The Spanish Grand Prix is a Formula One race currently held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona. The race is one of the oldest in the world still contested, celebrating its centenary in 2013.

The race had modest beginnings as a production car race. Interrupted by the First World War, the race waited a decade for its second running before becoming a staple of the European calendar. It was promoted to the European Championship in 1935 before the Spanish Civil War brought an end to racing. The race was successfully revived in 1967 and has been a regular part of the Formula One World Championship since 1968 at a variety of venues.

 

Spanish Grand Prix, Fifth round of the 2016 Formula 1 season

Circuit Name: Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya

Race Laps: 66

Circuit Length: 4.655 km (2.892 mi)

Race Length: 307.104 km (190.825 mi)

Number of corners: 16 (9 Right, 7 Left)

DRS Zone: Two Zones (Zone 1 between turns 9 and 10, Zone 2 Start/Finish Line Between Turn 16 and 1)

Circuit Direction: Clockwise

Pole Position 2015: Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.681

 

Pirelli used compounds

Team

Car #

Driver

Hard

Medium

Soft

Mercedes AMG

44

Lewis Hamilton

1

5

7

6

Nico Rosberg

1

5

7

Scuderia Ferrari

5

Sebastian Vettel

1

4

8

7

Kimi Raikkonen

1

4

8

Williams-Mercedes

19

Felipe Massa

1

5

7

77

Valtteri Bottas

1

5

7

Red Bull Racing

3

Daniel Ricciardo

2

4

7

26

Daniil Kvyat

2

4

7

Force India-Mercedes

11

Sergio Perez

2

5

6

27

Nico Hulkenberg

2

5

6

Renault

20

Kevin Magnussen

2

4

7

30

Jolyon Palmer

1

5

7

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

33

Max Verstappen

1

6

6

55

Carlos Sainz Jr.

2

5

6

Sauber-Ferrari

9

Marcus Ericsson

2

6

5

12

Felipe Nasr

2

6

5

McLaren-Honda

14

Fernando Alonso

1

5

7

22

Jenson Button

1

5

7

Manor-Mercedes

88

Rio Haryanto

2

5

6

94

Pascal Wehrlein

2

5

6

Haas-Ferrari

8

Romain Grosjean

2

3

8

21

Esteban Gutierrez

1

4

8

 

Pirelli will bring the following three compounds to the fifth round of the 2016 Formula One season in Spain, to be held (13 – 15 May) on The Barcelona Circuit

P Zero Orange hard: Seen for the first time this year, but no driver has chosen more than one set.

P Zero White medium: A versatile tyre that is a good compromise between performance and durability.
P Zero Yellow soft: More than a second faster than the White medium in Barcelona, but unlikely to last for long.

The tires that Pirelli has said must be used at some point in the race:
One set of P Zero Orange hard
One set of P Zero White medium
Each driver must have both these sets available for the race, and must use at least one of them.

The tires assigned for Q3 in qualifying:
One set of P Zero Yellow soft.

 

HOW IT WAS A YEAR AGO:

Winner: Rosberg (two stops: started on medium, medium again on lap 15, hard on lap 44).

Best-placed alternative strategy: Hamilton, second with three stops (just the penultimate stint on the hard tyre).

Most drivers: A mixture of two and three stop strategies, with most teams adopting a flexible approach.

PAUL HEMBERY, PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR:

“Spain always provides a very big test for the tyres due to the high energy loads that the circuit generates, and this year that will especially be the case with most teams having favoured the softer compounds in their selections. Of course they will be able to rely on the data accumulated during pre-season testing, but at this time of year we expect conditions to be much warmer. As a result we should see high wear and degradation leading to several pit stops, which of course opens up a very large number of strategic variables for the grand prix.”

WHAT’S NEW?

After the grand prix there will be a two-day in season test, which most teams will attend.

The 2017 tyre development programme is underway, with Jean-Eric Vergne testing a modified 2014 Ferrari at Mugello last week.

The GP2 Series and GP3 Series gets underway this weekend, with a strong field in each and some new tyres for GP3, which has an entirely new car for 2016.

 

Drivers / Teams compound choices

Team

Car #

Driver

Hard

Medium

Soft

Mercedes AMG

44

Lewis Hamilton

1

5

7

6

Nico Rosberg

1

5

7

Scuderia Ferrari

5

Sebastian Vettel

1

4

8

7

Kimi Raikkonen

1

4

8

Williams-Mercedes

19

Felipe Massa

1

5

7

77

Valtteri Bottas

1

5

7

Red Bull Racing

3

Daniel Ricciardo

2

4

7

26

Daniil Kvyat

2

4

7

Force India-Mercedes

11

Sergio Perez

2

5

6

27

Nico Hulkenberg

2

5

6

Renault

20

Kevin Magnussen

2

4

7

30

Jolyon Palmer

1

5

7

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

33

Max Verstappen

1

6

6

55

Carlos Sainz Jr.

