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!
 
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

I can guarantee you that the casual world wide viewer of single car racing, would have enjoyed this race at Sao Paulo Brazil, rather than watching 2nd place finishing 9 seconds behind the winner, as occurred today in Spain.

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

I think the flags are great and am astonished they are banned. Good on 'em
 
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

I do feel sorry for Sky. Wouldn't it be terrible if they pulled out of their contract early.

If the tyres truly are to blame for a shortage of sign-ups (the price might have something to do with it), then I'm increasingly wanting Pirelli to stick to their guns!
 
Hamberg Flags aren't banned specifically, stopping to give or take something from someone is. Maybe that flag had some lead in it that Alonso could have stuffed down the side of the seat to make sure he me the minimum weight, for example. Obviously it's good that common sense prevailed but the rule is there for a reason.
 
I don't see Ferrari or Alonso moaning about the tyres nor Lotus and Kimi

Seb and Christian don't look so smug after being soundly thrashed in the dry for once and overtaken by a few cars as well
 
I can guarantee you that the casual world wide viewer of single car racing, would have enjoyed this race at Sao Paulo Brazil, rather than watching 2nd place finishing 9 seconds behind the winner, as occurred today in Spain.
I'm a great fan of IRL racing which is not surprising with a Kiwi, (Scott Dixon) running near the front in most races, and will once again be a real chance for the win at Indy in a couple of weeks, but seriously, I wouldn't change channels from F1 to watch an IRL road race. They don't compare, even with a close finish. MCLS.... I don't think Sky will be too concerned about the viewing audience in Britain, they broadcast to many millions of people worldwide. In New Zealand I'm happy to pay $80 a month for over 60 channels which gives me coverage of all the F1 practice sessions, qualifying and the GP completely free of commercials as well as GP2, GP3, NASCAR, IRL, WRC, and Superbikes. When I need a break from motorsport I can choose from 5 news channels, the History Channel, National Geographic and 5 movie channels. I'm getting tired just thinking about it. :)
 
I am getting sick of Red Bull complaining about the tyres

As far as I see they know this season they've got at least two teams who will give them a headache and Alonso is going to be stronger this season than last coupled with Webber pretty much going to race his own race or destroy Vettel's race

I think the team could implode this season...only two people to blame Seb and Horner
 
Back
Top Bottom