F1 2009 Race 5 - Spanish GP

Spanish GP preview

Throughout the winter and the early races, there has been talk of a 'new world order' in Formula 1 and of the form book being turned inside out as Brawn, Toyota and Red Bull usurped the formerly dominant McLaren and Ferrari.

But just as everyone was getting used to plain white cars being at the front and silver and scarlet ones being in the midfield, the reset button is being hit again at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

The testing ban , the massive winter rules changes and the late clarification of exactly how far the diffuser regulations could be pushed have meant a return to the days when the first European round marked the 'real' start of the season.

In the past, many teams waited until returning to Europe to introduce new cars, having taken the previous year's models to the early flyaways.

In 2009, the situation is slightly different - as Barcelona marks the first chance that many teams will have to introduce their responses to the diffuser verdict, and a big opportunity for those who were already ahead of the game with their diffusers to bring their first big upgrades of the year.

The teams who hope they will gain the most amid the flurry of developments are Ferrari and BMW Sauber.

Amid all the talk of McLaren's dire winter, few expected that the Woking squad's 2008 title rivals would turn out to be in a similar predicament when the racing started - or that it would be McLaren that showed signs of recovery first.

BMW at least has solid points on the board thanks to Nick Heidfeld's slightly lucky strategic podium in Malaysia, while Ferrari got off the zero mark in Bahrain but remains a dismal ninth in the constructors' championship (which it has won for eight of the past 10 years).

Both teams are praying that the swathes of new parts they are bolting on for Spain will transform their fortunes.

Conversely, McLaren has warned that it might take a step back - relatively speaking - at Barcelona.

Unlike Ferrari and BMW, McLaren (and indeed Renault) started its rush of new parts in the middle of the flyaway rounds, which means it has fewer fresh tricks up its sleeve for Spain, plus it expects the MP4-24's fundamental lack of downforce to prove especially costly at this track.

Renault might not be making any great strides either, having produced its leap forward with Fernando Alonso's fuel-assisted but still superb second on the grid in China.

But whatever technical package Renault turns up with, expect some Alonso magic in front of his adoring home crowd to thrust the team into contention.

It will surely be tempting to opt for an ultra-aggressive fuel load to get the former champion near the front of the grid, then let his KERS button and tenacity do the rest...

While last year's big guns hope to regain respectability this weekend, those that have usurped them will try to cling on to their new-found dominance.

If the usual suspects are charging back to the front, it could be particularly bad news for Williams, which has a far quicker car than its desultory tally of 3.5 points in 2009 suggests.

Operational gaffes are mainly to blame for that dearth of points, although the car looked like it was starting to get out-classed by improving rivals at Sakhir, despite several new components being fitted.

Red Bull's Adrian Newey has proved that you don't need a fancy diffuser to go quickly in 2009, and although one such diffuser is on the way, even without one Sebastian Vettel looks like the man most likely to prevent a fairytale Brawn title.

Newey and his colleagues have been flat-out on upgrades for the RB5, but with a substantial redesign required to accommodate the double diffuser, these may arrive in a clump for Monaco or Turkey rather than Barcelona.

The improving Toyota team is confident that it has the resources and the ideas to stay ahead in the development race, while championship leader Jenson Button is starting to lose his wide-eyed surprise at being ahead and is instead showing the healthy paranoia of the unexpected front-runner - constantly worrying that the pack is about to swallow him.

On pure pace, he's probably right, for either Red Bull or Toyota could have (should have?) won in Bahrain had their strategies and starts worked out better.

But Button and Brawn beat them on operational sharpness and opening lap boldness, and those skills are worth just as much as a massive upgrade programme.

So with some determined to vault forward, others warning they will slide backwards, and the remainder utterly baffled as to where they might end up when the music stops at Catalunya, this weekend's race could reveal how the remarkable story of the 2009 title battle will develop in the final three quarters of the season.

