It’s a fact that Sebastian has never had to defend the lead of a race this hard in his F1 career. Usually his Red Bull is a class apart, and is unchallenged at the front, or the fight would be for second or third or other places when something goes wrong for the German. Given the RB7’s massive advantage in qualifying, we assumed that it would be the former, with Mark Webber somewhere alongside him. But we were wrong. The two McLarens were right up there on pace with the two Red Bulls, and even the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso was able to hold its own on the soft tyre stints. The performance variation between the teams is quite inconsistent, with each circuit presenting a different level of advantage for the Red Bulls.

At the start of the race, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were so busy fighting with each other that they didn’t notice the brilliant start from Fernando Alonso until it was too late. The Ferrari driver blasted off the line like the others were in reverse, weaved a bit, avoiding the squabbling Bulls, saw a tiny gap on the inside, and went for it despite Sebastian deciding not to do so. He put his car on the edge of the track, almost on the grass, and surged through to take the lead and the Spanish crowd in the grandstands just went berserk. Even when the DRS was activated from lap 3 onwards, the Ferrari stayed ahead of the Red Bulls and Lewis Hamilton for the whole stint. Webber who had settled into fourth place found himself in damage control mode – so too did Jenson Button who had a disastrous start, falling down the order into 10th place.

Kamui Kobayashi also had a bad start, with his car suffering a puncture which forced him to pit immediately. Michael Schumacher and Heidfeld made good progress on the first lap, both making fast starts and overtaking several cars. With almost all the cars on the soft tyres, it seemed as if the DRS zone, despite being the longest in this season so far, wasn’t allowing the drivers to overtake. The Spanish GP was shaping up to be a procession yet again. But from lap 9, much to everyone’s surprise, the front runners dived into the pits for their second set of options. Only Jenson stayed out, with his trademark tyre saving skills helping him stretch the first stint a little more than the others. Red Bull tried to bring Sebastian in a lap earlier than Alonso to give him one lap on the fresh tyres to leapfrog the Spaniard, but Vettel was caught in traffic and was still stuck behind the Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso displayed tremendous skill to keep the Ferrari ahead of a much, much faster Red Bull for the second stint in succession, but it was only a matter of time before Red Bull brought Sebastian in early, rejoined on a clear track and took the lead from the home hero. That is exactly what they did, and pace of the RB7 once released from the Ferrari was blinding. Setting fastest lap after fastest lap, the German easily moved past Alonso and into the race lead. Hamilton, who had managed to make his tyres last 5 laps longer than Vettel, also had enough pace to clear the Ferrari, but came out a few seconds behind the world champion. This time, it was Mark Webber who was stuck behind the struggling Ferrari. Despite a variety of moves and sticking to the red car’s diffuser, Alonso did not yield. It still appeared as though Ferrari could salvage a podium from this race.

But barely 10 laps into the stint, the hard tyres on the 150 Italia looked severely damaged, suffering from extreme levels of blistering. It was game over. It was an indication of just how hard Fernando had had to push and perhaps the slight inconsistency of the Pirelli tyres – he had driven the wheels off the car, and yet he was on average 2 seconds a lap slower on ultimate pace. Thanks to the extra set of options wasted in Q1, he could not extend his soft tyre stints as much as Hamilton or Button, and the result was he had to make his last set of tyres last for 26 laps while Mark Webber barely did 15 laps before his pace dropped like a stone in water. The Ferrari is very kind to its tyres, but there lies a disadvantage as well – on the harder compound, the car wont get heat into the rubber, and thus provide no grip. Felipe Massa experienced that first hand, had a spin while pushing too hard, and eventually stopped with a gearbox problem far away from the leading battle.

Once again, the tyre preserving abilities of Jenson Button came to the fore, the Brit making one less pitstop than the others, simply because he was able to make the soft tyres last much longer than anyone else. He blew past Alonso and Webber when the two were struggling on the hard tyres and took the final podium position. He was too far behind Hamilton to challenge for the lead, and will be ruing his poor start. Lewis was outstanding throughout the race and came very close to depriving Sebastian of his win with better tyre management and strategy. He pushed the Red Bull driver every inch of the way, on every second of every lap, but in the end, it was the phenomenal downforce of the RB7 through the last corner that saved his rival. Lewis had terrible understeer while following the RBR rocket, and despite using the KERS and DRS, Seb’s car just managed to pull out a sufficient gap out of Turn 16. It was a great race to the line, and if the McLaren had passed the Bull on the final turn, it would’ve been Senna Vs Mansell all over again. It was a battle to savour, nevertheless.

The Mercedes duo of Schumacher and Rosberg battled long and hard for the entire race on similar pace and strategy and finished 6th and 7th respectively. Nick Heidfeld used his fresh sets of tyres and good strategy to scythe through the field to 8th at the end, which was a lot better than Vitaly Petrov’s afternoon,who finished 11th and out of the points. Between these two came the Sauber drivers on identical strategies. Sergio Perez finished ahead, and had a great battle in the top ten with Massa and Heidfeld, but it is to Kamui’s credit that he managed to finish 10th after a puncture on lap 1 forced him to pit.

The Force Indias had a decent race, with the drivers getting 12th and 13th places despite displaying poor pace in practice. Behind them, and markedly off the pace were the Toro Rossos and Williamses. Maldonado ran the same strategy as the other front runners, but the car didn’t have the speed and he fell down the order gradually to 15th. Barrichello tried out a very different strategy but nothing worked for him, and he finished 17th after another dismal race. His relationship with the Williams team is going downhill steadily. Jarno Trulli brought home his Lotus in 18th place after Kovalainen crashed out with about 15 laps to run. Virgin Racing got both cars to the end of the race, finishing ahead of HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan, in the sole surviving Hispania car. Liuzzi retired early on with an unspecified problem.

