After Lewis Hamilton scored his first victory of the season at a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix, round five of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend for the Formula 1 Gran Premio De Espana Emirates 2018. This will be the 28^th time that the Spanish Grand Prix will be held at the Montmelo circuit.

 

 

A look at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

 

 

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a permanent racing circuit in Montmelo, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

 

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was built in 1991 and began hosting the Spanish Grand Prix that same year and has been running there ever since. This year also marks the 48^th running of the Spanish Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is also used for the FIM MotoGP World Championship.

 

The Barcelona circuit is famed as a bellwether circuit as the cars that race well here are expected to race well in any and all conditions. The logic behind this is that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya provides a well-rounded examination of every aspect of car design, requiring maximum downforce, stronger delivery of power, excellent traction and handling. The Spanish Grand Prix also traditionally is where teams bring their first major upgrades of the season and could see the potential for movement around the field.

 

The wind direction at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya can change at any-time during the day and can upset the balance of the car due to the major importance of aerodynamics that modern Formula One cars have. It is then a challenge to find a well-balanced setup since cars can suffer massive drag and understeer on one part of the track in the morning session but suffer oversteer at the same section in the afternoon. An allocated tyre compound can work well during testing, but not as well a few months later as changeable conditions can provide unexpected performances from some teams during the Grand Prix.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 4.655km (2.892mi) in length with 16 corners.

 

The race distance is 307.104km (190.826mi) with 66 laps in total.

 

Kimi Raikkonen holds the fastest lap record from 2008 with a 1:21.670 set in his Ferrari F2008.

 

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher holds the most victories at the circuit with six.

 

Scuderia Ferrari is the most successful constructor winning the Spanish Grand Prix 12 times with eight coming from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

 

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2015: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1. 2014: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2013: Fernando Alonso, Scuderia Ferrari.

 

Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them to the recently re-surfaced Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the red-branded Super-Softs, the yellow-marked Soft and the white-branded Mediums. F1’s sole tyre supplier will also take along the green-branded Intermediates and the blue-branded Wet tyres in case of rain.

 

A reminder of the rules: Each driver must keep one set of the softest tyre option available (Super-Soft) for Q3. The set will then be returned for those who make it to the top 10, but the remaining drivers will keep it for the race.

 

Each driver must have both these sets (Softs) and (Mediums) available for the race.

 

The teams are free to select the remaining 10 sets, making 13 in total for the weekend.

 

Every team but Williams have gone between five-eight sets of the supersofts, whereas the Grove-based outfit have given nine sets to Lance Stroll and ten sets of the red-branded fastest rubber available.

 

Both Williams drivers will only have one set of the yellow-branded softs for the weekend.

 

Besides Williams, only Haas and Sauber have went with split tyre strategies between their drivers, with Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson having one more set of white-marked mediums and one set less of softs than Romain Grosjean and Charles Leclerc respectively.

 

The front-running teams have all differed in their tyre choices for the Spanish Grand Prix weekend with reigning champions Mercedes taking the most cautious approach of the three, in opting for five sets each of the softs and supersofts for both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

 

Ferrari have selected seven sets of the supersofts, one set more than Red Bull while the Milton Keynes-based squad has three sets of the mediums compared to the Scuderia’s two.

 

DRS Zones

As in 2017, there will be two DRS zones at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. The first detection point is 86 metres before turn nine and with the activation point 40 metres after. The second detection point is at the safety car line with second activation zone 157 metres after turn 16.

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI: Azerbaijan GP Rewind

 

 

The began in chaotic fashion after a couple of first lap incidents which deployed the safety car to clear scattered debris.

 

Force India’s Esteban Ocon attacked Raikkonen and attempted to pass the SF71H racer around the outside of turn two, which led both drivers to run wheel-to-wheel on the run down towards turn three.

 

Ocon made the turn into the apex with the Finn nearly alongside him and the contact forced the Force India into the wall and the Frenchman was out of the race with Raikkonen escaping with a damaged front wing and pitting for a new one.

 

At the same time, further behind, Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin rear-ended Force India’s Perez at turn two and upon the exit of the corner was sandwiched in-between McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.

 

Hulkenberg hit Sirotkin into Alonso, which broke the right front of the of the Williams FW41 and forced Sirotkin to end his race early as Alonso returned to the pits with destroyed tyres on the right-hand side.

