So, last night I made Paella for dinner as part of our 2012 Taste of the Race.There’s different types of Paella with the most popular being seafood. But we went for a pretty generic mix with a bit of everything: chirozo sausage, chicken and prawns cooked into onion, red and green capsicum (for some great colours), tomato and rice. It tasted great, and what’s more the kids really liked it. When I say I made it, Suzanne helped a little bit. It wasn’t all that difficult, but Suzanne managed to slice through the middle of her fingernail when chopping the capsicum.

Home made Paella

The race itself was an interesting affair. Pastor Maldonado, of all people, had managed pole position for Williams after Lewis Hamilton got sent to the back of the field for not having enough fuel left in the tank for sampling after qualifying first by a good 5 tenths. That pretty much cost him the race.

To Maldonado’s credit, he put in a mature race for someone who hasn’t shown a lot of maturity in the last season or so. But by the first corner he’d given up the lead to local hero Alonso in the Ferrari. Despite this, Williams were calling the shots in the race and timed their pit stop to perfection to give Maldonado plenty of clean air. He put in the outlap of his life to undercut Ferrari who had to re-actively pit Alonso and put him behind some unwanted traffic and more importantly behind Maldonado. I’m not too keen on passing in the pits. I’d rather see on-track passing but watching the strategy unfold successfully was intriguing.

Maldonado held on from a desperate Alonso charge late in the race. Unfortunately Alonso suffered from being behind traffic and his tires dropped off a couple laps too soon. Good win to Williams and Maldonado in the end, for the fifth different winner and the fifth different constructor to win from the first five races.

Maldonardo wins 2012 Spanish F1 Grand Prix