2

5

6

Sauber-Ferrari

9

Marcus Ericsson

2

6

5

12

Felipe Nasr

2

6

5

McLaren-Honda

14

Fernando Alonso

1

5

7

22

Jenson Button

1

5

7

Manor-Mercedes

88

Rio Haryanto

2

5

6

94

Pascal Wehrlein

2

5

6

Haas-Ferrari

8

Romain Grosjean

2

3

8

21

Esteban Gutierrez

1

4

8

 

Australian Grand Prix Winners (By year)

Year

Driver

Constructor

Circuit

2015

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

Catalunya

2014

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

2013

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

2012

Pastor Maldonado

Williams–Renault

2011

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull–Renault

2010

Mark Webber

Red Bull–Renault

2009

Jenson Button

Brawn–Mercedes

2008

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari

2007

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

2006

Fernando Alonso

Renault

2005

Kimi Räikkönen

McLaren–Mercedes

2004

Michael Schumacher

Ferrari

2003

Michael Schumacher

Ferrari

2002

Michael Schumacher

Ferrari

2001

Michael Schumacher

Ferrari

2000

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren–Mercedes

1999

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren–Mercedes

1998

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren–Mercedes

1997

Jacques Villeneuve

Williams–Renault

1996

Michael Schumacher

Ferrari

1995

Michael Schumacher

Benetton–Renault

1994

Damon Hill

Williams–Renault

1993

Alain Prost

Williams–Renault

1992

Nigel Mansell

Williams–Renault

1991

Nigel Mansell

Williams–Renault

1990

Alain Prost

Ferrari

Jerez

1989

Ayrton Senna

McLaren–Honda

1988

Alain Prost

McLaren–Honda

1987

Nigel Mansell

Williams–Honda

1986

Ayrton Senna

Lotus–Renault

1985

Not held

1982

1981

Gilles Villeneuve

Ferrari

Jarama

1979

Patrick Depailler

Ligier–Ford

1978

Mario Andretti

Lotus–Ford

1977

Mario Andretti

Lotus–Ford

1976

James Hunt

McLaren–Ford

1975

Jochen Mass

McLaren–Ford

Montjuïc

1974

Niki Lauda

Ferrari

Jarama

1973

Émerson Fittipaldi

Lotus–Ford

Montjuïc

1972

Émerson Fittipaldi

Lotus–Ford

Jarama

1971

Jackie Stewart

Tyrrell–Ford

Montjuïc

1970

Jackie Stewart

March–Ford

Jarama

1969

Jackie Stewart

Matra–Ford

Montjuïc

1968

Graham Hill

Lotus–Ford

Jarama

1966

Not held

1955

1954

Mike Hawthorn

Ferrari

Pedralbes

1953

Not held

1952

1951

Juan Manuel Fangio

Alfa Romeo

Pedralbes

1950

Not held

1936

  

Multiple Winners (Drivers)

# Wins

Driver

Years won

6

Michael Schumacher

1995, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

3

Jackie Stewart

1969, 1970, 1971

Nigel Mansell

1987, 1991, 1992

Alain Prost

1988, 1990, 1993

Mika Häkkinen

1998, 1999, 2000

2

Emerson Fittipaldi

1972, 1973

Mario Andretti

1977, 1978

Ayrton Senna

1986, 1989

Kimi Räikkönen

2005, 2008

Fernando Alonso

2006, 2013

 

Multiple Winners (Constructors)

# Wins

Constructor

Years won

12

Ferrari

1954, 1974, 1981, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2013

8

McLaren

1975, 1976, 1988, 1989, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005

7

Williams

1987, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2012

6

Lotus

1968, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1986

4

Mercedes

1934, 1935, 2014, 2015

  

Numbers and Facts

Most wins (driver) 6 – Michael Schumacher 1995 – 1996 – 2001 – 2002 –2003 – 2004

Most wins (constructor) 12 Ferrari 1954 – 74 – 81 – 90 – 96 – 2001 – 02 – 03 – 04 – 07 – 08 – 13

Wins from pole position 25 Recent 2015

Lowest grid for past winner 11 Jochen Mass – 1975

Most recent 1-2 finish 2015 Mercedes (Nico Rosberg- Lewis Hamilton)

Most emphatic win (here) 2 laps 1969 – Jackie Stewart-Bruce McLaren (Montjuic Park)

Closest winning margin 0.014S, 1986 – Ayrton Senna-Nigel Mansell (Jerez)

Rain-affected races 3, 1972 – 1992 – 1996

Safety Car-affected races 4, 2003 – 2005 – 2008 – 2009

Red Flag (and result declared) races 1, 1975

Fastest race 2006 66 laps @1hr 26m 21.759s

Slowest race (here) 1954 80 laps@ 3hr 13m 52.1s (Pedrables)

Most pole positions (driver) 7 Michael Schumacher 1994 – 1995 – 2000 – 2001 – 2002 – 2003 – 2004

Most pole positions (constructor) 13 Ferrari 1951 – 68 – 71 – 72 – 74 – 75 – 2000 – 01 – 02 – 03 – 04 – 07 – 08

 

What Happened last race here?

