Spanish Grand Prix review

Andrew Lewin in Barcelona 11/05/2015 at 11:11

With Ferrari a threat to Mercedes in the first four races, the promised upgrades at the Spanish Grand Prix offered the opportunity to close the gap further or for the defending champions to respond. F1i looks back at how the race weekend unfolded and opens itself up to future ridicule by checking just how accurate its podium prediction was…

The race in 100 words

Rosberg kickstarted his season with a dominant performance. Qualifying saw him comfortably take pole position from team-mate Lewis Hamilton and he eased away as Hamilton lost out to Sebastian Vettel at the start of the race. The Mercedes was very quick, allowing Hamilton to three-stop to take second, while Vettel faded to a distant third ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren struggled, with Fernando Alonso almost hitting his pit crew due to a brake issue, while Romain Grosjean did hit three mechanics - as well as Lotus team-mate Pastor Maldonado early in the race - when pitting.

Driver of the weekend

Almost impossible to look past Rosberg this weekend, who showed he can still mount a serious challenge to Hamilton in the title race. Rosberg struggled in the opening four races but put together a clean weekend. One impressive aspect was his progress from Friday to Saturday. Having been quickest in FP1, Rosberg struggled in FP2 on low fuel but rectified the problem to take pole position which he duly converted in to his first victory of the year without any real threat from behind.

Move of the race

There were few real battles during the race, with DRS allowing quicker cars to overtake with relative ease. However, at the start of the final lap Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz went wheel-to-wheel on to Turn 1. Both braked late - Kvyat defending the inside actually made contact with Sainz - and the Spaniard eventually took to the run-off area. Upon rejoining, he was already ahead of the Red Bull but lifted and took the outside line through Turn 3 to hold on to the place. It may have been messy, but Sainz knew how far to push the limits at the end of the race and was willing to avoid contact as well as aware of the need to show he wasn’t gaining a lasting advantage by going off. Both drivers were cleared following a stewards investigation, giving Sainz ninth place.

Prediction accuracy

Podium: 1. Nico Rosberg, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Sebastian Vettel

F1i’s pre-race prediction: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Nico Rosberg, 3. Kimi Raikkonen