At the end of the Spanish GP, we can come to some surprising conclusions. The Ferrari car is gentle on it’s tyres and will be very difficult to beat when the softer compound tyres are being used in warm climates. But on a tyre-destroying track like Barcelona, the Ferrari is nearly undriveable on the hard tyres. In contrast, the Red Bulls and McLarens are competitive in almost all circuit and temperature conditions, and the British squad have definitely closed the gap to their Austrian rivals on raceday. But they were a full second off the pace in qualifying here, and that is still a massive advantage for RBR that no one has been able to crack. Red Bull haven’t solved their KERS reliability issues, and it is probably the one reason that the racing is somewhat close, for the car’s sheer downforce is enough to win races for the team. But full credit to McLaren, for they have kept the world champions on their toes and are giving them a proper fight. Ferrari and Mercedes will fight back at some point of time or the other, but Fernando is waging a lone battle, and may find his team’s recovery to be too little, too late. Onwards to Monaco, where the supersoft tyres, the DRS and unforgiving barriers could turn the game upside down. Until then, adios amigo.

Alonso took the lead at the start, but the Ferrari was nowhere in the league of the Red Bulls and McLarens and could finish only fourth. Schumacher finally got the better of his team mate Rosberg, holding off his young compatriot for the whole race to finish 6th. Heidfeld came through the field on good strategy calls to 8th despite starting dead last. The last two points finishes went to the Sauber team, Perez finishing ahead of Kobayashi after the latter had to pit on lap 1 to replace a punctured tyre.

Vitaly Petrov was a disappointing 11th, followed by the two Force Indias who did better than what their practice pace indicated. Behind them came the Toro Rossos and Williamses, alternating between the drivers, Maldonado sliding down the order to 15th ahead of Alguersuari. Jarno Trulli crossed the line in 18th place in the sole surviving Lotus, after Kovalainen crashed out in the final stint. Both Virgins finished the race, but only one HRT managed that – Narain Karthikeyan was last of the classified runners, four laps down. Tonio Liuzzi was the first retirement, with an unspecified problem, on lap 29. Felipe Massa had a dreadful race, gradually slipping down to the tail of the top ten and dumping his Ferrari in the gravel with just 6 laps to run.

Full race analysis to follow. Here are the results :

Red Bull have topped all the practice sessions for this race, and one got the feeling that the team were going only as fast as they felt they needed to – in other words, they seemed to have a lot of speed in reserve. And that’s what we saw in qualifying – the fight for pole position was between the two Red Bull drivers and not anyone else. The team actually did have KERS problems again, with the system not activated on Sebastian’s car in Q2 and Q3. Vettel was 8 tenths ahead of the McLarens in Q3 with that problem, which is why the teams are aiming for a podium slot this weekend. Anything above would be a good bonus.

Lewis Hamilton tried hard, as he always does, but his McLaren wasn’t really in the same league as the RB7 and ended up a whole second behind Mark Webber’s pole time. It is interesting to note, however, that Lewis locked up his wheel heavily on his Q3 lap and flat-spotted it. Maybe without that mistake he could’ve closed the gap to the Red Bulls, maybe not. The ’08 champion seems unperturbed about it, and says it wont pose any problems at the start. That may be so, but lets not forget, Hamilton’s driving style does tend to wear out the tyres more than Button’s or Alonso’s. With the circuit notorious for destroying tyres, this may become a major factor in the race, similar to what happened to Lewis in Malaysia. Button is a discrete fifth, but it’s the clean side of the grid, and he’s famously gentle on the tyres, being able to consistently run one pitstop less than his team mate. He is s real threat, no doubt.

One of the best laps of the day was put in by Fernando Alonso, fourth fastest in Q3 in a Ferrari that had no right to be anywhere in the top 6. Having spent a set of soft tyres in Q1, the pressure was on the Ferrari drivers to get a good Q3 lap in one run. And Fernando delivered, as he usually does. A flawless lap at the end of the session put him in the middle of the two McLarens and just 0.003 seconds separated him from Lewis Hamilton. It was a tremendous performance under the circumstances and really does show what the Spaniard brings to the team. In contrast, Massa struggled in Q1, scraped through in Q2, and emerged 8th fastest in the final shootout, barely a tenth ahead of Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado. That is hardly the kind of performance the team needs when it is busy chasing a huge lead in both championships.With both drivers on the dirty side of the track at the start, the Ferrari drivers have a real fight on their hands tomorrow.

Another highly impressive lap in qualifying came from Vitaly Petrov in the Renault, the Russian pushing the car every inch of the way en route to sixth on the grid, ahead of the Mercedes duo, Massa and Maldonado. Hearing him whooping into the radio would have lead you to believe he had won pole position, he was one happy man after qualifying. For the Renault team, it was a well deserved boost after all their practice troubles. The mechanics worked frantically to get Heidfeld’s car ready for Q1, but it wasn’t enough. But maybe those fresh sets of tyres can help him make a Webber-esque comeback. It will not be easy, but Kobayashi showed it was possible in Turkey, so Nick is still in with a chance of scoring points.

Mercedes were only 7th and 10th, with Rosberg ahead, and the reason for Rosberg not being able to make the top 5 was that the team had decided to concentrate upon race pace rather than qualifying. As usual, Nico was flawless, and 7th fastest is probably the maximum that car could’ve done. Schumacher showed considerable improvement in his qualifying form, making it easily into Q3 this time, but elected not to set a time for strategical reasons. His KERS problems and the fact he went out on the hard tyres whilst everyone else did otherwise, gave him no chance to fight for a decent grid slot, so his team has sensibly decided to preserve a set of options for the race.

