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!
 
I still think it is too early to say there are only four contenders in the championship, that is if my year one maths hasn't let me down, again...
 
it was a failure because of the first part of the corner, that downhill right.
No it is a failure because it has ruined any chance of overtaking down the long straight that follows it, at least with the layout as it was before a car could get close enough to at least have a go....

But one good thing about the track, even the crappy DRS is useless there because the cars are hitting the rev limiter way before DRS can make the move inevitable......
 
they have not sorted the last corner which has been the problem to the straight - you have to brake slightly before getting on the straight... its frustrating for the car behind following..the momentum is lost to close right up
 
Just adding on some additional stats to the 21 of 22 front row wins, to show how boring this track really is.

In 22 races in Barcelona, there have been 1,437 total laps completed. Of those laps, 1,043 of them have been led by the pole sitter, with 20 of the 22 races having at least one lap led by the pole sitter (only exceptions, 1996 and 2011). That's an extraordinary 72.6% of all racing laps ever done here being led by the pole sitter. That's 22 races!! :censored:

Of the remaining 394 laps, 220 of them were led by the driver starting 2nd on the grid. That's a combined 1,263 of 1,437 laps of all the races here led by drivers starting either 1st or 2nd on the grid. Nearly 88% of all the laps :o .

5 of the 22 races have been led start to finish (1992, 1995, 2002, 2005 and 2010).

Other years where the pole sitter has led all but 5 laps are 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2008.

The race with the least laps led by the pole sitter was the first one, 1991, Berger "only" led 17.


The final stat is the most shocking, only 174, or 12% (just a little more than 1 in 10) of every lap run here has been led by a drvier not starting from the front row of the grid.
 
Never actually thought about that until you said it.

The first corner needs changing along with the last turn.
 
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