Spanish GP: 10 talking points

With 75 per cent of the winners of the Spanish GP coming from pole position, and most of the others starting in second, it was always likely that the chequered flag would be taken by someone on the front row. So it proved.

Nico Rosberg drove impeccably for 66 laps to record his first victory of the season for Mercedes, while Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel had to settle for podium finishes.

With overtaking a notoriously difficult task in Barcelona, most of the action took place in the pit lane as teams looked to gain track position using strategy instead of race pace.

Compared to Bahrain 2014, this looked like a completely different sport.

Of all F1's current issues, perhaps the greatest is that drivers are afraid to push for fear of damaging their strategies.

Pirelli's short-life tyres degrade even more quickly when sat in the dirty air of another car, meaning wheel-to-wheel action is a big risk for teams unless they can overtake quickly.

The concern among fans is that they're seeing less real racing as a result, with many drivers complaining that they're performing below the limit for large stints just to get to the end.

There's talk of teams being allowed to select their own compounds to add an element of unpredictability to the grid, but would that really make F1 more exciting?

Especially if you're a mechanic. Some say their testes are made of carbon fibre, and that they have no understanding of their own mortality. All we know is we'd rather sit on the pit wall.

Fernando Alonso gave his front jackman a fright when he came in to pit on lap 28, the McLaren driver overcooking his approach thanks to a brake failure that eventually forced him out of the race.

Lotus's front jackman was not so lucky, taking a heavy blow to the stomach as Romain Grosjean's car lifted him clean off the ground. The incident was laughed off in the garage, although not before an ice pack was found for the poor mechanic.

Grosjean was quick to apologise after the race, saying: "I'm going to pay my beers tonight."

As Nico Rosberg charged round Catalunya, Ferrari had their least competitive weekend of the season so far with Sebastian Vettel finishing 45 seconds back in third. Kimi Raikkonen, who struggled in qualifying, only managed fifth after failing to get past the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

It was a frustrating weekend for the Italian team, who had hoped to close the gap on their rivals having made several upgrades to their car in recent weeks.

Vettel remained defiant after the race though, saying: "I am in the fight. We are able to improve our car."

"I think we have done a step forward as a team," the German continued. "It doesn't really show here but I am quite confident we will be stepping up our game again in the next couple of races and I look forward to that."

McLaren were another team who failed to improve, beating only the Manor Marussias again despite hopes of scoring points for the first time this season.

Jenson Button's assessment of the car was emphatic to say the least. "The first 30 laps were the scariest of my life. Every time I touched the throttle at any speed, the rear was just gone. It wasn't normal.

"After today I don't expect points at all this year, but hopefully today was an off-day."

Strong words indeed.

Just three weeks on from failing to get Button onto the starting grid, the McLaren Honda proved unreliable once again, as Fernando Alonso was forced to retire before the half-way point.

The cause? Brake failure due to the Spaniard's plastic visor cover getting stuck in the cooling duct that prevents the component from overheating.

Surely there is nothing else left to go wrong for the Woking team?

Kimi Raikkonen stole the show again on team radio in Barcelona, claiming he was getting "absolutely nothing" out of the second practice session before using some choice words to describe a back marker that wouldn't get out of his way during the race.

There was also an amusing exchange between Lewis Hamilton and Peter Bonnington, as the race engineer attempted to subtly inform his driver that he'd have to settle for second place.

"Is it impossible what I'm asking?" said Hamilton. "Yes, [Nico] is going to respond if we pick the pace up. It would be impossible," came the response.

News broke earlier in the week that the US-based Haas team - which is due to enter F1 next year - has been buying as many Ferrari parts as possible for its new car.

The upstart outfit has also been making the most of the unrestricted time afforded to new entrants in a wind tunnel that belongs to... Ferrari.

It has been rumoured that the Italians might be using Haas' data to improve their own car, a notion compounded by a senior figure at Mercedes describing their rival's aerodynamic upgrades as "very impressive" this weekend.

Ferrari deny all allegations of wrongdoing, and claim that the FIA are fully aware of their dealings with Haas.

Much is made of a team's ability to get through qualifying on the fewest sets of tyres, and on Saturday Kimi Raikkonen was irked to discover that he'd lost a set of Mediums in bizarre circumstances.

"We had one new set of tyres we could have used in last qualifying," said the Fin. "But for some freak reason it got burnt in a blanket and destroyed..."

The FIA has issued its second technical directive of the season regarding fuel-flow rates, this time reminding constructors that as well as never exceeding the 100kg/hr limit, they must also ensure that fuel-flow stays above the minimum requirement too.

Although no teams have been caught breaking the rules, officials suspect that engineers have discovered a way of storing fuel within the system to be used later on to boost power.

It would theoretically allow drivers to deploy DRS, ERS and an engine boost all at the same time.

Very devious, if true.