with the race.

“If that happened again and someone was injured then that’s the nightmare scenario for organisers as it might push the teams over the edge,” he said.

Many drivers, like Kimi Raikkonen, have said the situation is normal this weekend in Bahrain, but Cary does not agree.

“Normally there would be PR events in town, you know, ‘meet the fans’ and that sort of thing but certainly as far as I’m aware there aren’t any of those happening,” he said.

World champion Sebastian Vettel said he will be happy when track action begins on Friday.

“I think it’s not a big problem,” the German said when asked about the security situation this weekend, “and I’m happy once we start testing tomorrow because then we worry about the stuff that really matters — tyre temperatures, cars.”

Earlier, Vitaly Petrov’s manager indicated the Russian would only travel to Bahrain if F1 could guarantee his safety.

“If it was dangerous they wouldn’t let us in,” the Caterham driver told The National in Bahrain.

“If they make sure nothing gets thrown onto that track to hurt us, then we’ll be fine. We are here; if it happens, it happens,” added Petrov.

In fact, almost everyone in Bahrain has been reluctant to comment in detail, but there is an obvious feeling of unease.

Peter Sauber told Blick newspaper: “I feel like a guest, and so it is not polite to criticise your host.”

But 1996 world champion Damon Hill allowed himself some criticism of F1, including the sport’s most powerful figures, Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt.

He pointed out that FIA president Todt has said “next to nothing” about the Bahrain saga.

“This I find baffling,” Hill wrote in the Guardian. “Surely it is possible to condemn acts of inhumanity without taking a side?”

As for F1 chief executive Ecclestone, who has consistently trivialised the Bahrain issue, Hill noted that “few” in the paddock “dare to publicly disagree” with the imperious 81-year-old.

“Perhaps we should (criticise him), instead of just muttering under our breath, scared of losing our passes,” said Hill.

Hermann Tilke, the German architect who designed the Sakhir circuit, sees the entire saga as a storm in a teacup.

“It is safe in Bahrain,” Tilke, whose company has an office there, told the Kolner Express newspaper. “I’ve never heard about any problems from our people.

“Of course there is some unrest, but it is protests, not civil war. As Bernie Ecclestone has said, we do sports, not politics,” he insisted.

“And if they demonstrate peacefully now, the media will report on it, so both sides benefit.”

A few days ago, Red Bull’s team boss said Jenson Button – not the other McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton – is a more likely championship challenger for 2012.
On the eve of the new season, Christian Horner has now told British reporters that – with Hamilton’s current contract expiring this year – it is “difficult to envisage Lewis in our team”.

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion who had a tumultuous 2011 and was famously beaten by Button in the drivers’ points standings, insists he doesn’t mind.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of (the remarks) but they definitely don’t wind me up,” the Briton is quoted by the BBC.

“There are a lot of opinions, and everybody has their right to an opinion, but it doesn’t really affect me.

“It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day when I go out and do the job.”

In fairness to Hamilton, he sounds confident and refreshed heading into the new season, has patched up his relationship with his girlfriend, and appointed Didier Coton to look after him in the paddock.

“Lewis was a child prodigy — this is the problem,” 1996 world champion Damon Hill told the Sun. “When you have been brought up from an early age to be a product, at some point something will crack.”

Another pundit, former McLaren driver David Coulthard, urged Hamilton not to be put off by Red Bull’s apparent lack of interest in his services.

“I don’t think Lewis will ever be out of demand for the top teams,” said the Scot.

“What are Lewis’ other options? I don’t think Mercedes are waving around a cheque book — I’d be surprised if Michael (Schumacher) and Nico Rosberg are in the top-four earners in formula one.

“You also want a competitive car and if McLaren give him that, then he will probably stay,” said Coulthard.

Drivers-turned-pundits Niki Lauda and David Coulthard have defended Red Bull’s use of team orders at Silverstone.

An openly unhappy Mark Webber ignored the instruction to hold station behind Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps of the British grand prix.

Despite team orders now being legal under Jean Todt’s reign as FIA president, Sunday’s incident has reopened the old debate about unfettered racing versus the interests of a team of hundreds of staff.

So was Red Bull wrong to clip Webber’s wings?

“No, not at all,” triple world champion and now RTL pundit Lauda told Germany’s motorsport-magazin.com.

