Spanish Grand Prix Tag

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Spanish Grand Prix marks Formula 1’s return to Europe after the early season fly away races. It also marks the first big round of updates the teams implement for their new cars. For many, it is when the season truly begins as Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is the benchmark for the teams to find their true place in the pecking order and see if they have moved ahead or fallen behind their rivals since they last visited Barcelona for pre-season testing. Ferrari has clearly had theRead More

By FIA After being beaten to top spot in first practice by over eight tenths of a second by team-mate Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton powered forward in the afternoon session to claim P1, a tenth of a second ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bull Racing driver bounced back from a first-session crash to edge team-mate Max Verstappen by 0.141s. Hamilton’s best lap, in a time of 1:18.259, came on the soft compound Pirelli tyres and was set early in the session. When the Briton later went for aRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Robert Kubica made his official return to a Formula 1 race weekend for the first time since 2010, ending 19th quickest in Friday morning practice ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. The outing at was less than ideal as Kubica was 3.362 seconds off the pace, but still managed to place ahead of Williams teammate Lance Stroll by 1.246 seconds at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Stroll also crashed with half an hour to go the session. Overall, the first of three scheduled opening practice sessions for 2018Read More

By FIA Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the opening practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing more than eight tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and almost a second clear of third-placed Sebastian Vettel. The Mercedes drivers’ dominance of the session was established early with Bottas using soft tyres to push into the 1m18s bracket. At that point the were backed up by Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, but the Australian wouldn’t figure in the session for much longer. With grip at the premium onRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Williams reserve pilot Robert Kubica is slated to run a pair of afternoon sessions during preseason testing next week at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The workload will be split up between Lance Stroll, rookie Sergey Sirotkin and Kubica. The Grove-based outfit will have Stroll kickoff the program of the FW41 on Monday morning, followed by Sirotkin in the afternoon and Tuesday morning. For Kubica, his work behind the wheel will officially begin on Tuesday afternoon and conclude on Wednesday. Both Stroll and Sirotkin will finish up theRead More

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton took his second career Spanish Grand Prix victory after winning a thrilling, tight strategic battle with Sebastian Vettel after the Ferrari driver led for the first half of the race. Third place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian inheriting the podium spot after an engine failure ruled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas out midway through the grand prix. When the lights went out, it was Vettel who made the best start. The German powered away from P2 on the grid and grabbed the lead as heRead More

Lewis Hamilton edged Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by just five hundredths of a second to claim the 64th pole position of his career at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. FP1 saw Hamilton go quickest with a lap of 1:20.511, two tenths of a second ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel. There was a scare for Vettel, however. After detecting a potential problem during FP3, Ferrari opted to change the German’s power unit aheadRead More

After a Friday dominated by Mercedes, Ferrari fought back in final practice with Kimi Räikkönen heading a one-two for the Scuderia ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel. After leading the way during the medium-tyre shod opening half of the session with a time of 1:22.409, Raikkonen bolted on soft tyres shortly after the halfway point in the one-hour final practice session and immediately lowered the benchmark by more than two seconds, logging a best time of 1:21.214 that stood until the end of the session. He was quickly joined at theRead More

Lewis Hamilton went quickest in Friday’s afternoon practice session in Barcelona with the Briton finishing just under a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas to hand Mercedes its second one-two of the day. In the morning session, the Silver Arrows finished almost a second clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen but while Hamilton and Bottas again outpaced their main rivals in the afternoon the gap was much smaller, with Kimi Räikkönen again quickest for the Italian outfit, 0.310s behind Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel a further tenth of aRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The 2016 Formula One season will go down in history as one of the most surprising, and unique in recent years. It will be known for Nico Rosberg’s epic battle with Lewis Hamilton, for Max Verstappen’s rise at Red Bull, for the retirement of beloved veterans, and Rosberg’s willingness to walk away from the sport having won his only world title. Here are our top five moments of the year. 5. Retirement Announcements Beloved veterans Jenson Button and Felipe Massa shocked the sport by announcing theyRead More