Grand Prix 2015 Spanish Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

F1 arrives in Europe at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Last year we had a Hamilton pole and a Hamilton win, I suspect we will see the same this weekend and if it is what hope is there for Rosberg in the title race? Beaten in to third in Bahrain, Nico's season appears to be being flushed around the U bend before it has even started. All the rhetoric in the press conferences and in the podium interviews don't seem to translate in to speed on the track. If I was advising Nico I suggest he do his talking on the track but he just doesn't appear to have the same pace as Lewis.

Ferrari seem to have found some pace but are still not able to challenge the lead Mercedes. It was nice to see Raikkonen back on the podium in Bahrain. A few uncharacteristic mistakes from Vettel, and his team mates better strategy, saw the German pushed back to fourth and his record in Barcelona isn't stellar so maybe Kimi will keep him honest this race too.

Williams will be next. Massa has started the season the better of the two but Bottas was faster in both qualifying and race in Bahrain and Williams have some upgrades for Spain so they might be closer to the Ferrari's.

The mid field battle is quite close with Toro Rosso, Sauber, Red Bull, Lotus and Force India all squabbling over the position from 6 to 16. All teams and drivers have scored points in races so far, with the exception of Pastor Maldonado, and no one team appears to want to take the Fourth Best on the grid position. Hopefully the TV coverage will let us see more the mid-field squabbles as the front running teams disappear in to the distance. Or maybe there will be a titanic struggle at the front and none of us will give a monkeys about who finishes 7th.

At the back will be Manor Marussia and McLaren. I wonder if McLaren will be able to get two cars to the grid for this race? Barcelona isn't traditionally a high attrition race so I suspect McLaren will continue in the same position in the WCC after Spain as a British Eurovison entry with Nul Point. Manor, well done for just being there and with Will Stevens showing some reasonable speed in a very slow car have we found Britain's next World Champion? :snigger:

It's a paella and Rioja weekend, enjoy.
 
Apparently it was an issue with the clutch bite point settings.
According to Brundle, Hamilton mentioned it to the team during the warm up lap.

Cheers Brogan. I was reduced to watching the BBC highlights which as usual gave no hint what was going in.
 
Just a couple of things to say about the race, first of all it was crap and secondly once again Maldonado ended up with only half a car and didn't bring it home but even with most of the rear wing missing the Lotus was still faster than the McLaren..
 
I'm just waiting for the first "Mercedes hobbled Hamilton to help Rosberg this weekend and improve the team dynamics" posts

;)
 
Just an off weekend surely??

Poor Rosberg had scorn poured upon him for his "I couldn't over take as I couldn't get close without knackering the tyres", the same situation presented itself for Hamilton today.
 
We'll never know how it would have played out it if Hamilton's first pit stop hadn't been botched.

As for the inability to overtake:
When Hamilton was told he had to pass Vettel on track, he responded: "I can assure you that's pretty much impossible. Find another solution."
:D
 
As a racer, I can tell you that your mental state (confidence, ease of mind,etc) has a big effect on performance and how your weekend goes. Lewis' problems started during FP1 when he kept coming in for changes to torsion bars, it rattled his confidence in the weekend and things just didn't run smoothly. The 2/10's of s second at the start and the 4-5 seconds he lost during pitstops just sealed the deal for Rosberg, who had a smooth weekend and decent pitstops. These things happen, even to the best drivers. I just hope Lewis shakes it off before Monaco, and I hope it rains
 
Brogan, yeah, Hamilton's response was pretty funny.

For a while he was doing a pretty good job of making the impossible look possible though. For a few laps he was all over the back of Vettel. I guess as the team switched him to a three stopper he could afford to give it a go as he would get a new set of tyres soon enough.

As for the pit stop, a classic case of shit happens.

Let's all hope for a trouble free Monaco.
 
Yeah, they cut to him in the pits with the ice pack nicely cooling his spuds. He mouthed "oh **** off" to the camera as his team mates took the piss out of him.

Funniest moment of the coverage.
 
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That and Grosgean's radio message of coast through the bad gear or you will blow up the engine.
Comes to something when the discussion on here is ony 4 pages long & we find the most interesting parts from radio messages and pit action.
Not a 'race' to remember.
I think the jack-men earned their money the most this weekend, the poor chap with the ice was very funny though.
 
Alonso's brake fade was entertaining too though could've had nasty results.

I thought Maldonado did a pretty good job in the race all things considered. There were one or two pretty good overtakes. He didn't get a chance to counter all the good moves with bad ones later on in the race which seems to be what happens.
 
Alonso's brake issues and subsequent retirement were caused by by his own visor strip blocking the rear right brake duct.
 
Very odd. I recall drivers having overheating problems with carrier bags in the side pods before, and Jonathan Palmer once did most of race with a cloth he used to wipe his visor stuck on the rear wing of his Tyrrell.
 
Jackmen have scary jobs, that's for sure. Hope they both got pay bonuses from the teams/drivers after that. It'd be the right thing to do.
 
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