“I can perfectly understand Horner making that call over the radio, simply because he was worried about his two cars. That’s fine by me.”

British pundit Coulthard agrees with Lauda, although he is aware that the readers of his Telegraph column may not.

He insisted: “You cannot expect teams who have sponsorship contracts worth millions to risk throwing away valuable points at that late stage of the race.”

The obvious implication is that Webber’s stance might affect his negotiations for a new contract with Red Bull, with boss Christian Horner already flagging private talks this week.

1996 world champion Damon Hill said: “If he was asked not to overtake, that’s a bit serious for a racing driver.”

But Coulthard, a former Red Bull driver and still a consultant to the energy drink’s premier team, doubts Webber’s reaction will affect his future.

“(Owner) Dietrich Mateschitz wants a fighter; he wants two guys battling hard for wins. He does not want a pussycat,” said the Scot.

Niki Lauda has backed Fernando Alonso to win the 2010 world championship.

Spaniard Alonso is 11 points behind championship leader Mark Webber’s Red Bull, but the Ferrari driver has won two grands prix on the trot from pole.

Triple world champion Lauda was highly critical of Alonso throughout the Hockenheim team orders affair, but he has now told Osterreich newspaper that the 29-year-old is poised to win a third title.

“Why?” the Austrian asked rhetorically.  “Because he has twice been champion, and not by chance.  He is the best driver today.

“When you assess together a driver’s speed, intelligence, ability to take risks efficiently to score maximum points always, he is simply the best,” said Lauda, 61.

Lauda also said Australian Webber has “surprised everyone” this season with his consistency.

But he thinks the Red Bull driver will only beat Alonso if his car is “clearly superior” to the Ferrari.

And despite his misgivings during the team orders saga, Lauda said observers can only respect Ferrari at this decisive phase of the championship because “they will do everything possible to bridge the gap separating them from Red Bull”.

1996 world champion Damon Hill, however, fears that Alonso’s 2010 title might be tainted by his inherited victory over teammate Felipe Massa in Germany.

“There will be people who feel that points should have been taken away from Ferrari and Alonso,” he told the Mail on Sunday.

Jul.6 (GMM)  McLaren’s British drivers on Tuesday responded to a claim their battle for team supremacy can be likened to an Aesop’s Fable.

Recently, Lewis Hamilton’s use of the Fable “sour grapes” was misinterpreted by the Spanish press as his accusation that Fernando Alonso is jealous of the 2008 world champion.

And on Monday, 1996 world champion Damon Hill used another of Aesop’s Fables to describe Hamilton and his teammate Jenson Button — ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’.

Although Button takes the role of the tortoise in Hill’s eyes, it was interpreted as a compliment.  “He (Button) is not at his maximum the whole time,” Hill said.

“Will Lewis mature and be circumspect when he needs to be?  I don’t know if that’s his style.”

Hamilton told reporters on Tuesday: “I don’t really have a reaction.

“It’s always very, very interesting to hear past world champions talk about present drivers and world champions, and then it’s interesting to see how it plays out and see whether it’s true or false or whether they actually know what they are talking about or not.

“We will find out later on in the year I guess,” said the 2007 world champion.

Button distanced himself from the suggestion he can be likened to a tortoise.

“Those are his words not mine.  But if I win the championship then I don’t care.  I know I won the championship last year because I was quick,” he said.

Epsilon Euskadi has a better chance of winning a spot on the formula one grid now that Max Mosley has departed.

That is the suggestion of Carlos Gracia, the head of Spain’s motor racing federation.

He told the Marca sports newspaper that the Spanish outfit has the “best facilities” of the other hopefuls but still missed out on a 2010 debut to HRT, Virgin and Lotus.

“When the old FIA granted the licenses to be in formula one it was done with haste and with not accurately assessing the infrastructure.

“I think and I hope that now it will be different,” added Gracia, referring to the appointment of Jean Todt as the new FIA president.

1996 world champion Damon Hill, who acted as a steward in Monaco last weekend as part of a Todt initiative, also backs the sport’s new regime.

“I think we’ve come through a phase in formula one history that has been quite turbulent,” he told GP Week.

“Now things seem to have settled down and we’re focusing again on racing.  That’s the way it should be.

“Before, it was like having a film director who wanted to be in his own film,” added Hill.

(GMM)