Spanish GP: Free Practice 3 - Re-Cap & Times

SPANISH GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE #3

It was Mercedes who led this session, while the Ferrari drivers finished further down with Vettel in 3rd and Raikkonen in 6th. Verstappen finished 4th and his first race weekend with Red Bull is looking quite well. Could he be looking at a podium finish on Sunday? It certainly can't be ruled out with the pace he's showing.

    McLaren ran a new front wing in this session. However, they only have one and it was put on Button's car, while it's said that Alonso opted to stick to his current set-up and not run the front wing.

    Not too many troubles for Haas or Renault this time around after 2 less than perfect sessions yesterday, where both teams faced multiple technical issues.

TIMES:

1. Nico Rosberg - 1:23.078 / Mercedes-Mercedes

2. Lewis Hamilton - 1:23.204 / Mercedes-Mercedes

3. Sebastian Vettel - 1:23.225 / Ferrari-Ferrari

4. Max Verstappen - 1:23.719 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

5. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:23.816 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

6. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:24.110 / Ferrari-Ferrari

7. Valtteri Bottas - 1:24.356 / Williams-Mercedes

8. Sergio Perez - 1:24.472 / Force India-Mercedes

9. Daniil Kvyat - 1:24.553 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

10. Fernando Alonso - 1:24.555 / McLaren-Honda

11. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:24.585 / Force India-Mercedes

12. Felipe Massa - 1:24.621 / Williams-Mercedes

13. Carlos Sainz - 1:24.695 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

14. Romain Grosjean - 1:24.981 / Haas-Ferrari

15. Jenson Button - 1:25.051 / McLaren-Honda

16. Kevin Magnussen - 1:25.100 / Renault-Renault

17. Esteban Gutierrez - 1:25.130 / Haas-Ferrari

18. Jolyon Palmer - 1:25.376 / Renault-Renault

19. Felipe Nasr - 1:25.383 / Sauber-Ferrari

20. Marcus Ericsson - 1:25.401 / Sauber-Ferrari

21. Pascal Wehrlein - 1:26.097 / Manor-Mercedes

22. Rio Haryanto - 1:26.251 / Manor-Mercedes

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Spanish GP: Free Practice 2 - Re-Cap & Times

SPANISH GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE #2

The good weather continued in the second practice session and there wasn't a sight of rain until the very end minutes of the session, when Raikkonen reported the first drops of rain. Ferrari and Mercedes led the way again, rounding up the top 4, with Carlos Sainz finishing the top 5 in his Toro Rosso.

    More issues for Renault, with Palmer unable to drive most of the session. He suffered a rear-left tyre puncture early on and he wasn't out on track until only 14-15 minutes remained on the clock. Esteban Ocon had driven his car in the first session but was sidelined with mechanical issues and was unable to even set a time. Palmer finished this session in 17th. 

    It was a mixed day for Haas due to mechanical woes. Despite Romain Grosjean finishing the session in 13th, he reported many issues with the handling of the car throughout the day. Gutierrez was in the garage for most of the session due to multiple issues. 

TIMES:

1. Nico Rosberg - 1:23.922 / Mercedes-Mercedes

2. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:24.176 / Ferrari-Ferrari

3. Lewis Hamilton - 1:24.641 / Mercedes-Mercedes

4. Sebastian Vettel - 1:25.017 / Ferrari-Ferrari

5. Carlos Sainz - 1:25.131 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

6. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:25.194 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

7. Fernando Alonso - 1:25.342 / McLaren-Honda

8. Max Verstappen - 1:25.375 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

9. Sergio Perez - 1:25.437 / Force India-Mercedes

10. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:25.453 / Force India-Mercedes

11. Valtteri Bottas - 1:25.708 / Williams-Mercedes

12. Jenson Button - 1:25.893 / McLaren-Honda

13. Romain Grosjean - 1:25.899 / Haas-Ferrari

14. Kevin Magnussen - 1:26.244 / Renault-Renault

15. Daniil Kvyat - 1:26.375 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

16. Felipe Massa - 1:26.491 / Williams-Mercedes

17. Jolyon Palmer - 1:26.770 / Renault-Renault

18. Pascal Wehrlein - 1:26.960 / Manor-Mercedes

19. Rio Haryanto - 1:27.252 / Manor-Mercedes

20. Felipe Nasr - 1:27.812 / Sauber-Ferrari

21. Esteban Gutierrez - 1:28.205 / Haas-Ferrari

22. Marcus Ericsson - 1:28.501 / Sauber-Ferrari

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Spanish GP: Free Practice 1 - Re-Cap & Times

