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A seemingly routine story on Ferrari’s website has underlined the fact that Felipe Massa is coming under ever increasing pressure to perform.

The Scuderia’s post-Barcelona report spoke of Massa’s “drop-off” and said that the team is “expecting a change of gear” in Monaco.

Massa had another terrible weekend in Spain, qualifying at the bottom of Q2 and landing a drive through penalty in the race.

Regarding the first five races, the Ferrari story read: “As for an analysis of the Scuderia’s performance and its two drivers, Fernando has always maintained a very high level (67 points and second place in 2010, 51 and fifth place last year) while Felipe’s drop off has made itself felt. The Brazilian had picked up 49 points two years ago and 24 the following year, while so far this season he has just 2.

“In Montmelo, Felipe was very unlucky, both in the race and in qualifying, but everyone, he more than anyone, is expecting a change of gear starting right away with the Monaco Grand Prix, his second home race, given that he lives just a few hundred metres from what, as from next Sunday, will be transformed into the paddock for the sixth round of the 2012 championship.”

Adrian Sutil’s presence in Barcelona added fuel to suggestions that the German could form part of Ferrari’s future plans. He is known to have had contact with Maranello in recent months.

Williams has confirmed that one team member remains in hospital in Barcelona after suffering burns yesterday’s fire, adding that he is in good spirits.

Meanwhile the team has again thanked the paddock community for its support.

A statement today said: Following yesterday’s fire which occurred in the team’s garage after the Spanish Grand Prix, Williams F1 can confirm that a further two team members have now been released from hospital and have returned home having received treatment for smoke inhalation.

One member of the team remains in hospital in Spain having suffered burns in the incident. He is stable and will return to the UK within the next 48 hours to receive further medical care. His family are in constant communication and he is in good spirits. 

Investigations into the cause of the fire are on-going in collaboration with the FIA and local authorities.

The team would like to thank everyone for their good wishes and support over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile Sir Frank Williams admitted he was overwhelmed by the support the team has received.

“I was pleased to welcome back to the factory the majority of our team this morning,” said Sir Frank. “One of our people remains in Spain for further medical assistance, but we are all looking forward to his imminent return.

“Everyone at Williams F1 is extremely relieved that this event was contained as quickly as it was and the damage which occurred was, relatively speaking, limited in its nature.

“While the incident was unexpected and definitely most undesirable, it has demonstrated the genuine cohesiveness, camaraderie and spirit of co-operation that exists within the Formula One paddock. The astonishing response from the teams and other paddock personnel was immediate, unconditional and overwhelming.”

We may have enjoyed the most unpredictable start to the season in F1 history, but after five races there’s no escaping the fact that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull sit atop both championship tables.

After various dramas in Spain Vettel still managed to finish sixth, although even team boss Christian Horner admitted that the German would probably have only been one place higher with a clean race. Nevertheless despite the uncertainty Vettel has still managed to string together the best 2012 campaign, even if he is only marginally ahead of Fernando Alonso.

“It’s no by co-incidence that we’ve had five races now and five different winners,” said Horner. “It’s also not co-incidence that we’ve managed to emerge from race five and we find ourselves leading both driver and constructors’ championships, and even on a day like today managed to increase our lead in the constructors’ championship, albeit by a point.

“I think these tyres are obviously the key to performance. I think our actual pace in the race when you look at clear lap running, we were competitive, particularly prior to the last stint with Sebastian, when we knew those tyres had to go a long way. And he’s ended up passing in the last three or four laps Hamilton, Button and Rosberg. Jenson had looked untouchable on Friday. So I should think there’s a great deal of head scratching going on up and down the paddock.”

Horner says that consistency will be the key to the championship.

“It’s a matter of whoever understands these tyres’ characteristics and manages to broaden the window of performance from track to track will ultimately prevail. I think where we’ve done a strong job is on the days where we haven’t been able to win – even today where we’ve had drive through penalties and front wing changes – we still managed to score a respectable result, a respectable recovery. I think consistency over the year is ultimately what’s going to be crucial.

“Arguably after five races we must have been the most consistent, because we find ourselves leading both championships. So I think on the days that don’t go your way you’ve still got to make sure that you optimise.

“We had good strategy, good pit work, and ultimately pretty reasonable pace when we were in clear air in the race and our degradation was respectable and we were able to pick off three cars in the closing laps. But I think on a clear run Sebastian potentially he would have had the pace to finish fifth from his grid position today. Maybe he could have given Grosjean a bit of a run for his money as well. Sixth place is damage limitation after nosebox changes and drive through penalties it’s a respectable recovery.”

