ESPN rounds up the main talking points from the Spanish Grand Prix, featuring Nico Rosberg's first win of 2015, continuing problems at Red Bull and why potential changes to power unit allowance for 2015 look set to fall through.
A shot in the arm for Rosberg
After Bahrain you couldn't help but feel there was something of a trend forming at Mercedes; Lewis Hamilton comfortably seeing off Nico Rosberg, the man who took last year's championship fight to the final round of the season. Much of the talk coming into the Spanish Grand Prix - and indeed in the Barcelona press sessions with the German - centred around momentum and his self-belief. Rosberg seemed slightly irritated by such questions but admitted Saturday's pole was a huge psychological boost after being on the back foot for four races this year. Rosberg delivered a magnificent drive on Sunday to win, the sort of comfortable victory often downplayed due to the lack of TV exposure the lead driver receives in those situations, and deserves enormous credit for such a faultless weekend.
Rosberg's victory in Barcelona was crucial in the context of this year's championship, especially after seeing the huge step Mercedes appears to have made over Ferrari. If the 45-second gap over Vettel at one of F1's bellwether circuits was anything to go by (and it should be), the next few races at least could be a straight fight between the Silver Arrows. We described Vettel's Malaysia win as one F1 needed but this was one the current season needed, given the fact Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are not in the same machinery as Hamilton. As we saw with Vettel in 2013, one team-mate dominating the other in a dominant car is hardly good for ratings. Granted, it is just one victory and Hamilton's championship lead is still 20 points, but Rosberg heads home to Monaco, where he has won the last two races, having shaken any doubts about his ability to beat Hamilton Mach 2015.
From bad to worse at Red Bull
The Spanish Grand Prix was so bad for Red Bull that Christian Horner declared the entire season "a write-off". Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo suffered the ignominy of being out-qualified by both Toro Rosso drivers, the men theoretically next in line for one of their seats at Red Bull. However, after qualifying a downbeat Ricciardo hinted at issues with the RB11 itself, adding that upgrades brought to Barcelona did not have the desired effect.
Speaking about Red Bull's new short nose, he said: "Right now it's hard to say too much positive in terms of pure lap time - we're two seconds off the pole. There's not progress, I don't know if it's not from that or not, but clearly we're not competitive. We definitely hoped for more. Mayne it's still that it can work better but we just haven't found the way it wants to behave but realistically we aren't going to find a second more with it. We would have liked it."
It's painful to see the star of last season struggling so much with the current Red Bull-Renault package. He admitted the gap to Toro Rosso in qualifying was exaggerated by an error in Q3, but believed he would have been behind both Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen anyway. The two rookies deserve enormous credit and may soon start posing some interesting question for senior figures at Red Bull with Ricciardo and Kvyat struggling in an uncompetitive car. The dominance of 2013 seems a long, long time ago and it's hard to see where Red Bull goes from here.
All eyes on Thursday
The upcoming Strategy Group meeting seemed to attract as much attention during the weekend than the race itself. A current topic of discussion heading into Thursday's meeting is whether the regulations will be tweaked to allow drivers five power units instead of four before incurring penalties. While this would be invaluable to Renault and Honda, who are still upset they were not afforded the five power units its rivals had in their first season of the V6 turbo era, the ultimate stumbling block will be opposition from teams with Mercedes power.
Outwardly, Mercedes is supporting the introduction of a fifth power unit and may well vote in favour, a clever ploy to show the FIA it is willing to do whatever it takes to improve the spectacle. But the world champions do so in the knowledge the rule change will need unanimous agreement from the Strategy Group and that other members - notably Mercedes customers Williams and Force India - are unlikely to vote in favour as they will benefit from Renault engine penalties sooner rather than later under the current power unit rules. Stranger things have happened in F1 but it looks very unlikely the fifth engine proposal will receive the support it needs, meaning imminent penalties for the Renault teams.
Fernando's pain is Spain's pain
There was a strange atmosphere over the Spanish Grand Prix. Driving to the circuit in the morning, even though it was some five hours before lights out, was easy, there was absolutely no traffic whatsoever. The Circuit de Catalunya announced on the eve of the race it has extended its contract until 2019 but spectator numbers were noticeably down as spectators trickled in throughout the day. In McLaren's Saturday media session one journalist joked to Alonso he had seen a flag in the grandstand saying "Fernando, you are never alone", with no-one stood around it. It didn't seem like such a bad observation on Sunday. On race day it was easy to spot clusters of empty seats from across the track in the media centre.
In the evening the media was given the figure of 86,000 fans through the gate on race day, a number which seemed generous at best and a figure down by around 5,000 on last year's race. Perhaps the troubles at McLaren and the fact local hero Alonso endured the difficult weekend any F1 fan could have predicted deterred fans. In fact, the response (from the main grandstand at least) to Alonso and Sainz on the drivers' parade seemed strangely muted, though Sainz's overtaking efforts on Verstappen and Kvyat late in the race in the evening did seem to stir the locals. It's no secret this is Moto GP country but Alonso is still revered as a hero in Spain and Bernie Ecclestone will hope McLaren is in a winning position when we return in 2016.
Stoffel marches on
A star is on the horizon in GP2 and he's about to give McLaren an almighty headache. Stoffel Vandoorne was the rookie sensation of 2014 and may have won the championship were it not for a big dip in form at the start of the season. This year he's picked up where he left off and already holds a 37-point lead over Rio Harayanto after four rounds, finishing first and second in the Spain races. With Kevin Magnussen, the man who beat Vandoorne in Formula Renault 3.5 two years ago, already waiting in the wings at McLaren, it's hard to see where the talented Belgian would land if he goes on to win the GP2 title. Certainly he's too big a talent for McLaren to want to give up but with no McLaren-Honda B-team it's a genuine head-scratcher.
Honourable mention also must go to Esteban Ocon in GP3. Picked up by Mercedes at the start of the weekend and described as "mega talented", the Frenchman deserves a bit of success after being dropped by Lotus in favour of Carmen Jorda and Adderly Fong. Ocon was utterly dominant on his GP3 debut as he won the feature, before finishing seventh in the reverse-grid sprint race. Lotus' loss might well be Mercedes' gain.