SPANISH GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE #1

Although rain had been in the forecast, not a sight of it so far. The track stayed dry and the sun stayed out for the first session. Esteban Ocon replaced Jolyon Palmer this time around but Ocon didn't have much luck with the car as there were a few issues. He ended up missing the last 30 minutes and was unable to set a time.

    It was Verstappen's first day at his new team, Red Bull, yet he appeared no stranger to driving it and finished the session in 6th, just behind new team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo. Both drivers look to be having a good start to the weekend, along with Ferrari. Vettel finished the session in 1st, while Raikkonen finished 2nd.

    Both Kvyat and Perez both had car issues. Perez had to head back to the pits after plumes of smoke came out of the back of his Force India. It was later found out that he had an oil leak, but was able to get back out with just 4 minutes remaining in the session. Kvyat had a different set of car problems but still managed to finish the session in 12th.

TIMES: 

1. Sebastian Vettel - 1:23.951 / Ferrari-Ferrari

2. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:24.089 / Ferrari-Ferrari

3. Nico Rosberg - 1:24.454 / Mercedes-Mercedes

4. Lewis Hamilton - 1:24.611 / Mercedes-Mercedes

5. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:25.416 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

6. Max Verstappen - 1:25.585 / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER

7. Valtteri Bottas - 1:25.672 / Williams-Mercedes

8. Carlos Sainz - 1:25.078 / Toro Rosso-Ferrari

9. Felipe Massa - 1:26.186 / Williams-Mercedes

10. Fernando Alonso - 1:26.243 / McLaren-Honda

11. Kevin Magnussen - 1:26.576 / Renault-Renault

12. Daniil Kvyat - 1:26.583 / Toro rosso-Ferrari

13. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:26.938 / Force India-Mercedes

14. Sergio Perez -  1:27.064 / Force India-Mercedes

15. Felipe Nasr - 1:27.253 / Sauber-Ferrari

16. Romain Grosjean - 1:27.258 / Haas-Ferrari

17. Esteban Gutierrez - 1:27.283 / Haas-Ferrari

18. Marcus Ericsson - 1:27.392 / Sauber-Ferrari

19. Jenson Button - 1:27.610 / McLaren-Honda

20. Pascal Wehrlein - 1:28.084 / Manor-Mercedes

21. Rio Haryanto - 1:29.052 / Manor-Mercedes

22. Esteban Ocon - NO TIME SET / Renault-Renault 

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Manor

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - MANOR RACING F1 TEAM

Pascal Wehrlein - “It will be nice to get straight into the programme here without having to think about acclimatisation. Although I didn’t race here in my early single-seater career, it’s a track we know well from testing and its characteristics are very familiar to us, so it will be relatively easy to see how our new developments are working. It has a bit of everything for a driver, which I like. There’s a good mix of fast, medium and slow speed corners, frequent changes in direction and a nice long start-finish straight, all of which make it really interesting to drive. The track is quite abrasive so with the tyre allocation here we’ll need to focus on managing degradation. I hope we will see some good progress here this weekend.”

Rio Haryanto - “Indonesia is my real home of course and I try to go back there at every opportunity, but the reality is that it’s a long way when we’re racing in Europe, so I have a base here in Barcelona for the next few months. I really like it here; the weather is good and it’s a really cool city with plenty of interesting places for me to train. My trainer is Spanish so he knows all the best places and I know the area like the back of my hand now.

I feel good about the season so far. I’ve had a bit of bad luck but generally the first few races have been positive for me. I feel quite happy with the way I’m learning and developing with each new race, particularly in terms of my pace. You learn to put the disappointments to one side and use it as extra determination for the next event. So I’m ready to get stuck into the weekend here. It’s a track I know really well so we should be up to speed quite quickly and able to get a good impression of how our package works here.”

