Categories: FeatureFeatures

Spanish Grand Prix review

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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

Weekend recap

Friday

Hamilton heads Vettel in FP2 in Spain

Gallery

Saturday

Rosberg breaks Hamilton's run with pole

Gallery

Sunday

Rosberg eases to Spanish Grand Prix victory

Gallery

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.