2017 FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI
Catalunya
Lap length 4.655km (2.892 miles)
Race laps 66
Race distance 307.104km (190.826 miles)
Pole position Left-hand side of the track
Lap record* 1’21.670 (Kimi Raikkonen, 2008)
Fastest lap 1’19.954 (Rubens Barrichello, 2009, )
Maximum speed 332kph (206.295 mph)
DRS zone/s (race) Pit straight and straight after Campsa
Distance from grid to turn one 730m
Full throttle 67%
Longest flat-out section 1310m
Downforce level High
Fuel use per lap 1.7kg
Time penalty per lap of fuel 0.051s
UK Times
Friday 12th May 2017
Spanish Grand Prix Free Practice 1: 10:00-11:30 (UK time: 9:00-10:30)
Spanish Grand Prix Free Practice 2: 14:00-15:30 (UK time: 13:00-14:30)
Saturday 13th May 2017
Spanish Grand Prix Free Practice 3: 11:00-12:00 (UK time: 10:00-11:00)
Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying: 14:00 (UK time: 13:00)
Sunday 14th May 2017
Spanish Grand Prix: 14:00 (UK time: 13:00)
Previous Winners
2016 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull-TAG Heuer
2015 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes
2014 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2013 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari
2012 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault
2011 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2010 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
2009 United Kingdom Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes
2008 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
2007 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari
2006 Spain Fernando Alonso Renault
2005 Finland Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes
2004 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2003 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2002 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2001 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2000 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes
Videos
1991 Schumacher opening lap on board on a damp track
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSBActKecV8
2005 Alonso on board
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3LrEOjmf40
Facts from the previous race
Valtteri Bottas had been waiting over 2,000 days for a victory when he took his breakthrough grand prix win in Sochi.
His Russian Grand Prix triumph came 2,044 days since the last time he took the chequered flag in first place. That was in a British Formula Three race at Donington Park in 2011, where he finished ahead of fellow future F1 drivers Felipe Nasr (tenth) and Kevin Magnussen (16th). But Felipe Massa has been waiting even longer – over 3,000 days have passed since his last victory.
Appropriately Bottas shared the podium yesterday with Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari driver and his manager Steve Robertson set up the Double R team which Bottas scored his previous win for.
It took Bottas 81 grand prix starts to score his first victory. That’s the joint tenth-longest wait, tying him with Eddie Irvine. However it’s 30 races less than his predecessor at Mercedes took to win his first race:
Mark Webber 130, Rubens Barrichello 124, Jarno Trulli 117, Jenson Button 113, Nico Rosberg 111, Giancarlo Fisichella 110, Mika Hakkinen 96, Thierry Boutsen 95, Jean Alesi 91, Eddie Irvine 81, Valtteri Bottas 81
Bottas became the 107th different driver to win a race. He is also the fifth Finnish driver to win a race out of the nine who have started races – a remarkable strike rate. Of the other four race-winning Finns only one, Heikki Kovalainen, did not go on to win the world championship. He, of course, was also Lewis Hamilton’s team mate at the time.
It was a close finish: Bottas crossed the line just 0.617 seconds ahead of Vettel. That’s almost the same margin the last first-time winner had over second place: Max Verstappen beat Raikkonen in Spain by 0.616s last year.
Mercedes sustained their perfect record of victories in the Russian Grand Prix, having won all four races. However their run of pole positions in this event was broken by Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari. He also became the first non-Mercedes driver to lead the Russian Grand Prix, which he did for the first time on lap 27.
We’ve now gone four races without the same team winning two in a row. This hasn’t happened since the middle of 2013, when Mercedes traded victories with Red Bull.
Vettel and Raikkonen gave further indication of Ferrari’s potential in 2017 by locking out the front row of the grid. This was the team’s first since the 2008 French Grand Prix, 127 races ago. Mercedes had only been beaten to pole position once in each of the previous three seasons.
Mercedes therefore didn’t have a car on the front row for the first time since the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix. Their 30-race run of front row starts is the third-longest of all time, behind the 35 Williams managed from 1992 to 1994. Their 18-race streak of pole positions, also the third-longest of all time, ended too. Hamilton missed out on the podium for the first time in the last eight races.
However Sergio Perez did continue his streak of points finishes which is now up to 14 in a row. Esteban Ocon looked on course to take his fourth tenth place finish in a row when he qualified tenth, but slipped up in the race and finished seventh. Pérez also got his first Formula 1 record. He’s become the new holder of the record for most points without a win, with 389. Before Sochi the holder was Bottas with 449.
The top 3 drivers in the Championship are separated by 23 points – the closest after 4 races since 2012. And it’s the first time since 1995 that 2 teams have each scored 2 wins in the first 4 races of a season.
F1’s new commercial boss Sean Bratches described the weekend as “the first time the Russian Grand Prix has been turned in to a fully-fledged motorsport festival”. It seems these motorsport festivals don’t include much in the way of racing.
Current Standings