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Toro Rosso

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO F1 TEAM

Daniil Kvyat - "The Barcelona track is one I know well as I've tested there many times since I was a kid. Turn 1 is a good spot for overtakes, while Turn 3 is a long, endless corner. I like Turn 9 as it's the fastest corner here, I'd say it's my favourite of this track. The last sector is quite twisty, slow and requires a lot of technique.

I have to say that, even though we know this circuit inside out, it's not an easy one as its very set-up dependent. You need to really be able to set-up your car in a nice way and get a good compromise between high and low speed, slow and fast sections as well as deciding how you want your car to be behaving regarding oversteer and understeer… So whoever manages to do this the best will have a good race, but it's always a challenge. As a city, I really like Barcelona. I lived nearby for half a year and I really like this part of the world and Spain in general. I also think that because I speak Spanish it helps and it means people can support and talk to me, which is always nice.”

Carlos Sainz - “What stands out for me the most during the whole weekend in Spain is the amazing crowd that we have there, as they never stop cheering for the Spanish drivers, it's an incredible feeling. My favourite memory from last year is driving down the main straight after my quali lap and seeing so many happy people celebrating my P5 with me. I have to say that I was smiling during the whole of that in-lap and it's a moment I will never forget!

We know the circuit's layout very well, as we've spent many test days there. Turn 1 reminds me of my battle with Kvyat last year for P9 and finally getting past him at that point of the track. I'd say Turn 3 is quite a challenge as it's close to flat and you also have to take the wind direction into consideration a bit. I recall overtaking Hulkenberg, Raikkonen and Massa around the outside there - it's incredible to be side by side at around 260km/h, knowing that if you touch, your race ends there!

Turns 4 and 5 are corners where it's easy to front-lock. I enjoy Turn 9 as it's the fastest corner of the track and going through here during qualifying last year felt amazing! During the last sector it's important to keep the tyres alive - especially the rears - and as you approach the straight and you get to Turn 16 you always experience massive oversteer as it's close to flat. I can't wait for my home Grand Prix to get started!”

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Haas

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - HAAS F1 TEAM

Romain Grosjean - It’s certainly going to be useful to have data from the winter testing, even though the conditions, the temperature and everything are going to be very different. The tyres are different as well – we don’t have the supersofts we used in the winter. But I think it’s still going to be good. I’m not sure it’s going to help us to set up the car initially, but it will help us to double-check everything we have done and to see if we’ve been going in the right direction since the winter testing.

The advantage of having data from the winter testing, and going back a few races into the season, is that you can check if you’ve been doing a good job in going in the right direction, in terms of the setup of the car and so on. I’m very much looking forward to getting back to Barcelona and trying the updates we’ve got and the setups we’ve been using. Hopefully, we’ll get more updates and then check that we’re doing the right thing with the car.

It’s a very demanding track because you’ve got some high-speed corners, like the first sector, then you’ve got some very low-speed sections and corners, like the last sector of the track. It’s normally a good judge for the car, showing that you’re capable of having some good downforce at high speed and good mechanical grip in the low-speed turns. It’s going to be interesting for us. We know what we could have improved during the winter testing to get faster in Barcelona. Hopefully, it’s coming for the race. It would be interesting for us to check that we’ve been doing everything right and the updates we’re bringing work as expected.”

Esteban Gutierrez - “Barcelona is a track we use a lot for testing. It’s probably the track that I have done the most laps in my career. You come into the first section into turn one, focused on the entry speed and also the line, in preparation for turn two and turn three, which is crucial in order to have a good exit out of the famous and fast turn three of Barcelona. Approaching into turn four, you have a very sharp brake to turn in very quickly, carrying the speed into the corner. The exit is very long with a lot of load on the rear tyres. You arrive into turn five, it’s a bit downhill, quite a slow corner, on braking you don’t really see the entry well and, at the same time, it is very important not to miss the apex. Turn seven is very sharp. The corner has some banking, which makes it faster than what you can see from outside approaching. Then into turn nine, it’s uphill. You turn in with very small brake, and a short lift on the throttle. The exit is a bit blind, and the car usually is moving around, trying to go on power as quickly as possible and a very, very fast corner. From turn 10 onward, you have the first sector which is usually very challenging because of the tyre temperatures. You have the tyres heated up from the previous two sectors and it makes it the most important and challenging part of the track because it’s where you can gain or lose a lot of time as it is the most technical part of the track.”