Willams had something to be happy about, as rookie driver Maldonado finally made it into Q3 for the first time, and did well to claim 8th on the grid. His veteran team mate Rubens Barrichello was a lot less pleased with this afternoon, when gearbox reliability issues prevented him from setting a fast lap and was knocked out of Q1 by the Lotuses of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. With Heidfeld unable to set a laptime, and Barrichello in trouble, there was a great chance for one of the Lotus drivers to get their car into Q2 for the first time in the team’s history. Though Trulli had a sorted out car, he was outpaced comprehensively by the Finn, who has been threatening to do this for some time now. And when the Force Indias elected to make a run on hard tyres to conserve the softs, Heikki was able to leapfrog both into 15th place. A proud moment for the Norfolk based team.

Toro Rosso and Sauber were evenly matched, and were at the top of the Q2 elimination pile. Kobayashi was on course for a laptime that would have got him out of the relegation zone, but he was baulked by a Force India and had to abort the lap. Timo Glock managed to outqualify the HRT cars, but the home team did well to beat the 107% rule with ease. Jerome d’Ambrosio narrowly scraped through, and will start 23rd ahead of Heidfeld. If the Red Bulls had used soft tyres in Q1 though, the Belgian rookie would’ve had to face the ignominy of not being allowed to start the race.

Barcelona was always going to be Red Bull territory – the fast sweeping turns with no real heavy braking points reward the cars that have high aerodynamic grip and the RB7 is in a class of its own in that respect. There is a very good reason why the Circuit de Catalunya has become the most popular test venue in Formula 1. The circuit characteristics are such that it provides an accurate assessment of the car’s performance and design aspects, both aerodynamic and mechanical. There is no place to hide on this track – if there’s weakness in your car, it will be brutally exposed. On the other hand, that does tend to make this race a procession, since the cars circulate at their optimum pace taking away the element of driver skill, and consequently racing action, from the proceedings. Fans, teams, drivers, and circuit organisers are all praying this time it will be different, thanks to the DRS, KERS and Pirelli tyres.

I have no doubt in my mind that these new additions to Formula 1 will work in Spain, and that the race will be a lot more exciting than any other Spanish GP in recent memory. But it also seems inevitable that Red Bull will walk away with a 1-2, without any competition – such is the performance advantage they have right now. And however thrilling the racing action is behind them, at the end of the day, it is the battle for the lead which gets us more excited than anything else. And in that aspect, the Spanish GP maybe just as predictable as it’s predecessors. But never say never in Formula 1 – remember the start of the Japanese GP in 1990? After what happened in Turkey last year, that is not so likely now, but you never know – it could happen, and we could then have a Spanish GP more enthralling than all the 20 previous editions put together.

The McLarens were the nearest challengers, with Hamilton in P3,and Button in P5. Fernando Alonso did a phenomenal job to haul the Ferrari to 4th on the grid in a single run. That car clearly does not belong in the top 6 as Massa demonstrated with his 8th fastest lap in Q3. Vitaly Petrov too did a brilliant job to get his Renault up into 6th place beating Massa and Rosberg, whose Mercedes could do no better than 7th quickest. Michael Schumacher elected not to set a time in Q3, preferring to save a set of soft tyres. Pastor Maldonado brought some cheer to the beleaguered Williams team by getting into Q3 for the first time in his F1 career. He was 9th fastest and less than a tenth behind Massa.

In Q2, the usual trio of Force Indias, Saubers and Toro Rossos were eliminated, but the real surprise of the Q1 session was Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen getting his team into Q2 for the first time this year. He was just 1.7 seconds behind the midfield teams which is a huge achievement. The Force Indias elected to run on the hard compounds in Q2, effectively falling behind Kovalainen at the end.

Barrichello was stranded in Q1 with a gearbox problem and failed to get through. Likewise, Heidfeld’s car could not be repaired in time for it to complete a timed run in Q1, leaving the German dead last on the grid if he is allowed to take part. The HRT cars did well to recover from their lack of practice pace to beat one of the Virgin cars.

Full qualifying analysis to follow. Here are the results :

The Vettel express looks unstoppable this year, and it appears futile to even try to beat him in Q3. But that said, it wasn’t plain sailing this afternoon for the young German, and a suspected engine problem in his car means that he will need some luck to win the race. And in any case, the Red Bulls seem to have such a humongous  performance advantage that they can probably wind down their engines and cruise to a 1-2 tomorrow. What further strengthens their advantage is that they are probably the only team capable of getting through Q1 on the hard tyres. That means they will have an additional set of soft tyres for the race.

Behind the dominant Red Bulls came the Mercedes of Schumacher, looking vastly improved from his Turkish GP woes, the McLarens of Hamilton and Button, and then Rosberg in sixth rounding off closely matched group. Kobayashi and Petrov were seventh and eighth quickest, the Sauber team having a fine weekend so far with an improved car. Renault however, had a scary moment when Nick Heidfeld’s car caught fire spectacularly, but the German hopped out of the car quickly and the marshals put out what had then become a conflagration. The team will have to put their noses to the grindstone to get the car ready for qualifying.Ferrari had hydraulic problems once again on Alonso’s car and with their rear wing declared illegal, their prospects of a podium are fast diminishing. Fernando was 9th fastest and Massa 11th. The rest of the teams stacked up behind, although HRT were almost 8 seconds off the Red Bull’s soft tyre pace – quite worrying in view of the 107% rule.