Nico Rosberg took his first victory of the 2015 season as the Mercedes Formula 1 team secured a commanding one-two.

The German led away from pole and remained unthreatened for the duration of the race, with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton second 17.5 seconds adrift and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel 27.7s further back in third at the finish.

Hamilton lost a place to Vettel at the start and after struggling to find a way past, Mercedes called him in to try the undercut.

But a problem fitting the left-rear tyre lost Hamilton three seconds so when Vettel pitted the next lap, he easily came out in front of him.

Hamilton did a three-stop strategy. In contrast, Vettel stayed out to suggest he was on a two-stopper. When the German pitted with 26 laps to go, he rejoined behind Hamilton, who was pushing hard to try to build a gap to enable him to pit and rejoin ahead of Vettel.

And it worked out, with Hamilton exiting the pits after his third stop, and on fresher medium tyres, well clear of Vettel.

Valtteri Bottas finished fourth for Williams, ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and the other Williams of Felipe Massa.

Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Sunday 10 May 2015. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG, Tony Ross, Race Engineer, Mercedes AMG, Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG and Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari on the podium.

 

2015 Race Classification

Pos.

Driver

Constructor

Time/Retired

Grid

1

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

1:41:12.555

1

2

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

+17.551

2

3

Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari

+45.342

3

4

Valtteri Bottas

Williams-Mercedes

+59.217

4

5

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari

+1:00.002

7

6

Felipe Massa

Williams-Mercedes

+1:21.314

9

7

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull Racing-Renault

+1 Lap

10

8

Romain Grosjean

Lotus-Mercedes

+1 Lap

11

9

Carlos Sainz, Jr.

Toro Rosso-Renault

+1 Lap

5

10

Daniil Kvyat

Red Bull Racing-Renault

+1 Lap

8

11

Max Verstappen

Toro Rosso-Renault

+1 Lap

6

12

Felipe Nasr

Sauber-Ferrari

+1 Lap

15

13

Sergio Pérez

Force India-Mercedes

+1 Lap

18

14

Marcus Ericsson

Sauber-Ferrari

+1 Lap

16

15

Nico Hülkenberg

Force India-Mercedes

+1 Lap

17

16

Jenson Button

McLaren-Honda

+1 Lap

14

17

Will Stevens

Marussia-Ferrari

+3 Laps

19

18

Roberto Merhi

Marussia-Ferrari

+4 Laps

20

Ret

Pastor Maldonado

Lotus-Mercedes

Collision damage

12

Ret

Fernando Alonso

McLaren-Honda

Brakes

13

 

Did you know?

DRIVERS

Lewis Hamilton will be looking for his 44th F1 career win aboard of course car ♯44.

Hamilton has set 33 of his 51 pole positions to date on Pirelli tyres. It is 2 more than any other driver in the history of F1 (Vettel next-best 31)

Hamilton is now just 17 pole positions from equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 F1 GP pole positions. Since he has

been at Mercedes he has taken pole 25 times already. That is over 40% of all races he’s started for the team (25/ 61 = 41.0%)

Hamilton has won (43) 25.1% of all GP he’s started (171) and is in the top 10 drivers races to win ratio of all-time. This is how he compares:-

  1. Fangio 47.0%, 2. Ascari 40.6%, 3. Clark 34.7%, 4. M.Schumacher 29.7%, 5. Ja.Stewart 27.2% 6. Vettel 26.1% (42/ 161), 7.Prost 25.6%
  2. Senna 25.5%, 9. Hamilton 25.1%, 10. Moss 24.2%

Hamilton has led just 1 race lap so far in 2016 (0.4%). Last year he led 587 of 1,149 race laps (51%). After 4 GP in ‘15 he’d led 168 laps (74%)

If Hamilton leads in Spain he will then have led 87 F1 GP, 1 more than his idol Ayrton Senna. Only Michael Schumacher has led more (116)

Just 5 points separates Hamilton from Sebastian Vettel at the top of the all-time F1 points table (1924 – 1929)

Hamilton equalled Niki Lauda’s 171 GP starts in Russia. Nico Rosberg meanwhile in Russia equalled Lauda’s 24 pole positions

Rosberg has won the past 7 GP. It represents his best run ever in his whole motor racing career to date

