F1: High five, even seventh heaven

After eight years on the slide Williams is a winning F1 team again thanks to second-year Venezuelan "pay driver" Pastor Maldonado's stunning success in Spain -- and the celebrations got even hotter

Fairytale victory ends with a bang
As the clock ticked past midnight and into Monday, Australian eastern time, Formula One was on a high. One of the highest highs, perhaps even the peak, in its history.

A little-known Venezuelan with reputedly almost $50 million this year from an oil company, and due to rise to close to $65 million in the next couple of years, had just scored a boilover victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. He drove a car from the Williams team, the sport's third most successful but without a victory for eight years.

Maldonado had started from the pole position, after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was relegated to the back of the grid for stopping on the track after topping qualifying and not having enough fuel left for an adequate sample to be taken had he completed a slowdown lap.

That put Ferrari's Spanish superstar Fernando Alonso on the front row for his home race, and he grabbed the lead at the start despite Maldonado almost squeezing him off the track.

In time 27-year-old Maldonado assumed the lead and he drove an incredibly mature race, withstanding Alonso's pressure in the closing laps before the dual world champion had to back off and nurse his Ferrari home ahead of the rapidly-closing Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus-Renault.

Before this race you surely would have got 100-1, perhaps 200-1, on a Williams or Maldonado winning. Yet occasionally fairytales come true in F1.

They became the fifth driver and fifth constructor to triumph in five GPs so far this season. That hasn't happened since 1983. And, including the last two GPs of last season, there have been seven different victorious drivers in the past seven GPs.

It is indeed a glorious era in F1. Perhaps the most glorious of all.

Some magical facts and figures
Have just come across some neat stats from an information service called Infostrada.

Here's what it says:
"Pastor Maldonado won his first career Grand Prix and made his native Venezuela the 23rd country to produce at least one F1 GP winner. It ended a winless run of 131 straight GPs for Team Williams, which had last triumphed in Brazil in 2004 through Juan Pablo Montoya. For the first time in 29 years and the fourth time in history, an F1 season has started with five different drivers winning the first five races.

Most F1 races from start of season won by different drivers:
5 - 1967: Pedro Rodríguez, Denny Hulme, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney, Jack Brabham.
5 - 1975: Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Pace, Jody Scheckter, Jochen Mass, Niki Lauda.
5 - 1983: Nelson Piquet, John Watson, Alain Prost, Patrick Tambay, Keke Rosberg.
5 - 2012: Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Pastor Maldonado.

31 people treated after garage explosion
Barely 90 minutes after Maldonado's historic win there was an explosion and fire in the Williams garage as wheelchair-bound team founder Sir Frank Williams, who had recently turned 70, addressed a celebratory party. Thirty one people required medical attention -- only four of them Williams team members -- and seven needed to be taken from the track medical centre to hospital.

It was a reminder that, no matter how good things sometimes after in motorsport, you never know -- nor can be complacent about -- what might be around the corner.

Motorsport's governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) is investigating and hopefully there was nothing untoward in the fuel drum that exploded.

Williams has had a lot of changes of personnel, particularly near the top, in the past year. Long-serving Australian technical director Sam Michael departed after the team's long absence from the winner's circle, ironically resurfacing in a different role at great rival team McLaren.

Michael's replacement at Williams is Mike Coghlan, a former employee of the late Tom Walkinshaw's defunct Arrows F1 team and who was banned from the sport when at McLaren, which was found in the 2008 "Spygate" scandal to have obtained loads of secret information about that year's Ferrari.

Coghlan's appointment at Williams raised eyebrows but he had served his suspension, albeit shortened.

Provided nothing is found to have been amiss with Maldonado's Williams the team's shock return to success will continue to be widely celebrated.

As much as Alonso would have loved to have won on his home soil and taken the championship lead outright, instead of sharing it with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who was sixth in Barcelona, he was thrilled for Maldonado. He and Raikkonen hoisted the Venezualan high on the podium.

But, as welcome as a new winner was, Maldonado's reaction lacked the joy of Australian Mark Webber's breakthrough victory in 2009.

Aussies out of the points
It was largely a GP to forget for Webber and fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo. They finished 11th and 13th respectively, with Ricciardo's young Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne sandwiched between them.

