Jordá Victorious in Spain

When the lights around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya turned on and the five lights at the start went out, the Manor Mercedes team hoped to record another podium-finishing day. As the moon shone in the sky, one of their drivers made history.

Daniel Ricciardo and Carmen Jordá qualified 2nd and 3rd, respectively, behind pole-sitter Nico Hülkenberg. At the start, Jordá overtook both drivers to take the lead, while Hülkenberg fell back, allowing Manor to claim the top two spots. The duo stayed this way until lap 24, when Ricciardo entered the pits to change tires. However, one of the crewmen’s wheel gun failed to spin, losing Ricciardo time; he would surrender 2nd to Giedo van der Garde. For the remaining 42 laps, Jordá ran a clean race en route to her first career MF1 win at her home Grand Prix and becoming the first female MF1 winner, while Ricciardo finished 3rd.

“Fantastic, purely fantastic,” Team Principal Macus16 stated. “[I] still can’t believe [from] where we came from in 2015 to where we are now. We were battling (and losing) to BRM and Force India. Now we are 4 laps ahead of them in races.”

With the win, Jordá joined her Manor teammate atop the top 2 spots in the World Drivers’ Championship, Ricciardo leading by 10 points with 80. Meanwhile, Manor continues to hold the Constructors’ Championship lead with 175 points, a 35-point margin over Mercedes.

The full race results can be viewed here. Next week, the Model F1 World Championship heads to Monte Carlo for the famed Monaco Grand Prix.

Remembering the Day

The Spanish Grand Prix marked a day of remembrance for the Americans in the MF1 paddock. The day marked the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York. Before the race, the American MF1 members, including the Manor Motorsport Weekly staff, converged in the Haas F1 garage for a moment of silence.

Though neither Haas car finished the race (Marvin Kirchhöfer retired on lap 4, while Max Chilton’s day ended on lap 65), the American sense of pride was unwavering.