An 8th win in a row for Rosberg in Spain will beat the best run achieved by Michael Schumacher (Europe 2004 to Hungary 2004 inclusive). It

would also mean that then only Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari will have won more Grand Prix in a row (9) than Rosberg

Rosberg’s has now won 18 GP. Nobody has won more GP and not won the driver’s title at some point in their F1 career

Rosberg (45 F1 podiums) has exactly half the number of F1 podiums of Hamilton (90)

Vettel in Russia equalled Ayrton Senna’s 161 GP starts. In Spain he is scheduled to beat it

Vettel in 161 GP to date has won 42 while Senna managed to win 41 GP in his 161 starts

CONSTRUCTORS’

Mercedes aiming for an 11th pole in a row. Mercedes’ best-ever run of poles is 23 (Great Britain 2014 to Italy 2015 inclusive), and is beaten

only by Williams’s run of 24 poles in 1992 – 93

Mercedes’s next pole position will be its 50th on Pirelli tyres (currently: Mercedes-1st [49], Red Bull Racing-2nd [37}, Ferrari-3rd (21])

Mercedes won its 49th F1 World Championship race victory in Russia. To date Mercedes has won just over one-third of all the F1 GP it has

has competed in (49 wins/ 131 races = 37.4%).

Mercedes can beat Red Bull Racing’s 57 F1 pole positions with pole in Spain

Mercedes is now just 1 win behind Red Bull’s F1 career total of 50

A win on Sunday would be Mercedes’s 11th in a row and would equal the all-time record set by McLaren in 1988 (Brazil to Belgium inclusive)

Mercedes has now finished in points for the last 62 GP in a row. It is the 3rd-best run of all-time. The most is 81 by Ferrari then McLaren on 64

Mercedes and Ferrari have been represented on all 4 race podiums so far this season

SPANISH GRAND PRIX

Ferrari has been stuck on 13 Spanish Grand Prix pole positions since 2008

Ferrari has won 1 more Spanish GP (12) than the combined number of Spanish GP wins of Mercedes (2), Red Bull (2) and Williams (7)

2016 is the 30th anniversary of one of the closest finishes in F1 history. Just 0.014 separated winner Ayrton Senna’s Lotus from the Williams of

runner-up Nigel Mansell after 72 laps at Jerez (0.01? – 1971 Italian GP, 0.011 stage-managed finish to 2002 US GP)

The top 4 on the starting grid last year finished the race in the same order they had started it which was 1 better than the year before when

the top 3 on the starting grid finished 1-2-3 and in the same order in the race (so, last 2 years 1-2-3 on grid finished race in same order, 1-2-3)

Nobody in the history of F1 has scored more World Championship points in Spain than Fernando Alonso 120 (MSC-118, VET-92, HAM-79)

 

World Drivers’ Championship standings

Pos.

Driver

Points

Diff

1

Nico Rosberg

100

 

2

Lewis Hamilton

57

43

3

Kimi Räikkönen

43

57

4

Daniel Ricciardo

36

67

5

Sebastian Vettel

33

67

6

Felipe Massa

32

68

7

Romain Grosjean

22

78

8

Daniil Kvyat

21

79

9

Valtteri Bottas

19

81

10

Max Verstappen

13

87

11

Fernando Alonso

8

92

12

Kevin Magnussen

6

94

13

Nico Hülkenberg

6

94

14

Carlos Sainz, Jr.

4

96

15

Sergio Pérez

2

98

16

Jenson Button

1

99

17

stoffel Vandoorn

1

99

18

Jolyon Palmer

0

 

19

Marcus Ericsson

0

 

20

Pascal Wehrlein

0

 

21

Felipe Nasr

0

 

22

Esteban Gutiérrez

0

 

23

Rio Haryanto

0

 

 

World Constructors’ Championship standings

 

Pos.

Constructor

Points

Diff

1

Mercedes

157

 

2

Ferrari

76

81

3

Red Bull-TAG Heuer

57

100

4

Williams-Mercedes

51

135

5

Haas-Ferrari

22

135

6

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

17

140

7

McLaren-Honda

10

149

8

Force India-Mercedes

8

149

9

Renault

6

151

10

Sauber-Ferrari

0

 

11

MRT-Mercedes

0

 

 

Drivers penalty points:

 

Driver

Penalty points

Max Verstappen

8

Daniil Kvyat

5

Marcus Erricson

4

Romain Grosjean

4

Nico Hulkenberg

4

Valtteri Bottas

4

Sebastian Vettel

3

Kimi Raikkonen

3

Lewis Hamilton

2

Fernando Alonso

2

Rio Haryanto

2

Carlos Sainz Jr.

2

Esteban Gutierrez

2

Jenson Button

 

 

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