Horner was not making any predictions for the next race in Monaco: “Monaco is a lottery anyway, so maybe that will be less variable this year. With the way it’s going at the moment, who knows what may spring up there. Monaco’s a different challenge in itself, and again it’s going to be fascinating to see what teams are performing well there.”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali admits that it’s hard to understand the unpredictable form of the 2012 field.

Despite the team’s early frustrations with the F2012 Fernando Alonso currently has the same number of points as championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

“It’s difficult to understand the performance of all the cars that is changing,” said Domenicali. “It’s really difficult, and this is why the only thing we have to do is to keep the pace of improvement race by race, because we have seen up to now so many cars, so many constructors won the races.

“The classification is mixed up. Red Bull today seemed to struggle. McLaren, on one side Hamilton was very good, he did only two stops, he was eighth, Lotus were very, very strong, always there, and Williams today was perfect. So I take this opportunity to congratulate Williams with this victory. Sometimes it’s a sign of God, with this birthday of Frank, having this reward. I’m happy for him.”

Domenicali said the result would provide some good motivation for the team.

“I always say I look at the glass being half full. I think that has to be a push for all the engineers at home to make sure they improve the car. That’s the only way we have to look. If we want to win this championship we have to do a massive step, keep pushing and keep improving the downforce, mainly. With all the problems that we had since the beginning of the season, being let’s say being on top of the drivers’ championship means at least we are there. There’s a lot of improvement that we need to bring home, because our target has not changed.

Asked if Alonso’s championship position took pressure off, he said: “I think it’s not a sense of relief, because we know that tomorrow morning we are already in the next race mode.

“But for sure it’s important, and at least I’m happy for the people at home that are pushing and working hard to see the sign of their work. Because in a difficult condition when you have a lot of pressure, it’s not a problem of me, it’s a problem of the people who have to manage the engineering of it that needs to deliver the job. I’m happy because I can see the job of the last weeks was giving the right sign in terms of trend.”

Lewis Hamilton put his qualifying frustrations behind him with a charging drive in Spain, one that saw him the only driver to make it to the flag on two pit stops. He finished the race with a marathon 31-lap third stint.

Although he had obviously targeted a better result, Hamilton said he enjoyed the afternoon. The fact that key title rivals like Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Jenson Button didn’t score big points – Lewis finished ahead of his team mate – probably also helped.

“I’m quite happy with that, the team did a great job, and it was the best I could do,” said Hamilton. “It was an incredibly tough challenge. They said I was going to be the only one to do a two-stop strategy. I didn’t know where I was when I was making my way through at the beginning.

“It’s always fun to challenge and overtake people, and it was a huge challenge coming from the back. I didn’t know what position I could finish in for one second, but I never gave up, right until the line. And that’s what racing is all about. Today was damage limitation, and to get a couple of points from where I was, I really can’t complain.”

Asked whether he’d proved a point, Lewis said: “I don’t know if I had anything to prove, I think I’ve done that many times in my career. But I think today was just maybe a reassurance for some people. For me I really enjoyed it. The team did a good job with the pit stops, it was a much bigger improvement compared to the last race, although we did have one small problem. Fortunately it didn’t cause us any problems.”

Lewis said the result was a boost for the team after some recent frustrations.

“They’ve been working very hard and they deserve better. When things go right I think we’ll be in a great position, and it will come to us I think at some stage.”

Williams has issued a statement about today’s garage fire in Spain, confirming that four team members were hurt.

The team also thanked other paddock personnel for their help in fighting the fire, which started when a fuel rig appeared to explode.

The statement reads: After today’s Spanish Grand Prix a fire occurred in the team’s garage whichriginated from the fuel area.

Four team personnel were injured in the incident and subsequently taken to the medical centre. Three are now receiving treatment at local hospitals for their injuries, while the fourth has been released. The team will monitor their condition and ensure they receive the best possible care.

The team, the fire services and the police are working together to determine the root cause of the fire and an update statement will be released in due course.

The Williams F1 Team would like to thank all of the teams and the FIA for their support in today’s incident.

Lewis Hamilton says he won’t give up despite being forced to start the Spanish GP from the back of the grid.

Hamilton was quoted in a team statement issued late this evening.

“This is such a disappointment,” said Hamilton. “Today’s qualifying session was one of the best I’ve ever driven – the whole car was just rolling so smoothly – it felt fantastic. The team had done a fantastic job to bring the updates here this weekend – so I want to say a huge thank-you to all the men and women at the MTC for working day and night to get all the new components here this weekend.

“But, on my slowing-down lap, my engineers told me to stop on the track, and I didn’t know why. Later, to hear that I’d been excluded from qualifying, was of course extremely disappointing.

“But, now, looking ahead to tomorrow, I think it’s clear that it’s going to be an incredibly tough race for us. Even so, as always, I’ll never give up and I’ll give it everything I’ve got. It would mean so much to me to get a good result here in Spain – it’s such a pleasure to come here and the support I get is amazing.