However, while the unknown pecking order makes the Spanish GP a mouth-watering prospect, few anticipate that the on-track action will live up to this intrigue.

Even with the new, in theory overtaking-friendly, regulations, Barcelona is expected to remain a very tough venue for overtaking.

Indeed some sceptics suggested that the true test of any rules designed to improve the action would be whether the changes made the Spanish GP worth watching!

At least the shake-up means that while passing might be in short supply, the result remains utterly unpredictable going into the weekend.

And given how astonishingly wet this season has turned out to be so far, don't bet against a repeat of 1996's shock Spanish GP downpour - which would be the last thing the teams need with new parts to evaluate and the anomalous Monte Carlo next on the calendar.

SPanish GP factfile:

Barcelona by numbers

Circuit length: 2.892 miles

Type of circuit: Purpose-built permanent track

Number of laps: 66

Lap record: 1m21.670s (Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 2008)

Last year's pole time: 1m21.421s (Felipe Massa, Ferrari)

Fastest corner: Turn 3 - long sweeping, fifth gear right-hand bend, 146mph

Overtaking opportunities: Low. While Catalunya is now one of the best attended races thanks to Fernando Alonso's rise, the track continues to provide one of the more sterile GPs of the season. While teams' over familiarity with the venue through winter testing is one factor in the annual procession, difficulties in following cars closely enough to even attempt a pass make any potential overtaking spots virtually redundant - even under the new rules.

Usual weather: The rain in Spain mainly stays away from the race track when the grand prix is in town. The last rain-hit, indeed monsoon-hit, Barcelona race was back in 1996.

Chances of a first corner crash: Average. The long run down to the tight first turn means there is always plenty of jostling for position into turn one. Alonso found this out to his cost in 2007...

Kimi Raikonen will be using new car with less weight & probably without KERS.
while his Teammate Massa will retain same car for the race.

2nd practice

Nico Rosberg returned to the top of the timesheets this afternoon at Circuit de Catalunya, recording a best lap of 1:21.588s in his Williams Toyota with team-mate Kazuki Nakajima second fastest, just under two-tenths of a second adrift.

As ever in practice, it is really hard to read too much into the lap times as we do not know what fuel levels the teams opted to run and how many set of tyres they used over the 90 minute session. Rosberg of course has topped many practice sessions so far this year, but has generally flattered only to deceive as the team has just 3.5 points from the first four races of the season. Rosberg pulled his FW31 off track with a mechanical problem just ahead of the chequered flag.

At the other end of the scale we know that Toyota has a tremendous package in the TF109 and this afternoon Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli put in more laps than any other driver and were slowest of the 19 runners to take part in the second practice session, indicating a differing practice strategy.

In between the two Toyota-powered teams, Fernando Alonso was third fastest in his Renault much to the delight of the large Spanish crowds on hand today while team-mate Nelson Piquet survived two spins to record the eighth fastest time in his R29. Piquet in particular has been vocal about the lack of simulated qualifying the team has permitted him to date, but today it seemed he spent a majority of the day looking at his qualifying setup.

Rubens Barrichello led the Brawn Mercedes challenge with the fourth fastest time, just over two-tenths off the ultimate pace with team-mate and championship leader Jenson Button sixth fastest.

Traditionally the Brackley-based team focus much of their Friday running on the race programme.

Red Bull Renault picked up the pace this afternoon with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel fifth and seventh best ahead of Piquet while Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso Ferrari suffered a left rear brake fire on his first timed lap of the day and the Swiss racer was forced to miss the first hour of running. Buemi got back on track late in the session and was immediately on the pace as he ended the afternoon ninth fastest with team-mate Sebastien Bourdais 11th.

Ferrari has a much revised F60 package on hand this weekend in Barcelona with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa recording the tenth and 15th best times respectively for the defending champions with the Mercedes-powered Giancarlo Fisichella 12th in his Force India ahead of the McLaren Mercedes-duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.