Here are the results :

Jenson Button set the fourth fastest time, and that makes it two Red Bulls and two McLarens in the top 4 – perhaps a sign of the pecking order for this weekend. Behind them came Fernando Alonso, who could do no better than fifth, over a second adrift of Mark Webber’s pace. The Spaniard did have traffic problems though, when Jaime Alguersuari seemed to impede him once. Massa had an off-track moment, but recovered and posted the 8th quickest lap, sandwiching the two Mercedes drivers between them. Rosberg was ahead as usual, but Michael demonstrated improved pace, which is encouraging.

I said in the preview that Barcelona more or less gives us the performance level of the cars, and it certainly seemed to be the case, as behind these 8 cars came the Saubers and Renaults, alternating between each other, and then the Toro Rossos and Williams cars did the same behind them. As if to really drive home the point, look at the next lot – two Force Indias mingling with two Lotuses, which was very impressive as Kovalainen was right up there with Sutil and di Resta. Then came the two Virgins, followed by the two HRT cars. The timesheet more or less read like the FIA giving out an official list of drivers for this season.

Mark Webber looks like a more determined man this weekend, and has always done well at this circuit. Hamilton is looking very strong too. And even if Webber is unable to prevent Sebastian from stealing his thunder tomorrow, this time the Spanish GP will be won by the driver who has the ideal blend of speed and tyre management. So don’t rule out Alonso or Button just yet. It still is anyone’s game.

Here are the results :

Red Bull haven’t brought a mountain of updated parts to Spain as McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have, but Barcelona always rewards the car with maximum downforce, and hence they ought to maintain their advantage here. Vettel seemed to be on a different program to Webber, and as first practice is all about finding the right baseline setup for the car, the lap times hardly matter. Even so, Webber’s pace in the middle sector was ominous. They will be hard to catch in qualifying trim.

Rosberg continued his usual impressive practice form, with the third fastest lap, while Schumacher did a lot of running and was seventh quickest. Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, while Massa was way down the order at 16th. This isn’t a reason for the Scuderia’s fans to get worried, but it would be nice to see the second Ferrari give Alonso a run for his money. Sergio Perez made a late run presumably on low fuel and put in the fifth fastest time, ahead of Hamilton.

Heidfeld and Button lined up behind them and the midfield teams occupied the rest of the positions. The new teams, as is the norm, were the bottom six, but encouragingly, Kovalainen’s Lotus was just 2 tenths behind Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, although the latter barely did any running in this morning session. In what is increasingly becoming a bad habit, Williams’ Pastor Maldonado went off the track and stopped in the gravel, this being the only incident in the morning session. Although he didn’t make contact with the barriers or damage the car in any way, it is frustrating for the team no doubt, because of the track time lost.

Here are the results :

For all that, the circuit is nowhere as well suited to ‘racing’ as it is to ‘testing’. Think about this. In the last 20 years, 16 races have been won by the driver on pole position, 3 by the driver alongside him, and 1 by a driver starting third. In 2000, pole sitter Michael Schumacher had a major problem in one of his pitstops and subsequently had to replace a punctured tyre which lost him the race (Mika Hakkinen won). In 1996, the weather conditions were truly atrocious, which lead to pole man Damon Hill retiring after going off the track (Schumacher won from third on the grid). In 1994, Schumacher took pole, but had gearbox problems which gifted the win to Damon Hill, who started in second. And finally, in 1991, Gerhard Berger, on pole, messed up the start and lost the lead, and Nigel Mansell duly won from second.

So in simple terms, the worst thing a driver can do in Barcelona is make a mistake in qualifying and start at the back of the grid. For this isn’t the track where one can just carve their way through the pack. The problem is that Catalunya has several high-speed corners and no heavy braking point of note. The ideal conditions for overtaking are a chicane, a long straight, and a slow speed corner at the end. You see the point? Overtaking and the design of this circuit are incompatible in every way. The main straight is long enough, but the cars enter this section through the fast sweeping Turn 16, where the modern aerodynamic design makes it impossible for the car behind to follow the one ahead closely. And the first corner is quite narrow and reasonably quick – it is almost impossible for two cars to go through the corner side by side or outbrake each other.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the teams test for several days here, which means they have enough data to set the car up optimally in every way for this circuit. Therefore the cars are quite closely matched here than any other circuit in the world, making it difficult to overtake each other. But this year, we have the Pirelli tyres, the DRS and KERS to enliven the proceedings. And this circuit is the ultimate test of the aforementioned changes for 2011 – if they succeed here, then F1 can pat itself on the back for a job well done. The previous four races this year have been scintillating – the Spanish race organisers have acknowledged the fact that if their race is processional as usual, they will have to make some changes in the track layout. It has taken them 20 years to realise this, but better late than never.

One of the things about Catalunya is that it inevitably shows us the true pace of each car of that year, especially during qualifying. With a huge downforce advantage, the Red Bull is ideally suited to Barcelona’s blend of straights and fast corners. Last year, the fight was for third place onwards, as the mighty Red Bull RB6 claimed a 1-2 in Q3 with effortless ease. It makes it all the more significant that Ferrari and McLaren were able to sustain the championship battle till the end.  This year, the situation is slightly different.

For one thing, this is the first time in many years that the teams have sampled the near-European conditions before coming to Spain. After experiencing diverse weather and track conditions in the flyaway races, the last race in Istanbul gave a fair idea of the tyre behaviour in warm climates. Armed with this data, a three-week break to frantically develop new parts and close the gap to Red Bull is exactly what the teams wanted. Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes are bringing massive upgrades to Catalunya, while Red Bull haven’t brought anything. And despite the enormous lead that the Austrian team has taken in both championships, it’s reasonably obvious that they don’t have the same performance advantage on Sunday afternoons that they enjoyed last year.

