Grand Prix 2011 Spanish Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

And so on to Spain, after the anti climax that was Turkey, it seems that no-one can stop Vettel as he marched to his 3rd win in 4 races and is in dominant form as we head to the Iberian peninsula. Despite the highest amount of overtakes since records began (126), a lot of people were questioning how authentic these overtakes were due to their artificial nature because of the DRS. The Spanish Grand Prix hasn't been known for its overtakes, indeed this is a track where more often than not, the driver who gets pole goes on to win so thats the race in the bag for Vettel. In 2010 the race was won by Mark Webber in the first of back to back wins from Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. lewis Hamilton was on course for second until a wheel rim failure with two laps to go.

After a dominant performance in Turkey, Red Bull will be aiming at another one two in Spain, and on current form and given the nature of the track it is hard to see past the Red Bulls from extending their championship lead. However Ferrari and particularly Alonso have showed that Red Bull won't have it their own way and no doubt Alonso will be boosted by a capacity crowd all cheering him on. Mclaren planned to bring updates to Turkey but abandoned them and instead will introduce them this weekend to plug the ever increasing gap with Hamilton currently second in the drivers championship, over 30 points behind Vettel.

Mercedes were Jekyll and Hyde in Turkey and its not exactly hard to figure out who was who. Mercedes Rosberg has shown improved form recently and has been mixing with the Mclarens and Ferraris and with continued development, Mercedes will be confident of a top 5 finish this weekend.

Renault have seemed to have fallen back recently with Heidfeld and Petrov in the lower reaches of the points, their podium form of Australia and Malaysia now seems a distant memory and have now been overtaken by Mercedes in the development battle. In the midfield it is really tightening up as Toro Rosso have found a speed boost with Buemi claiming points in Turkey and Kobyashi coming from last on the grip to claim a top 10 position with Force India not holding the same level of competitiveness as the first few races with Di Resta's first DNF of his career.

While Team lotus didn't gain the jump that they hoped, they have high hopes that this weekend is the one where they establish themselves as a solid midfield runner while Virgin and HRT continue to fight it out over who gets the wooden spoon.

With the arguments over DRS raging on, no doubt we will see a circuit record of overtakes as cars breeze past each other down the main straight but if only one thing is certain it is that Red Bull will be right at the front barring major developments (or crashes)

For Galahads excellent circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-de-catalunya/
 
Unfortunately it doesn't sound like the super hard tyre lasts much longer so there is no advantage to using it. Drivers will be seriously short of softs by the end of the weekend. Doesn't sound good at all.
 
The problem most teams will have is that if the difference is that large, they will have to use all their softs for qualyfying to get through..
 
Right - If I'm Kobayashi I'm going to go into Qualifying and only use the Superhards and see how far up the grid I can get. Probably go out in Q3. Then I'm going to start on the Superhards and come in at the end of lap 1 and switch to softs. Then I'm going to come out of the pits screaming "BANZI!!!"

If I only get as far up as say 10th it doesn't matter I'm driving a Sauber and no expects me to be at the front anyway - If I slaughter the field I'm a tatical genius and I've landed myself the Red Bull seat next season.
 
Quite frankly, Rasputin, to see Kobayashi pull off what you have suggested would be the highlight of all Formula One, ever. Nothing could ever match up to that!
 
Sebastian and Mark did 15 and 16 laps respectively on the Superhard without any drop off. Then they did and 15 laps and 14 laps on the option with a one or perhaps even two second drop off at the end of the stint.
[box=200]
Vettel Prime
2 1:34.301
3 1:31.068
4 1:28.827
5 1:28.406
6 1:28.885
7 1:28.848
8 1:28.938
9 1:28.779
10 1:28.934
11 1:28.999
12 1:29.027
13 1:28.677
14 1:28.333
15 1:28.688
16 P 1:35.552

Vettel Option
23 1:28.650
24 1:28.263
25 1:28.011
26 1:28.770
27 1:38.198
28 1:28.594
29 1:36.581
30 1:28.751
31 1:41.811
32 1:31.953
33 1:29.074
34 1:29.677
35 1:37.553
36 1:30.341
37 P 1:36.036

Webber Prime
2 1:31.866
3 1:30.595
4 1:30.720
5 1:30.762
6 1:30.012
7 1:29.128
8 1:29.397
9 1:29.578
10 1:29.666
11 1:29.716
12 1:29.555
13 1:29.733
14 1:29.551
15 1:37.319
16 1:29.282
17 P 1:40.256

Webber option
22 1:29.213
23 1:28.853
24 1:28.545
25 1:31.366
26 1:28.711
27 1:29.023
28 1:29.130
29 1:30.070
30 1:29.334
31 1:28.854
32 1:29.337
33 1:29.683
34 1:30.611
35 P 1:37.994
[/quote]
 
Would love to see him try - he's certainly got the heart for it.

alas I doubt even Kobi is brave enough to try it
 
Hmmm, this race could really be a lottery then.
Once again it's going to be all about the tyres/strategy/who has the required amount of tyres available.
 
Sebastian and Mark did 15 and 16 laps respectively on the Superhard without any drop off. Then they did and 15 laps and 14 laps on the option with a one or perhaps even two second drop off at the end of the stint.

:thinking: Got some consistency in the new hards? Should make finding 'the cliff' interesting.
 
It seems as though with only (I think) 3 primes and 3 options for qualifying and the race and the new primes being 2 - 2.5 seconds slower than the options that no one from at least the midfield up will do any qualy runs on the primes.

This being the case with limited options (not to mention the 2 compounds a race rule) the teams will have to do a reasonable stint on the super slow primes, however small they wish the stint to be.

Might McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault try and time Red-Bulls prime stint to one of thier options stints and then (being quite close on race pace anyway) be roughly 2 seconds faster catch and overtake them and hope other cars do as well. Then as we know they are not so good without clean air and McLaren want this tactic at the beginning anyway

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91511

Red-Bull may find themselves without clean air at some point allowing other teams a chance however small of beating them if they get the timing right.

This could also help the new teams especially lotus battle the lower midfield.
 
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