BMW Sauber were back down the timesheets this afternoon with Nick Heidfeld slowest again for much of the session. Robert Kubica posted the 16th best time with Heidfeld up to 17th just ahead of the chequered flag.

With the Toyota duo of Glock and Trulli slowest, Adrian Sutil was forced to sit out the entire session in his Force India Mercedes due 'a fuel cell problem'.

F1 : Rosberg leads a Williams Toyota one-two - Catalunya - F1-Live.com

Massa leads Ferrari one-two

The final practice session ahead of the all-important qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix saw Ferrari vault to the head of the timesheets with Felipe Massa recording the fastest lap of the one hour session on a 1:20.553s, the fastest lap of the race weekend.

As ever in the final practice session, the teams will all be looking to the qualifying hour with some opting to run very light to simulate the first and second rounds of qualifying, while some will have opted to run with more fuel on board to simulate the final round of qualifying.

Kimi Raikkonen joined his Ferrari team-mate at the head of the timesheets as the Finn lapped less than a tenth of a second off the ultimate pace and while it seems the Italian team has made gains, it would be a surprise to see them replicate the positions this afternoon when it really counts.

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were third and fourth fastest respectively for Brawn Mercedes as the team chase their fourth win from five races. Barrichello has generally seemed the more content of the two Brawn racers so far this weekend, but an error on his final hot lap saw him fail to improve as the chequered flag flew.

It was a mixed morning at BMW Sauber with Robert Kubica managing the fifth fastest time in the heavily revised F1.09 while team-mate Nick Heidfeld crashed out of the session damaging the front left corner of his car. Heidfeld had been 12th fastest at the time but as others made gains, the German veteran slipped to the bottom of the timesheets

Toyota has been up and down the order all weekend long and this morning Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock set the sixth and eighth best times with the latter seemingly struggling on the harder prime tyres. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton split the Toyota duo in seventh position.

Sebastien Buemi is running well this weekend as he again led the Toro Rosso Ferrari charge with the ninth best time with team-mate Sebastien Bourdais a few tenths back and 14th. Home town hero Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten in the leading Renault ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren Mercedes.

Nico Rosberg may have set the Friday pace in his Williams Toyota but this morning the German racer was 12th with team-mate Kazuki Nakajima back in 18th. It is hard to read the form of the Grove-based team but Rosberg at least has proven he has the pace to make the top ten in qualifying.

It was a low key session from the Red Bull Renault team with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel 13th and 16th with Sebastien Bourdais and Nelson Piquet in between for Toro Rosso and Renault. Giancarlo Fisichella survived a spin in his Force India Mercedes to set the 17th best time ahead of Nakajima and Adrian Sutil in the second VJM02


F1 : Massa leads Ferrari one-two - Catalunya - F1-Live.com

Qualifying Results

01 Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes)
02 Sebastian Vettel (RBR-Renault)
03 Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes)
04 Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
05 Mark Webber (RBR-Renault)
06 Timo Glock (Toyota)
07 Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
08 Fernando Alonso (Renault)
09 Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota)
10 Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)
11 Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota)
12 Nelsinho Piquet (Renault)
13 Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)
14 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)
15 Sebastien Buemi (STR-Ferrari)
16 Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari)
17 Sebastien Bourdais (STR-Ferrari)
18 Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)
19 Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes)
20 Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Mercedes)

Kimi out in Q1 was the most surprising thing today (or was it..?? ) Not sure if it was a tactical mistake or a technical fault. And Button was very lucky to be able to start the last lap just in the nick of time....!!

ferrari did it again , they kept kimi in the pits thinking his time was good enough time to kick out uglybelly

missed the qualifying as usual
will try and catch the race today...massa looks to be in a strong position for the race. with KERS onboard, he should be in lead by the first corner if he manages a good start. lets see what lewis and kimi can do from back of the grid.

I do hope Massa ends up with some points.. maybe the podium too.