 

Vettel cramped the field up massively when the safety car came in and kept the pack congested until the last moment when he reached the safety car line.

 

The German pulled away and built a comfortable gap over Hamilton, who dropped the lead under four seconds before locking both fronts on lap 21.

 

That forced Hamilton to switch to the yellow-branded soft rubber as Vettel and Bottas, who was running a little further behind in third, remained out on track with a very long stint on the supersoft compounds.

 

Hamilton’s lack of pace urged Vettel to stay out until lap 30 before chucking on softs while Bottas continued his long first stint.

 

The Finn was running nicely on his supersoft tyres when the battle of the Red Bulls became very intense.

 

Ricciardo was much quicker than team-mate Verstappen at various stages of the race but was shut-down several times by the Dutchman, and the duo even touched lightly into turn one as Verstappen ran wide into Ricciardo after holding the inside line.

 

Verstappen lost out to the Australian just after the halfway point of the race but got back ahead by pitting a lap after Ricciardo, then once again was under attack Ricciardo picked up a strong slipstream on the rundown towards the first corner.

 

Ricciardo pulled to the right and dived up the inside but the Dutchman covered him and was rammed into as Ricciardo locked up.

 

Verstappen’s RB14 racer was briefly in the air as both Red Bulls slid down the turn one run off area.

 

The safety car period was a long one, mainly because Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean lost the rear of his Ferrari-powered VF18 warming his tyres through turns 13 and 14 and smashed into the wall from sixth place.

 

The safety car came in with four laps remaining as Vettel made a late dive past Bottas into turn one for the lead but locked up hugely and ran wide, which dropped the German to fourth position behind Hamilton and Raikkonen.

 

Bottas moved comfortably clear over most of the lap and out of DRS range from team-mate Hamilton until disaster struck when the Finn ran over a piece of debris and suffered a left-rear puncture at the end of the main straight.

 

That put Hamilton in the lead with Raikkonen safe in second as Perez pushed past Vettel for third who was struggling with a flat-spotted tyre, to claim a surprise podium despite Vettel fighting hard to take the place back. The victory sees Hamilton on top of the Driver’s Championship with a four- point lead.

 

Carlos Sainz brought his Renault RS18 racer home in fifth place after fighting past the Red Bulls in the earlier stages of the race with an impressive stint on the ultras. His team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was also in the fight before crashing out.

 

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc claimed his first points of the season with a brilliant sixth place, making his way through the chaotic-filled opening lap and getting by Lance Stroll’s Williams earlier on.

 

Stroll settled for eighth place behind McLaren’s Alonso, who recovered after a horrible first lap that forced the Spaniard to pit for a new front wing and gave him a damaged floor.

 

Stoffel Vandoorne finished in ninth place and gave the Woking-based squad another double points finish with Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley completing the top 10 and taking his first point in Formula 1.

 

The other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson finished outside the top 10 in 11^th place and ahead of Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly who was 12^th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took 13^th.

 

The Situation

 

 

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton returns to Barcelona sitting on top of the Driver’s Championship with 70 points and just four ahead of Sebastian Vettel who is second on 66 points and Kimi Raikkonen is third on 48 points and a further 22 points behind the Briton.

 

Ferrari comes to Spain on top of the Constructors Championship with 114 points and four clear of nearest rivals Mercedes who is second on 110 points with Red Bull Racing in third on 55 points and a further 59 behind the Scuderia.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 70 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 66 Points.
3. Kimi Raikkonen – 48 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 40 Points.
5. Daniel Ricciardo – 37 Points.
6. Fernando Alonso – 28 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 22 Points.
8. Max Verstappen – 18 Points.
9. Sergio Perez – 15 Points.
10. Carlos Sainz – 13 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari – 114 Points.
2. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 110 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 55 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 36 Points.
5. Renault Sport F1 Team – 35 Points.
6. Force India F1 Team – 16 Points.
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda – 13 Points.
8. Haas F1 Team – 11 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 10 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

The Formula 1 Gran Premio De Espana Emirates 2018 weekend kicks off Friday May 11 with Free Practice One and Two, Free Practice Three and Qualifying Saturday May 12 and the 66 lap Race Sunday May 13.