Webber didn't make it to the final stanza of qualifying, after Red Bull held him in the garage thinking his lap time would get him through. In the race he had two early stops, one to replace the nose of his car (something teammate Vettel also needed), and was baffled that his RB8 could not produce its best on a circuit where he had taken pole the previous two years -- and won so convincingly two years ago.

Ricciardo was outqualified by Frenchman Vergne but, despite finishing behind him too, felt his race was a progression on the previous outing in Bahrain, where sixth place on the grid had not translated into a haul of points.

Next up on the F1 calendar is Monaco, the crown jewel of the season.

Formula One drivers' world championship standings after five of 20 rounds -- 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 61 points; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 61; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 53; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Lotus-Renault) 49; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 48; 6. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 45; 7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 41; 8. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 35; 9. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Williams-Renault) 29; 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 22; 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 19; 12. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 15; 13. Bruno Senna (Brazil, Williams-Renault) 14; 14. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 4; 15. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 3; 16. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 2; 17. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 2; 18. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 2.
      
F1 constructors' championship standings -- 1. Red Bull-Renault 109 points; 2. McLaren-Mercedes 98; 3. Lotus-Renault 84; 4. Ferrari 63; 5. Mercedes, Williams-Renault 43; 7. Sauber-Ferrari 41; 8. Force India-Mercedes 18; 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6.
      
Creek's in favour, Homebush on way out?
An announcement is due early next week on Eastern Creek, the western Sydney circuit that recently has been upgraded and has regained a V8 Super car games  Championship round in August -- instead of a new overseas event. The circuit now has three alternative layouts and a name change is anticipated.

This author seems to recall that it was named in honour of Australia's triple F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham in the 1990s but that the name never actually stuck.

Eastern Creek's return to favour as the only permanent circuit in the country's largest city coincides with increasing speculation about the future of the annual street race at the Homebush Olympic site.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, which has strongly backed that event, carried a report yesterday that its days appeared numbered and that, even if it survives a little longer, it may not remain the season finale.

V8 Supercars chief Tony Cochrane relentlessly pursued a Sydney street race but, apart from it not being a financial success and its TV figures being little changed from those of previous Eastern Creek rounds, it is seen as a legacy of disgraced former NSW Labor government minister Ian Macdonald.

Martian Ambrose happy but Hendrick team big winner
NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick chalked up his 200th victory in American stock car racing's premier series with five-time champion driver Jimmie Johnson's victory in a Chevrolet at the Southern 500 at Darlington, South Carolina.

Australian Marcos Ambrose had his best finish of the season -- ninth in a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports.

"I came from Mars ... I re-entered orbit around lap 260 and the last 80 laps was a lot of fun," Ambrose said. "We were two laps down and just fought our way back."

Johnson's win was his 56th, while Hendrick's 200 have included three in the Daytona 500, a string of successes in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis -- and 10 championships.

Wheels turning at Brickyard but big guns yet to fire
Practice for the Indianapolis 500 openwheeler classic on May 28, Australian time, is underway -- with unlikely pacesetters. Colombian Sebastian Saavedra has clocked the best lap so far in this year's wide-bodied Dallara cars, circulating The Brickyard at 221.526 mph (356.5 kmh) for Andretti Autosport.

Rookies Bryan Clauson and day one leader Josef Newgarden were second and third for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and New Zealander Scott Dixon fourth for Chip Ganassi at 220.829 mph.

The only two drivers using Lotus engines, 47-year-old ex-F1 ace but Indy rookie Jean Alesi and Switzerland's Simona de Silvestro, have had the two slowest cars and are yet to come within the crucial 105 per cent of the fastest car. Alesi ran 205.265 mph on the 31st of his 32 laps on Sunday with newcomer team Fan Force United but had gone 209.438 mph on Saturday.

De Silvestro, with HVM Racing, posted her fastest lap of 202.179 mph on her final lap on Sunday but complained that "we don't have enough power".

Lotus and Dragon Racing, run by Roger Penske's son Jay, are still in dispute, which has stalled Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais' first attempt at the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" since 2005 and rookie Katherine Legge. However, they may yet get Chevrolet engines as practice continues today ahead of next Saturday's qualifying for pole position.

Roger Penske's trio of drivers -- Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe, and Brazilian three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves -- have not been fussed about quick times yet but are likely to be strong contenders for pole in this most prestigious of Indy races.

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site.