The Australian came away from the flyaway rounds on the back foot, and, though this be a cliché as good as those that often emanate from Mark’s mouth, he was a man on a mission this weekend. He could not keep being pipped by team-mate Sebastian Vettel; he had to start making his own luck. Saddled with a car that was a staggering 0.7-0.8s per lap faster in qualifying, thanks to its latest updates, Mark’s response was emphatic: fastest in every qualifying segment, leading the race imperiously from start to finish.

This was as exceptional a performance as his winning drive at the Nurburgring last year, if not better. That win was about getting the monkey off his back; it was not error-free and some elements of luck were on his side that day as well. Here it was about establishing his title-challenging credibility, converting potential into results when nothing short of a victory would have been satisfactory, and trouncing the opposition in a fair, straight, equal fight. That created a pressure all of its own.

Not only did Webber manage to find that extra tenth or two over Vettel in qualifying consistently, he also defended stoutly but fairly on the long run down to the first corner when both Sebastian and Lewis Hamilton got into his tow and took a lunge at him. Compare that to his other two wins, in Germany and Brazil last year, where on both occasions he tried to chop someone (Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen respectively) a little too viciously and desperately. This was calm, firm defence instead.

Once in the clear, Mark controlled his pace superbly. The proof was in the way he reeled off fastest lap after fastest lap, incrementally cutting his time as his fuel load decreased, and constantly pulling away from his rivals. It was unremittingly demoralising for the others. This was a classic example of how to dominate a race. It lifts Webber into 4th on the points table, only 7 points behind Vettel, but the challenge for Mark is to keep this kind of form going. It will mean nothing if Vettel starts having the edge again.

We have already said previously that last year Vettel was the one making the errors and Webber the one being let down by the team, but this season the roles have been reversed. Mark has hurt his own chances more than his team has, whereas Sebastian is bearing the brunt of Red Bull’s continuing reliability issues. Here, the other lesson that came out of the German’s race is that when you don’t have clean air and you’re in the pack, stuff happens. It’s a great incentive to get to the front and stay there.

From the moment that Vettel was in Webber’s dirty air, all of a sudden his balance and handling went awry. Then when Sebastian made his tyre change, not only was the stop itself slightly delayed, but he also had to wait before being released as others came in. That allowed Hamilton to get the jump on him as the McLaren driver frankly out-muscled the Red Bull man, causing more frustration on Vettel’s part, possibly some over-driving, and perhaps contributing to his late-race brake problems.

Focussing especially on Vettel’s delay in the pits, given how stops are shorter these days and therefore any hold-up is more costly, one wonders if this could actually turn into a tactic teams employ, depending on pit bay positioning. If you have two drivers X and Y running around 5-10 seconds apart (X in front), and X is battling with a driver from another team (say, Z), why not wait until Z pits, bring in Y at once, and try to hold up Z’s departure from the pits which might allow X to move past him? Food for thought ...

Hamilton looked to have 2nd all sewn up until the penultimate lap. He had maximised the potential of the MP4-25 McLaren in qualifying and during the race. When he came out of his stop and was confronted with the indecisive Lucas di Grassi, Lewis sized up the situation and used it to his advantage, using the Virgin as an excuse to push Vettel wide. He was aggressive, and Sebastian not as much. But perhaps Hamilton’s forceful style also led to his eventual wheel failure which leaves him 21 points adrift.

It’s his team-mate Jenson Button who continues to lead the championship, but at this rate the Englishman may not hold his advantage for long. Yes, he has had two brilliant wins in changeable conditions, but also three so-so dry races where Hamilton has shown him the way. Here he was ambushed by Michael Schumacher when he came out of the pits, and he spent the rest of the race trapped behind the Mercedes. He complained about Michael’s move afterwards but that just sounded like sour grapes.

In the battles into turn one between Hamilton and Vettel on one hand, and Schumacher and Button on the other hand, in both cases it was the driver who was firmer and more aggressive who won out. Button’s subsequent efforts to pass Schumi were mystifying, for a man who was so good at making incisive overtaking manoeuvres last year. He kept repeating the same move which a man of Schumi’s nous could easily keep fending off. At no stage did he attempt anything more forceful or creative.