Fernando Alonso fired a warning shot of what he is capable of doing when the car is sorted out, in Turkey three weeks ago. Ferrari seem to have resolved their wind tunnel woes, and are confident that their development program will allow them to fight for the championship. What they really need, right now, apart from a few extra tenths in performance, is a consistent Felipe Massa. When the car is quick, the team needs both drivers to deliver strong results so that they can take away maximum points from their rivals. Instead, the team are gifting valuable points to Mercedes and McLaren, which will put Fernando’s title bid at an immense disadvantage. Felipe really needs to raise his game, quickly.

McLaren looked off the pace in Istanbul, but that was only because they weren’t able to get all their updates onto the car. Unless they have problems with their new parts this weekend also, they will be quite competitive here. They have a strong baseline car, and possibly the only driver pairing in the paddock that is maximising their machinery. On the other hand, Mercedes has one car punching above its weight and one that is not really very competitive – no prizes for guessing which one is Rosberg and which one is Schumacher. The team are firmly defending Michael’s abilities despite a deeply underwhelming comeback, but it remains to be seen how long they will wait.

Renault were disappointing in Turkey and will be keen to make up for it here. All the midfield teams are bringing updates to Spain – and now Lotus, with an ambitious target of gaining a full second in performance, may finally make it to ‘midfield’ status. In what is already a chaotic fight for the last points paying positions, the Norfolk team may make it a ten-car battle. Hispania are looking racy ahead of their home grand prix, and have brought some new parts as well.

As usual, expect to see a Red Bull on pole – and on current form, I can’t imagine anyone other than Sebastian Vettel being on pole, honestly. But Mark Webber will be itching to get his season back on track, and this is where he began his golden run last year. If he can stop the Vettel qualifying express, it will be one important psychological hurdle cleared for the Aussie. But for once, the race is too close to predict. Ferrari, with their car being kindest of all, to the tyres, will be a strong contender, since this circuit is very harsh on the rubber. McLaren will be in the reckoning too. And expect to see Rosberg mixing it with the McLarens and Ferraris as usual. If the DRS, KERS and Pirellis work, then this may be the best Spanish GP in over a decade.

Here are some of the circuit and event details :

Session Timings

Race Local Time :

Friday, 20th May

Practice 1 – 10:00 to 11:30

Practice 2 – 14:00 to 15:30

Saturday, 21st May

Practice 3 – 11:00 to 12:00

Qualifying – 14:00

Sunday, 22nd May

Race – 14:00

Indian Standard Time :

Friday, 20th May

Practice 1 – 13:30 to 15:00

Practice 2 – 17:30 to 19:00

Saturday, 21st May

Practice 3 – 14:30 to 15:30

Qualifying – 17:30

Sunday, 22nd May

Race – 17:30

Weather Forecast

Source : BBC Weather

Circuit Details

Race Date : 22 May 2011

Circuit Name : Circuit de Catalunya

Orientation : Clockwise

Number of Turns : 16 (9 Right, 7 Left)

Number of Laps : 66

Circuit Length : 2.875 miles (4.655 km)

Race Distance : 307.104 km

Lap Record : 1:21.670 – Kimi Raikkonen (2008)

Circuit Map

A lap of Circuit de Catalunya with Alexander Wurz & Rubens Barrichello

With Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya a regular testing haunt for the Formula One teams, most drivers are very familiar with all its twist, turns and technical intricacies. That doesn’t, however, mean it’s easy. Ex-Honda reserve Alexander Wurz talks us round a flying lap of the Spanish venue ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix …

“Over the years, the Circuit de Catalunya has lost some of its edge because it’s no longer the high-speed challenge that it once was. All of the fast corners have gone, except Turn Three, which is still big G-force, very fast and very demanding.

Of course, the track still remains an interesting place to drive. The key to a quick lap is to find a good rhythm and to make sure that your car works well in slow-speed corners, which is most of sector three. In days gone by, Barcelona required a high-speed car set-up, whereas now it needs a slow-speed set up, and I think that’s disappointing.

You approach Turn One at about 310km/h (193mph). You stamp on the brakes and shift down to second gear for Turn One, before taking Turn Two in third gear. Next comes one of the best corners on the lap, Turn Three, before you’re again braking hard for the hairpin at Turn Four. Another hairpin follows, where it’s easy to lock up a wheel on the downhill approach, and you then have two very interesting corners.

Turn Six is medium speed and requires you to use a lot of kerb on the exit, and Turn Seven is a right-hander taken at about 215km/h (133mph). It’s important to carry a lot of speed through Turn Seven because it leads you onto the back straight, where you’re back up to 300km/h (186mph). The last part of the lap is slow and it includes the new chicane before the final corner. Again, it’s very important to have a good exit because you carry that speed all the way down the pit straight.”

Here’s what Rubens Barrichello experiences on a single lap of this circuit :

“It’s downhill towards turn one where you brake hard down to second gear from 310km/h, throwing the car hard right, then left and straight into turn two. Then you accelerate hard into the long right-hand turn three which can be taken at full throttle with the grip of new tyres.

For the short drag down to turn four, you are back up to 300km/h, then into the slow right-hander taken in second gear from where the track falls downhill into the hairpin left of turn five. Here you have to be careful not to lock your wheels on the undulating track.

Accelerating hard once again towards the medium-speed left-hand turn six, running hard over the kerb as you push uphill to the fast right-hander turn seven which leads on to the back straight. Again you are again at over 300km/h approaching turn eight, braking hard down to second gear and negotiating the slippery new track surface through the right-hander. Then it’s into the long right-hand turn nine which is taken in second gear.

