2010 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix

[Dotini]

What if Red Bull was to take pole position in every race this year? Has that ever happened before? I would think so, like from the Mercedes W196 days.

Ferrari and Lancia beat W196's to 2 poles in '54, and again in '55.

Gonzalez (Ferrari), pipped Fangio at the Swiss GP; Ascari (Lancia) was a full second ahead of Fangio's W196 at the Grand Prix of Spain at Barcelona, October 24th, 1954.

Ascari and Gonzalez outqualified Fangio at Argentina, '55. And the Italian matinee idol Eugenio Castellotti (Lancia), started 1st at Belgium.

 

[zed300]

Nah, the 2002-2004 Ferrari's were in a similar level of dominance. In fact, before the past few seasons, it was quite common for the fastest cars to be several tenths to almost a second ahead of the rest.

I just went through a number of qualifying sessions from those seasons, and yes Ferrari and Renault were quite dominant, but not .7 + over 3rd place in qualifying, and in Spain up to 7th-8th place were lapped in those seasons with the winner only having a .3-.4 advantage in qualifying.

People have become too used to the close grids of recent times.

And so we should, otherwise there would be no point for spectator growth.

Anyway, lets not get too carried away here, Red Bull have been consistently fast in every qualifying session so far and then their race pace hasn't been quite so dominant.

Fast is one thing, fast enough to break the McLaren's great top speed is another. McLaren have a bigger advantage for overtaking rather than having corner speed, which is obviously better for defending(RE :Vettel Bahrain). Even qualifying at .1-.25 faster, is hardly enough of an advantage to create race dominance. At full speed on the straight, .25 is still well within the slip range. At 300 kph about 20-22 metres for every .25 of a sec, about 4 car lenghts.
It will be far easier to have dominant race pace when you've got .75 of a sec about 60-63 metres,mostly in the middle sector, which is well out of slip range and into the turbulance, once they reach the straight.

 

[Ardius]

No, I meant their pace with fuel in relation to the other cars this season has not be spectacular, but then again we have had a lot of wet races.

If we go back to the 1999 Australian Grand Prix, we had McLaren ahead by 1.3 seconds! Not quite 2 decades ago .

Having close grids is good, yes, but we shouldn't get too used to it, as the nature of F1 has always been that one or two teams break away from the rest. If you want teams to design their own cars, naturally some are going to get it more right than others. You can't force the teams to be competitive without making more and more parts standardised.

 

[astrosdude91]

A few laps in and Reb Bull is looking good! Let's see if Vettel can hold off Hamilton.

 

[Mad94d]

Good start for Webber so far, let's just hope he can get the job done.

 

[Arkano5]

Bored already. Podium is already decided.

No point in watching rest of the race now tbh.

 

[astrosdude91]

Hamilton is always causing trouble. Good job Vettel for avoiding those speedbumps.

A fun Button-Schuey battle!

 

[Arkano5]

Hamilton is always causing trouble. Good job Vettel for avoiding those speedbumps.

A fun Button-Schuey battle!

That wasn't Hamilton, that was the Virgin and Vettels choice to take the off track.

 

[astrosdude91]

That wasn't Hamilton, that was the Virgin and Vettels choice to take the off track.

I thought you said you were done with this race.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Alguersuari is really impressing me. Great drive so far chap! 👍

 

[Arkano5]

I thought you said you were done with this race.

I didn't say I was done, I was implying that it's pretty much another procession.

 

[H20HYBRID_GT]

Great race so far, I could watch Button chasing Schumacher for ages.
Chandhok almost takes out Alguasari.

... and Alguasari gets a penalty ?!

 

[Small_Fryz]

haha love brundle telling button how to overtake schumacher...

has brundle ever overtaked schumacher?

 

[Bram Turismo]

Great race so far, I could watch Button chasing Schumacher for ages.
Chandhok almost takes out Alguasari.

... and Alguasari gets a penalty ?!

It wasn't Chandhok who nearly took out Alguersuari, it was Alguersuari who nearly took out both himself and Chandhok. He cut into the race line far too early while not having entirely cleared Chandhok. It was his own mistake.

 

[H20HYBRID_GT]

Ah, ok my bad, I only saw the replay and there it looked like Chandhok 's fault.

 

[astrosdude91]

Ok, Vettel has to be quick to get back on podium position. I hope he can do it!

But his brakes are almost gone!

 

[boiltheocean]

Oh Dear Hamilton!

 

[astrosdude91]

Podium for both Red Bulls!!!

 

[daan]

Bored already. Podium is already decided.

No point in watching rest of the race now tbh.

Well, first was already decided... The other 2 places on the podium changed quite a bit during the race.

Well done to Webber for a storming weekend. 👍

 

[Bram Turismo]

Oh Dear Hamilton!

I saw it coming, really. We all know how hard he is on his tires and when he set the fastest lap time 10 laps before the end I just knew something had to give. I bet he'll now keep those tires more in mind in the next races.

Brilliant drive from Webber, I really hope we get to see him more in this kind of form throughout the season 👍

 

[Touring Mars]

Oh Dear Hamilton!

You have to hand it to those tifosi - they're a mean shot with an air rifle.

 

[J-PaP]

Anybody able to post trap speeds for the race when they are released? Curious how the Ferrari's and Mclarens compared .

 

[waggles]

You have to hand it to those tifosi - they're a mean shot with an air rifle.

You really need to book a place at a comedy festival somewhere. That's brilliant.

Sooo close to a grand chelem for Webber too.

 

[astrosdude91]

Those were some fun last few laps! I'm glad to see Webber win it. And I was not expecting Hamilton to wreck like that. And good job to Vettel for not having his breaks melt or explode.

 

[senamic]

Bored already. Podium is already decided.

No point in watching rest of the race now tbh.

Oh, how that statement looks with hindsight.

Not a great race in terms of overtaking, although the two Nico's had a fun battle. Really though, as a race of attrition, it was quite good. Nice work Mark, bad luck to Pedro, Seb and Lewis, we'll see how it goes next race.

 

[Tomaz]

Red Bull is unbelievably fast!

Too bad for Lew. Schumi 4th ... a little bit of luck but still proof Mercedes is very slow.

Overall boring race!

 

[daan]

I saw it coming, really. We all know how hard he is on his tires and when he set the fastest lap time 10 laps before the end I just knew something had to give. I bet he'll now keep those tires more in mind in the next races.

According to Whitmarsh, it looked like a wheel failure, but it's too early to say. Lets not apportion blame until we know who or what is at fault.

 

[Fastas]

According to Whitmarsh, it looked like a wheel failure, but it's too early to say. Lets not apportion blame until we know who or what is at fault.

Hamilton's tyre blow out was certainly reminiscent of Hakkinen's shot tyre at Imola, Italy. It will be interesting to hear the official explaination when it's published.

A good race to watch with plenty of twists and turns and a deserved win for Webber.

 

[waggles]

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/esp-race-trap.pdf

Speed trap speeds.

 

[PeterJB]

I'd that say that was a pretty good result for me. Hamilton's crash was the highlight of it, and congrats to Alguersuari more points and Vettel for nursing his brakes all the way to the (albeit very lucky) podium finish.