“As I always say, and as I always do, whatever grid position I start a Grand Prix from, I’ll always race my heart out.”

Meanwhile Martin Whitmarsh said: “[Lewis] was unable to finish his slow-down lap – and, since we accept that the stewards didn’t agree with our interpretation of force majeure, we didn’t contest their decision to penalise him.

“Our aim is therefore now to maximise the points we can score tomorrow, and you may rest assured that both Jenson and Lewis will approach the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix with their customary combative ambition.”

Mark Webber was caught out in qualifying in Spain when his Red Bull team decided that his first lap in Q2 was going to be good enough to keep him in the top 10.

However when others did second runs and went faster, the Aussie found himself bumped down to 12^th as he sat in the pits. He has subsequently gained a place from the Lewis Hamilton penalty, but he was convinced that he had the pace to qualify second – which ultimately of course became pole.

After qualifying his sense of humour remained intact.

“We had a pretty straightforward session,” he said. “Everything went to plan until everyone went too quick, basically! Also the track got massively quick. In Q2 how much the track was improving was something that caught us out. Ultimately my first lap in Q2 was very competitive, P2 to Lewis. That one tenth of a second was enough to cost us a front row.

“As soon as I arrived back they said, ‘Mark, fantastic lap, that’s it, get ready for Q3. Then with about 60 seconds to go I started to shit myself, and that was it.

“We got exposed because of the track conditions. If you look how the track changed in China, Melbourne and Malaysia in Q2, it hasn’t been so severe. Here it was massive and that’s what bit us in the arse.”

Webber was also handicapped by the fact that on his sole Q2 lap he carried enough fuel for a second lap, in case he hit traffic and needed to carry on round. He didn’t need it, and without that extra weight, he would have been safe.

“I nailed the first lap and ultimately I had too much fuel to do that lap,” he told this writer.

He is still hopeful of a good race on Sunday.

“Obviously the grid position is not very nice, around here especially.  It’s like Bahrain in terms of overtaking, but we can still do well from there. The guys have done such a bloody good job all weekend, the car’s been good. OK, we still didn’t have the perfect balance in qualifying. We had to still keep improving the car throughout qualifying, and we were looking to do that into Q3, but we never got there.”

Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from qualifying in Spain and put to the back of the grid.

Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso thus start on the front row.

Drivers are obliged to get back to the pits after the end of qualifying, but Hamilton had stopped after Turn 8.

The team argued that it was force majeure after it a mechanic had not put enough fuel in the car in the pits prior to the last run, which is why they were forced to ask Lewis to stop to save fuel.

He had 1.3 litres of fuel in the car which rivals insist was not enough to get back to the pits and provide a sample.

Martin Whitmarsh explained earlier: “It was a technical problem that happened in the garage that didn’t impede the performance of the car in any way. We stopped the car when it had 1.3 litres of fuel left in the car.”

The stewards rejected the force majeure excuse, saying that the amount of fuel in the car was under the complete control of the competitor.

The team was deemed to have breached article 6.6.2 of the technical regulations.

Lewis Hamilton’s Barcelona pole is under threat after he stopped on his slowing down lap at the end of Q3.

Hamilton did the same after getting pole in Montreal in 2010 because the team was concerned that would not have enough fuel left to provide a sample if he had driven back to parc ferme.

After that the FIA told the teams that they couldn’t stop unless they could provide evidence of a valid reason, such as a car problem. And obviously the team would also have to demonstrate that there was enough fuel on board to have got back in normal circumstances.

The idea was to stop teams routinely cutting it fine on fuel loads and stopping on track at the end of qualifying.

Martin Whitmarsh says that Hamilton was told to stop today because of a technical issue. He says that Lewis still had 1.3 litres in the car, and asked by this writer he insisted that it was enough to have got back and provide a sample. Teams are expected to have a litre left for testing although there is a little leeway on that.

Other paddock sources insist that 1.3 clearly would not have been enough to have got back and provided the sample.

“There was enough fuel to take a fuel sample,” said Whitmarsh. “We stopped the car and we’re now talking to the stewards about there. There was I think 1.3 litres of fuel taken out of the car.

“I think the regulations are that you have to do that lap unless there’s a force majeure, and I think that’s the discussion that will probably happen.”

Asked if he could explain why Hamilton had stopped, he said: “Not in detail, but there was a technical problem. It’s not for me to decide but I would obviously believe that to be a force majeure, but it’s obviously for the stewards to decide.”

The suggestion is that the force majeure simply relates to a mistake being made in terms of how much fuel went into the car. Whitmarsh said: “It was a technical problem that happened in the garage that didn’t impede the performance of the car in any way. We stopped the car when it had 1.3 litres of fuel left in the car.”