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!

 

[Jos the Boss]

There could be a few spots of rain around the track, whether it hits it or not is another question!
Edit: 20% chance of rain
Edit 2:

#F1 weather update 13:40 CET:Clouds dispersing, increasing sunshine. Looking set for a dry race as the threat of a shower disappears. Enjoy!

Emlyn Hughes ‏@radarguruf1

 

[F1ang-o]

Lap 30
Mercedes team radio...re tyres...LH " I can't drive any slower.." WTF?

 

[F1ang-o]

Lap 35/36
Martin Brundle " This is too pedestrian...4 stops is looking better than 3"....
FFS get some new tyres on LH & let him do what he does best...Let's go racing?

 

[Greenlantern101]

A great race, changes for the lead on track. Good racing. Mercs a big dissapointment 12th and 6th from a 1,2 start is piss poor. Nice to see nando winning at home. Just glad there was no finger.Paul done good with 7th. Looking forward to the next one with hopefully less pit stops.

 

[Hamberg]

Yes GL, 5th, 4th and 9th finished 1st 2nd and 3rd. And two of the three/four best clinching the top spots. There was some excellent driving today and we mustn't forget that.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Arrrgghhh. I pay good money not to see or hear Eddie Jordan.

 

[FB]

Great drive from Alonso but as a spectacle the race was pretty poor. F1 cars driving round to preserve their tyres is not what I want to see and this was the worst race for this so far.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Mercs did their Billy goes backwards act again....

 

[Mephistopheles]

Massa got given an eggcup for coming third...

 

[FB]

Anyone think Vettel is doing what Fernando has done in his Championships years, pick up decent points where you're not going to win, destroy the field where you are?

 

[Hamberg]

Possibly, it's a clever game if he is.

 

[MCLS]

F1 is in a dangerous place at the moment, this type of racing might be good for the casual viewer with tyres going off after a couple of laps, but it's not going to sit well with everyone else. In England it's not convincing many people to sign up for Sky Sports F1 at the moment

 

[FB]

Courtesy of Loosewheelnuts on Facebook

 

[downforce]

Consistent Raikkonen

 

[Hamberg]

MCLS I think you are spot on. I don't know about you guys but I like being able to analyse the situations and try and second guess who will do what where and when. Even the drivers and teams don't have a clue which means strategy in a lot of cases seems to be luck. Although Ferrari today were supreme and bucked the trend there.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Guys! I've just been overtaken by a Williams!

 

[Il_leone]

MCLS - a good thing then that not many people will bother signing up to Sky

I am sure come Monaco there will be a few teams trying to simply do 1 stop race and hold everyone else up despite being 3 seconds a lap slower as is always the case in a few weeks time

 

[teabagyokel]

Explain to me why we love Monaco again?

 

[Slyboogy]

I quite like the strategy aspect, I like a variety in strategies and in 2010 strategies where just the exact same for every race.

But, the onboards for this race just showed, the fastest guys on track looked as if they were cruising around, and it's not something you would want to see. Apart from lap 1, I didn't see a genuine overtake or a battle. In saying that, this track is shit tyre wise and is boring as it is, maybe the drivers where just bored to death and cruised.

As for the race, once I figured out the top 4, which was quite early on, I kind of lost interest and studying for my exam on Wednesday (which I still haven't studied for) seemed more appealing.

Well, my prediction for the win, went and won the race, should have put a bet on him. Alonso was aggressive at the start and pulled a nice move on Raikkonen and Hamilton. After passing Vettel, it was his to lose. I was surprised at the 4 stop strategy, as 3 stops was what we were told the majority would do. But Ferrari committed early and it paid off, well done.

Raikkonen made a 3 stop work to finish second, if he went either way on the strategy, I doubt the finishing position would have changed. Seems to lose ground in the first 2 laps, and takes a while disapatching slower cars. The car doesn't have the outight pace, once Pirelli sort out their tyre problems, I can see them slipping back. 4 podiums in 5 races though, edges him closer to Vettel.

Ah Felipe, on the radio saying "ees too diffico!!!" made me chuckle. What a start, and to finish 3rd from 9th was great result. A possible Ferrari 1-2 lost due to the penalty Massa recieved for blocking Webber in qualifying. Lucks not going his way at the moment, and Alonso is pulling away. First podium this season, at least that monkeys off his back, a win is overdue, and I think we all would like it to come soon.

Damage limitation for Vettel. The fight with Alonso was called off early on, was just racing himself really, cruising around. Still leads the championship, but the gaps been cut down, his lowest finish this season is still only 4th.

If you need a lesson on how to have bad starts, come to Mark Webber, and he'll reveal his secret. Was down to 11th in lap 1, was bailed out by Red Bull's strategy of making him the first one comitted to 4 stops. In saying that, his recovery was very good, ony finished 8s behind Vettel in 5th.

We expected Rosberg to slip back after pole position, but it was nowhere near as bad as Bahrain, and he managed 6th on a three stopper in a car that goes through tyres quicker than others. had a good first stint, and then it just slipped away, 6th was the best he could have achieved. I think he'll run well in Monaco if he gets pole and gets the undercut first.

Di Resta was close snatching 6th off of Rosberg. A little too conservative maybe, strong points for the team, and keeps Force India ahead of McLaren.

Seems as if Button got the tyre pressures sorted out for the race, says it's 'embarassing' where McLaren are, maybe he should stop criticising constantly and get the job done. 8th is not bad, probably had his heart in his mouth when Perez was 8 tenths behind him with several laps to go.

Perez was caught out by McLaren leaving him out too long for the first stint. Was wanting to give Button a love kiss this time round, but the team called it off. Improving, and showed that Bahrain wasn't a one-off.

Ricciardo's been running well all weekend, gets another point for the team, and pulls away from his team-mate, and the team now have a three point advantage over Sauber, and 8 over Williams. A replacement for Mark Webber?

Just thought I would say, good job by Guitterez, who finally put in a good performance and misses out on his first ever point by 0.3s, could have been different if he didn't get the penalty in qualifying.

Also, Van der Garde aswell, without the full updates compared to his team-mate, out-qualified both Marussia's and Pic, and was running well in the race.

A good race in terms for the championship, but an eye opener for F1 and Pirelli.

PS. I should start studying.

 

[Speshal]

Alonso got called to the stewards for receiving a flag after the race. Thankfully (for once!) common sense prevailed and no action was taken.