This was something of a common theme in this Spanish GP. Overtaking is notoriously difficult at Barcelona, but this year cars were engaged in genuine battles. Nico Hulkenberg and Nico Rosberg had a nice little duel. Kamui Kobayashi was stuck behind Vitaly Petrov, and Robert Kubica behind Adrian Sutil, for much of the race. There was hardly any ingenuity from the driver behind. It’s one thing to blame the regulations for lack of overtaking, but the racecraft isn’t exactly breathtaking either.

To the delight of his home fans, Fernando Alonso inherited 2nd in his Ferrari after Hamilton’s demise and Vettel’s problems. But, although the red cars have lost their barcode motif, gained an F-duct which dangerously requires a driver to take his hand off the steering wheel to operate, and been allowed engine modifications to the pneumatic valves that had caused so much trouble earlier this season, it was all for what? Alonso is close to the front, but on pace probably still slightly behind McLaren.

Ferrari’s cause at the moment is not being helped by Felipe Massa having lost his mojo behind the wheel, after yet another insipid performance in both qualifying and race day. He has basically been anonymous since the opening round in Bahrain, and is finding it difficult to get a balance on the F10 that he likes. This year, there was a question mark over all four ‘second’ drivers in the top four teams (Button, Massa, Webber and Rosberg) as to whether they could step up to the plate. Massa is the only one failing so far.

Having said that, is Mercedes really a part of the top four teams, or should they more rightly be considered alongside Renault as chasing the top three? They came to Barcelona with some major upgrades, not only increasing the wheelbase of the W01 by 5cm, but also introducing a radical airbox. In so doing they became the first team since the late 1980s to dabble with the positioning of the air inlet. It is refreshing to see teams still being able to challenge design concepts which are now taken for granted.

But it all made little impact. Schumacher finished 4th, but 62 seconds behind Webber in a 66-lap race - that’s almost a second a lap slower. Rosberg had a troubled race - forced onto the grass at the start, a fluffed-up pit stop, a second tyre change and getting caught behind Hulkenberg left him out of the points - but he was behind Michael throughout the weekend for the first time this season. Was this Schumacher back to his best in an average car, or just a bad round for Nico?

Alternatively, could it be that Michael’s level of performance hasn’t really changed, but as the team try to adapt the car to suit his needs, primarily by making it more pointy at the front end to cure understeer and to give Schumacher a sharper turn-in response, they are taking it away from Rosberg’s driving style? Is Michael’s aura up to its old tricks at the expense of the points table and the evidence of the first four races? Watch this space; there is the potential for a lot of unhappy people at Mercedes if this keeps up.

Almost unnoticed was the fact that Sutil finished 7th for Force India. It is now to be expected that Vijay Mallya’s team are competing for the minor points. But Sutil himself is becoming a fine points-gatherer. While he has maintained his pace (Spain was the first time he missed Q3, and then only by one place), he has tempered it because he now has the confidence not to over-drive. That in turn is starting to put huge pressure on Vitantonio Liuzzi, who floundered again as he did in China.

Despite his points-scoring efforts in the first two rounds, there is little doubt that Liuzzi is a few tenths behind Sutil at the moment, and the German has now got into his stride. The use of Paul di Resta in Friday free practice is also keeping both drivers on their toes, and Liuzzi is the one feeling the pressure. The Scotsman was actually faster than Tonio here in Barcelona. Whilst you get the feeling that Sutil is an integral part of the team’s ongoing growth, Liuzzi is dispensable. He needs to find something extra quickly.

Sutil held off Kubica for much of the race. Robert will be disappointed about that, but cheered by his own consistency and the Renault’s pace. He beat both Rosberg and Massa in qualifying and you sensed that the yellow car belonged there. But for his collision with Kobayashi at turn three which damaged his car and dropped him back, he could have been in the thick of the battle with Schumacher, Button and Massa. Nevertheless, 44 points at this stage, just five behind Hamilton and Massa, is an exceptional effort.

