Grand Prix 2013 Spanish Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Four races into the season and we have seen three different winners. Sebastian Vettel won twice, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso once each.
Vettel leads the WDC (77 points), followed by Raikkonen (67), Lewis Hamilton (50) and Alonso (47). So the race for the WDC still looks pretty open. It's great to see drivers from four different teams competing for the top spot.

The Circuit de Catalunya hosts the Spanish Grand Prix for the 23rd time. It's a track, which all the teams know exceptionally well from pre-season testing, so probably they won't experience major set-up issues...It also very often leads to pretty boring races. Last year we had a shocking victory for Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who this season doesn't have the car to compete for wins. Also his own driving looks pretty average at best.

Let's have a closer look at the current form of the four contenders for the WDC this year:

Sebastian Vettel will hope to continue his strong form, that enabled him to win the Bahrain Grand Prix pretty easily. He finished on the podium three times, and never finished worse than 4th. He overcame the controversy of the Malaysian GP and looks to be on course for a strong season again.

Kimi Raikkonen has finished on the podium three times this season and seems to be as consistent as last season. His last race in Bahrain was pretty strong. After starting eigth on the grid, he managed to finish second.

Lewis Hamilton had a pretty good start to the season. He's clearly outscoring his teammate Nico Rosberg (50-14) and seems to have matured a lot as well. His driving is much more composed, leading to him being able to deal with the tyres much better than Rosberg, who struggled throughout the most parts of the last race (From Pole Position to 9th).

Fernando Alonso had two very strong races (Australia and China) and two poor races, which were hampered by strange decisions (Malaysia) and mechanical failures (Bahrain). He'll hope for a trouble-free race in Spain, which should get him closer to Sebastian Vettel in the Championship. Another low finish though could mean that the gap to the German three-time champion could start to get bigger significantly.

Let's see how the race pans out! Have fun and discuss!
 
Long run pace: Ferraris and Lotuses in 29s/30s. Red Bull start in 29s but degrade more into 31s.

Mercedes in 30s/31s/32s. McLaren and Force India slower initially but faster at end of runs.

Fernando did not refuel between runs, so you can see that the undercut at the first stop (lap 12) might be as much as 3s per lap.
 
I know its only practice but it is pretty much as we left Bahrain

Red Bull , Ferrari, Lotus , Mercedes then a gap to Force India / Mclaren and Toro Rosso

if Mclaren have not made any gains now they might as forget this season and think about 2014
 
It is so predictable and depressing I might do a rare thing and actually bet on the race after qualifying, I do have some Grand National winnings sat in my Paddy Power account so might stick it on the pole sitter to win. Depending on odds of course, might be something stupid like 1/10
 
A bit slow from Mercedes in the final P3 run there and must be a focus on the race rather than another pole. Maybe they're banking on the two DRS zones to make some decent progress. Kimi for me this year :D
 
I heard yesterday that this circuit is more front limited so I do expect Mercedes to be more competitive than before on race pace, potentially a podium
 
Hmmm..... Perez in the top ten, but Button in P14? Strange.

It shows that the car is not as bad as Jenson would make you believe, although he made a mistake in the final corner.

Mercedes have a very strange problem. I hope they are not sitting ducks during the race.
 
A shaken up grid, nice!

Although, I did get a little excited when Massa went very quick in sector 2, as it looked as if he would at least get 3rd, and would have been great if he had out-qualified the home favourite Alonso, instead misses out by 0.001s. :disappointed:

I think Raikkonen will get swamped at the start by both Ferrari's due to them being great of the line, and this is the longest run down into turn 1 from the start line aswell.

As for the top 3, I really don't know how this will play out, being on the front row on here is massive, but we saw how Rosberg dropped massively from the start in Bahrain, but their long runs and tyre wear seemed not bad in practice. Vettel is in a similar category to the Mercedes, not sure what to expect, as judging by practice, the Red Bulls tyres seemed to drop off more than the Ferrari and Lotus.

With the grid mixed up, it's hard to predict a winner, the favourites in my opinion are, Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso. If Alonso passes Raikkonen at the start (which is likely), then I would say him. If Raikkonen at least keeps his poisition, then he'll be in the prime seat. If Vettel, did what he did in Bahrain, and clear the two infront of him, then well...."yeah", it will be everyones worst nightmare. ;)
 
Been meaning to share this for a whilst. Seems appropriate after Jensons interview.
I made this after my Silverstone adventures last year. Hangs in my kitchen. LOL
jensonsgripsmall.jpg
 
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