The Williams Formula One team had an eventful day at the Spanish Grand Prix, what with Maldonado winning for initially since 2004, Senna retiring after an accident with Schumacher, and a fire breaking out in the Williams team garage following the race. Obviously, for Williams team owner Frank Williams, your day was already a particular day to begin with as he celebrated his 70th birthday. He will need to have been extremely pleased to see his team win the Spanish leg of the 2012 Grand Prix on his birthday!

Frank Williams founded Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1966. This team raced in Formula Two and Formula Three for a few years, before he bought a Brabham Formula One chassis that has been driven by Piers Courage for the team in 1969. Soon after that, the Williams team tried their hand at building their own F1 car in 1972. In 1977 Frank Williams left the company and founded Williams Grand Prix Engineering, now referred to as WilliamsF1. It is expected that Frank will shortly step down from the board and undertake the position of Team Principal, while his daughter Claire takes his put on the board.

Among the more amazing things about Frank Williams is that he has been confined to a wheelchair for significantly more than 25 years, but he hasn't allow it to stop him racking up the achievements. A car accident in 1986 led to a spinal fracture and he became a quadriplegic. Since then he has been awarded a CBE in 1987, knighted in 1999, and made a Chevalier https://alleventsday.com/ of France's Legion D'Honneur for his use Renault engines.

Maldonado won the race for the Williams team in Barcelona, which will need to have gone some solution to making up for the disappointment of Senna's retirement. The fire that followed the race sadly led to 16 injuries, although thankfully most were minor.

Another hot topic of the race was Lewis Hamilton's disappointment following the qualifiers. He finished in pole position but couldn't ensure it is back to the pits with the requisite litre of fuel, so was penalised by being pushed back into last place. Even though, he drove well and finished in 8th position, and he is apparently improving at getting the most out from the car's Pirelli tyres as he managed a 31 lap operate on hard tyres at the conclusion of the race. I certainly found there was more excitement in this race than there's been lately!