After a short straight, there is now a complex of right-left-right turns, which in contrast to the old fast right-hander that it replaces, seems so slow. Exiting the last of this series, being careful not to hit the high kerbs, you accelerate hard to get back on to the pit straight to enjoy those amazing grandstand acoustics once again.”

Source : Honda F1 Team

On-board lap of Circuit de Catalunya

Technical Requirements

The Spanish Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona is one that every Formula One team knows well from the hundreds of kilometres of testing carried out there over the winter. Few venues offer such a variety of medium and high-speed corners and it is widely acknowledged as the definitive aero circuit that provides a stern test of a car. With few big braking zones and so many high-speed corners, overtaking usually is extremely difficult and a good qualifying performance and sensible strategy are paramount for a successful weekend.

Aerodynamics:
Aerodynamic efficiency is always a key factor at Barcelona, although the introduction of the chicane at the end of the lap in recent years has replaced on of the most critical high-speed parts of the lap and means the track is not as demanding as it once was. Even so, the circuit remains the ultimate test of a car’s aero package and teams will run with high downforce levels to ensure competitiveness over the whole lap.

Fernando Alonso explains: “There are lots of high-speed corners where good aero performance is critical. A good example is Turn Nine, a fast right hand corner taken in fifth gear at about 230km/h. You have to be very precise with the car as there is there is no room for error on the exit and it’s important to carry good speed onto the back straight.”

Suspension:
With the suspension we have to find the best compromise to give the drivers a well balanced and responsive car. This means we will use relatively stiff settings at the front of the car to get a good change of direction, while the rear will be slightly softer in order to get the best possible traction out of the slower corners, such as Turns 14 and 15.

Nelson Piquet explains: “The end of the lap used to be fast and flowing, but the introduction of the chicane a couple of years ago means it is now a low-speed section where you need good mechanical grip and traction. Getting a good exit out of Turn 15 is especially important as it leads immediately into the final corner and onto the kilometre long straight. Lose speed in 15 and you will be under pressure and vulnerable to attack down the front straight.”

Ride height is also an important parameter to consider as generally we can run the car quite low in order to gain maximum aerodynamic performance.

Engine Performance:
Barcelona is not generally thought of as an ‘engine circuit’ as the engine is not under particular stress as any point and only 61 percent of the lap is spent on full throttle. There are relatively few hard acceleration zones from low revs as the engine spends most of the lap accelerating from the middle of the rev range. As such, the priority is for the power delivery to be progressive and driveable in order to maintain the best handling balance, and limit tyre wear.

Tyres:
Barcelona is well known for being demanding on tyre wear because it includes so many long, high-speed corners and has a fairly abrasive track surface. The most demanding corner is perhaps Turn Three, as Alonso explains:

“Turn 3 is a very demanding corner: we spend two or three seconds at 250kph, and it’s hard work for the neck muscles. The key to getting the corner right is finding the correct line as there is no margin for error on corner entry. If you get it right, then you can get all the way through this long corner with a good level of grip in the car, and it’s not too difficult. But if you miss the entry by even just a little bit, you will be fighting understeer then oversteer, hurting the tyres and losing time all the way round the corner.”

The tyres are therefore under high loadings, particularly the front left which has to work hard through Turn Three as well as Turn Nine. As a result Pirelli will supply the hard and soft compounds this weekend, and the team will need to pay close attention to the wear and degradation during free practice to determine which compound to use for the majority of the race.

Source : Renault F1 Team

Spanish GP – Facts & Figures

With the arrival of the European Grand Prix to Spanish shores in 2008, Spain now hosts two races every year. Before the Valencia street circuit makes headlines later this year, however, there is this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya to look forward to. The race may have been a fixture on the calendar for almost 40 years, but how much do you really know about the event?

– This year’s race will be the 41st Spanish Grand Prix counting towards the FIA Formula One World Championship. The Circuit de Catalunya is the latest in a string of tracks that have at one time hosted the Spanish race, which originally dates back to 1913 when Carlos de Salamanca won at Guadarrama, driving a Rolls Royce. Alberto Divo won in 1923 in a Sunbeam, at Sitges, but from 1926 (won by Meo Constantini in a Bugatti) until 1935 (winner Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes), the race was held on the Lasarte circuit on the outskirts of San Sebastian.

– Five different circuits have been used for world championship races – Pedralbes (1951, 1954); Jarama (nine times between 1968 and 1981); Montjuich (four times between 1969 and 1975); Jerez (1986-90); and Montmelo-Catalunya (since 1991).

– The first world championship event was held in 1951 on the Pedralbes street circuit near Barcelona. Montjuich Park, in the centre of the city, then followed, interspersed with races at Jarama just outside of Madrid. Finally in 1991, Jerez succumbed to the new purpose-built circuit of Montmelo-Catalunya, 20 kilometres north east of Barcelona. Due to its status as one of Formula One racing’s premiere testing venues, the track is constantly upgraded. In 2006 it was resurfaced, and a new chicane was added at the end of the lap the following year.

– Juan Manuel Fangio claimed his first world championship (at the age of 40) when he won the title decider in Spain in 1951, beating Alberto Ascari by six points and giving Alfa Romeo their final Grand Prix victory.

– The Spanish Grand Prix has produced amongst the largest and shortest winning margins in a world championship Formula One race – Jackie Stewart (Matra-Ford) finishing over two laps clear of Bruce McLaren (McLaren-Ford) at Montjuich Park in 1969, and Ayrton Senna (Lotus-Renault) beating Nigel Mansell (Williams-Honda) by just 0.014sec at Jerez in 1986.