Petrov was always behind the eight-ball having to take a grid penalty for a gearbox change after his crash in Saturday free practice. The Russian is still slightly lacking ultimate pace in qualifying, but of greater concern is the fact that he has had heavy accidents in Saturday practice for two races in succession. That puts unnecessary pressure on driver, team and resources for when it actually counts in qualifying and the race. He has plenty of credit left over after China, but there is much room for growth.

Barrichello collected two points for Williams but it is a team in disarray right now. Their upgrades did not work, their wind-tunnel figures don’t match what is happening out on track, they are unhappy with the Cosworth engine, and they were bickering publicly after Rubens’ shock Q1 elimination and after Hulkenberg’s pit stop in the race. This is a team suffering from the pressure of the team’s name and history when frankly its ingredients are just not good enough to do any better at the moment.

Nevertheless, it was a combative drive by Barrichello, thanks to an excellent first lap, whereas Hulkenberg is still having a somewhat difficult time finding his feet. Damage after his first stop saw him passed by Jaime Alguersuari and dropping further down the field after a second stop. Alguersuari ended up claiming the last point for Toro Rosso, which may have actually been slightly disappointing given that he leapt from 15th on the grid to 9th on the first lap and was behind Sutil.

But after his stop he fell behind Kubica and Barrichello, losing further time (but no positions) after his drive-through penalty for his needless collision with Karun Chandhok. Was that just a misjudgement or was there an element of annoyance at the slowness of the backmarkers? One hopes it was not the latter, because that kind of attitude is completely uncalled for. Sebastien Buemi continued his incident-prone season, clipping Pedro de la Rosa at the start and retiring with hydraulic failure.

If Buemi needs to show something and get a decent result soon, then so does Sauber. At least Kobayashi made the finish for the first time this season, but this was a case of ‘what might have been’ after he made it into Q3 with an excellent lap in Q2. His tangle with Kubica on the first lap was nothing but a racing incident. De la Rosa’s race was ruined by Buemi, but he seemed unusually emotional about it. Is it because there is pressure on his seat? Does he know that his career is winding down?

Lotus easily won the battle of the new teams. Their upgrade package allowed them to take a step ahead of Virgin and HRT by almost a second, but it is still not enough to trouble the midfield. However, Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen might be in a position to surprise in a race where there is midfield attrition. Reliability continues to be an issue though, with Kovalainen not making the start just as Trulli’s car broke down on the dummy grid in Melbourne. They seem to only get one car right at a time.

Virgin saw both cars finish for the first time, but I’d be surprised if John Booth and Nick Wirth will be happy. Not only could they only make their much-vaunted upgrade for one car only, but it made little difference to Timo Glock’s pace, and Glock was not far ahead of di Grassi in the older spec VR01. Lucas himself, apart from getting caught up in Hamilton and Vettel’s battle, continues his quiet transition to F1. He is yet to show anything impressive, even taking into account the limitations of his car.

Chandhok, by comparison, is proving a very pleasant surprise, and continued to bolster his reputation despite being saddled with the HRT - now painted to resemble a 2002 Minardi. With less time in the car than team-mate Bruno Senna, courtesy of newly-signed test driver Christian Klien taking over duties in first free practice, the Indian was still faster than Senna in qualifying. He was also running comfortably ahead of the two Virgins until the damage from the clash with Alguersuari put him out of the race.

Senna was not only slower than Chandhok, he was also slower than Klien who had never sat in the car before. He also embarrassingly went off at turn four on the first lap after a good start, as ambition got the better of ability. It was exactly what Hispania did not want in front of their home crowd; what they need is what Chandhok is providing, doing his best, knowing the limits, staying solid, and generally bringing it home to raise the team’s morale. A debut in the 'Reject of the Race' ranks for the Brazilian, then.

HRT’s direction is a concern, though. Both Klien and Geoff Willis have been vocal in the media about how substandard the chassis is, although the Austrian believes that more can be extracted from the car even in its present state. According to reports they have parted ways with Dallara, so one assumes they will try and do development in-house. Either that, or they will already look to 2011, but without Dallara they will have to build their own chassis. That would be a huge ask, and take the team back to square one.