– The closest five-car finish in a Spanish Grand Prix – and a spectacular sight – occurred at Jarama in 1981, when Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) led home Jacques Laffite (Ligier-Matra at 0.22 sec), John Watson (McLaren-Ford at 0.58sec), Carlos Reutemann (Williams-Ford at 1.01sec) and Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Ford at 1.24sec).

– Father-and-son victories have been achieved twice at the Spanish Grand Prix – by Graham and Damon Hill (1968 and 1994) and Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve (1981 and 1997). The two sons also contributed to milestone wins in Spain, Hill recording Goodyear’s 300th Grand Prix victory in 1994 and Villeneuve the 350th in 1997.

– Pole position milestones recorded at the Spanish Grand Prix have included the 50th by Lotus (at Montjuich in 1973), the 50th by Ferrari (at Jarama in 1974), the 100th by Lotus (at Jerez in 1986), and both the 40th and 50th by Ayrton Senna (at Jerez in 1989 and ’90).

– Amongst the firsts recorded at Spanish Grands Prix, the Lancia team made their race debut in 1954; Frank Williams became a Formula One entrant for the first time (with a Brabham for Piers Courage) in 1969; 1970 brought the first win for March (by Jackie Stewart in a Tyrrell-entered car); 1971 saw the first win by Tyrrell as a constructor (Stewart again); 1974 was the first Grand Prix victory for Niki Lauda; 1975 witnessed the only Grand Prix victory for Jochen Mass in a McLaren, the Grand Prix debut of Alan Jones in a privately-entered Hesketh, and the only time a female driver has claimed a points score – Lella Lombardi finished sixth in a March.

– Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver in Spain, with six wins, including the four successive victories from 2001-04 and seven pole positions. Mika Hakkinen, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Jacky Stewart have all won the race three times. Ferrari lead the table of team wins in Spain on 11, followed by McLaren (8) and Williams (6).

– Eight Spanish drivers have taken part in their home Grand Prix – Paco Godia (1951, 1954), Alex Solar Roig (1971-1972), Emilio de Villota (1976-78), Adrian Campos (1987), Luis Perez Sala (1988-89), Marc Gene (1999-2000), Pedro de la Rosa (1999-2002,2006) and, of course, Fernando Alonso (2001, 2003-10).

Source : Formula1.com

2010 Flashback : Yawn…. Well done, Mark Webber.

The 2010 Spanish Grand Prix was more or less identical to the last 10 races at this circuit. Pole man wins, while the other cars follow him around the track for some time. Mark Webber did exactly what the winners of the previous nine Spanish GPs did. Put the car on pole, make a good start, avoid accidents or reliability problems, and lead the procession across the finish line less than a couple of hours later. The circuit at Barcelona may be a great test track in that it tests all aspects of the car severely – aerodynamics, engine, suspension and tyres, but when it comes to motor ‘racing’, it’s quite hopeless as you can see.

The only action in the 2010 edition was when Lewis Hamilton suffered a spectacular blowout with 2 laps to go, handing the final podium place to Sebastian Vettel who had car problems throughout the race. The long main straight provides a lot of scope for cars to get side-by-side before braking for the first corner, hence a couple of bumps and damaged bodywork wasn’t much of a surprise at the start. But if you were looking for a spectacular wheel-to-wheel battle across the field for a couple of hours that Sunday afternoon, you were always bound to be disappointed.

But this time around, things may be quite different. The DRS, KERS and Pirelli tyres face their sternest test at the Circuit de Catalunya. This is where these rule changes really have to prove their worth. And somehow, I get the feeling that they will not let us down this weekend.

Mark Webber continued his excellent form from China to make it a Red Bull 1-2, but there’s no doubt that the Aussie is now being shown a clean pair of Pirellis by his team mate. For a while, it appeared as though Mark would have an advantage this weekend, after Vettel crashed out in FP1 and missed the dry run in FP2. But from FP3 onwards, he has been clearly outpaced, and it has been a Sebastian show all the way. The situation more or less reminds me of the Ferrari dominance less than a decade ago, when Michael Schumacher was proving to be unstoppable.

Speaking of the old devil, he had a dreadful race, looking rather desperate when going wheel-to-wheel with other drivers, hit almost everyone who raced around him and was forced to make an extra pitstop for a new front wing. That ruined his race and he spent the rest of the afternoon coming through the field to 12th place. Rosberg too had high hopes resting on his shoulders after qualifying third, and when he slotted into second at the start, ahead of a slow starting Webber, it was natural to entertain thoughts of getting a podium. In the end, the race pace of the Mercedes was utterly disappointing, though it must be said Rosberg punched above his weight to bring the car home in fifth place.

So the next time Rosberg outqualifies a McLaren or a Red Bull, don’t expect any miracles, because that car is clearly optimised for the Saturday afternoon run and not the Sunday session that gives you points in the championship. Ross Brawn has spoken of a need to focus on race setup from now on, but with two races in three weeks, don’t expect any miracles from the Mercedes team. Besides, with Michael Schumacher struggling to come to terms with his car as well as this highly talented bunch of young drivers, it is difficult to foresee the Brackley based team threatening McLaren or even Ferrari for a while.

The Italian team certainly showed much improved pace this afternoon, the wind tunnel recalibration and new parts seemingly doing the trick. And even though the team will derive a lot of encouragement from the car’s performance in today’s race, the drivers had mixed fortunes. Fernando Alonso was arguably the driver of the day, putting in a superlative drive to third and the first podium of the year for both himself and the Scuderia. He maintained his fifth place at the start, took over fourth when Hamilton botched an overtaking manoeuvre on Webber, and used the DRS to get past Rosberg into third. He then preserved his tyres in the first stint, timed his stop to perfection and emerged with fresher tyres compared to the Aussie and shot past him into second place.

In the end, it was the extra set of tyres that the Red Bull drivers had saved in qualifying, that made the difference. Vettel ran away, and Webber, on fresh rubber, hunted down Alonso in the final stint and overtook him seven laps from the end. It was clear that Fernando was out-performing his car, and if Ferrari can give him one that is a match for the RB7, he will be extremely difficult to beat. On the other hand, Massa had a torrid afternoon, with several problems during pitstops, and a wild moment off the circuit in the latter part of the race that severely hampered his progress. He was also noticeably slower than Alonso and the McLarens, which meant he finished outside the points in 11th. Without the pitstop woes, he might have finished even 7th, but that is only speculation. One wonders if he will ever close the gap to Alonso, and he may be running out of time.

McLaren. Oh dear, where do we start. A mistake by Hamilton at the start while trying to overtake Webber dropped him two places down behind Alonso and his team mate Button. The two McLarens then fought a thrilling and remarkably close battle for several laps, and I am sure Martin Whitmarsh must have been one nervous man on the pitwall. While they scrambled for position, Massa quietly sneaked up behind them and overtook Lewis. At this point, McLaren chose to switch Hamilton to a four-stop strategy instead of the planned three, to get him out of sync with the cars around him. And even though Massa’s delayed pitstop allowed him to leapfrog the Ferrari, he suffered pitstop problems of his own in later stop, and fell way back. Jenson, used his three stops to move ahead of Hamilton, but his tyres gave up their job well before the finish, and he lost two places – to Nico and Lewis. At the end of a chaotic race, 4th and 6th weren’t what the team were expecting, and these mistakes won’t help their attempts to beat Red Bull.

Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov notched up a solid double-points-finish for Renault, in 7th and 8th, both having an eventful afternoon of fighting midfield runners left and right. And to top it off, they even went wheel banging with each other into the final corner, leaving Nick a very unhappy man. In the end, he managed to beat his Russian team mate who had a big scrap with Michael Schumacher at one point. The two drivers behind them were far more impressive in their performance – Sebastian Buemi three-stopped from 16th on the grid to 9th at the flag, showing good maturity in bringing the car home safely in an action-packed race. Likewise, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi scythed through the field on a three stop strategy and overtook just about everyone he saw en route to 10th and a single point, despite having to pit early thanks to a puncture in the second stint.

Their team mates, sadly had problems that compromised their race, and spent their afternoon squabbling with the Force Indias and Williams men, stacking up behind the top 10. Paul di Resta was the only retirement today, with an unspecified problem. Rubens Barrichello drove impressively for most part of the race, even pulling off a fantastic overtaking manoeuvre on Schumacher, but in the end, his car lacked pace and could do no better than 15th. Among the new teams, Lotus were far ahead of Virgin and HRT as we have now come to expect, even though the car is still not quite as reliable as it should be. Timo Glock, embarrassingly, was unable to take part in the race after his team failed to solve some gearbox issues, whilst HRT managed to get both cars to the finish.

Considering the nature of the races Istanbul usually gives us, today was a pleasant surprise – and it really seems to be the combination of DRS, KERS and Pirelli tyres that is making every race a great spectacle. But credit also to the circuit designer Hermann Tilke, for the track is a wonderful piece of design and on its own, it produced some incredible wheel-to-wheel battles this time. Will this be the final race at Istanbul? I certainly hope not. It would be a great pity to waste this brilliant circuit for the fault of the organizers and promoters who have failed to develop public interest in the sport. I feel Bernie could certainly compromise a little bit on his exorbitant fees to keep the race on the calendar. And with races like these, who wouldn’t want to watch the Turkish GP next year? If the teams, Bernie and the promoters can find ways to make the GP more popular and accessible to the public, and keep it on the 2012 schedule, that would be great. We like Istanbul, and we want it to stay.

Overall, a weekend for Red Bull to savour, for they have now taken their lead over McLaren to 43 points – the value of a 1-2 finish. Sebastian Vettel in the meantime, has stretched his lead to 34 points over Hamilton. Can this German juggernaut be stopped? As Fernando Alonso proved, they are not far beyond reach, and with a little bit of help from their cars or strategy, Hamilton and Alonso can beat the Red Bulls. And that is the biggest headache for the teams at the moment, for Adrian Newey’s RB7 is so good in qualifying that is almost guaranteed a front-row start. And so for McLaren and Ferrari, race wins depends on strategy, luck and a flawless performance from both car and driver. Lets put it this way – until McLaren and Ferrari can push the RB7 down the starting grid, they will always have a mountain to climb every weekend. And with the reigning champions on a roll at the moment, the two oldest team in Formula 1 will have to dig deep to get back to winning ways and restore some pride.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, after a torrid race for the Woking squad, full of mistakes and mishaps both in the pits and on the track. Team mate Jenson Button, on a three-stop strategy compared to the four stoppers chosen by all the other top runners, lost a couple of places at the end to end up sixth. It was a day to forget for the team, instead of fighting for the win, they ended the race far behind the Red Bulls and Alonso. Rosberg ran second at the start, but was quickly passed by the McLarens and could only manage a fifth place. His team mate suffered a desperate race hitting everything on track en route to 12th at the finish line.

The two Renaults did very well to get 7th and 8th places, ahead of the highly impressive duo of Buemi and Kobayashi, who took the final points paying positions from the back of the grid. Massa had yet another poor race to 11th, a sign of the wretched form he is in at the moment. Force India, Sauber and Williams spent the whole race battling hard and filled in the remaining places. Paul di Resta was the sole retirement of the day, with unspecified problems, while Timo Glock did not even start the race after having gearbox trouble on the way to the grid.

Full analysis to follow shortly. Here are the race results :