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Force India

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - SAHARA FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM

Nico Hulkenberg - “When you get to Barcelona to start the European season, you start to realise just how quickly the year is passing. It’s a chance to get back into a normal routine because you don’t have so many long flights or time zone changes, so it’s a bit easier from that regard.

I love the city of Barcelona and the Spanish lifestyle in the sunshine. We’ve already spent a couple of weeks there for winter testing, but when you come back for the race everything is different: the cars have evolved, the temperatures are warmer, and you have to work hard to find the right set-up. That’s why it’s a tricky circuit because confidence counts for a lot and, if you’re not totally comfortable, your lap times really suffer. I felt pretty disappointed about what happened in Sochi. In fact, things have gone against us for the last few races. We know we should have scored more points, but it’s impossible to plan for the bad luck we’ve experienced. I’m looking forward to a weekend where everything goes to plan so that we can show our true potential.”

Sergio Perez - “The atmosphere in Barcelona is always special and for me it’s one of the best tracks of the year. I enjoy the layout because it’s a true test of your car with a bit of everything, especially long, quick corners, which all the drivers enjoy. It’s a track where you feel the physical demands, especially on your neck, but overall it’s just a great place to experience a Formula One car. The only downside is that it’s difficult to overtake, but it’s still possible with DRS on the approach to turn one, especially if the car ahead is suffering with high tyre degradation.

It was important to get back into the points in Russia. The car performed very well all weekend and I can feel the progress we’ve made since the start of the year. It was not a smooth race, but we didn’t give up and scoring two points was a good recovery. It’s been a difficult start to the year, but it feels like the momentum is changing now and the performance in Sochi was a big boost for all of us. Barcelona will be the first chance to run our updated car. It’s going to be a huge task to understand everything on Friday, but it’s always exciting to try new parts on the car.

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - McLaren

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - McLAREN HONDA FORMULA 1 TEAM

Fernando Alonso - After an eventful few races, and after a good result for us in Russia, I'm looking forward to going 'home' to Barcelona and race in my country in front of my home fans. The atmosphere there is always incredible for any Spanish driver, and I have some very special memories from my wins there in 2006 and 2013.

We're still learning a lot about our package as we visit each track, so it's useful that we already have a lot of data from testing there that we can use to understand its characteristics and how our car will react to them. Our performance in qualifying is something we're working on all the time, to give us the best chance in the race. Getting into Q3 will certainly be difficult at this track, but, with the Spanish fans behind me, that's got to be our aim. It's a fast circuit, so it's certainly demanding for both the car and driver. The power unit, too, has to work very hard with such high average speeds. As always, reliability is a priority first and foremost, but I hope that the upgrades we'll test on Friday will see us continue to push race by race, and allow us to keep fighting towards the front alongside our rivals in the midfield."

Jenson Button - "It's exciting to start the European season off the back of a positive race for the whole team in Sochi. There's definitely a feeling in the camp that we're making progress, so I'm hopeful that we can continue this momentum in Barcelona. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is not a circuit that would traditionally suit us, since it's fairly hard on both the chassis and the power units, but I feel I have a solid car underneath me, and we're putting in pretty consistent performances on a variety of circuits, even if our results don't necessarily reflect all the work that's going on back at base. We have some more new parts to test on the car again for this race, so I hope we can see another positive step in our performance over the weekend."

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Mercedes

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS FORMULA 1 TEAM

Lewis Hamilton - "It's been good to have a break after Russia. Over time you reflect on each race weekend and what you might have done differently, so you can learn from each experience and move on. I'm really proud of the guys in the garage: we've had a hard time but they're doing a fantastic job and I'm really happy with how we've been working together. Every weekend, we've got the car into a great place setup-wise – I just haven't been fully able to exploit it. So the glass is half full for me. It will be a big challenge but there's a long way to go with 17 races left and, if the last four are anything to go by, there's a lot more still to come from us. The team has been on it 24/7 since returning from Russia so I'm confident they'll get to the bottom of the problems we've been having. I know I'm still quick. I've known that since day one in testing and, when I've had clean air and a damage-free car this season, I've shown it on track. I head to Spain confident of a good weekend."

Nico Rosberg - "It's not something I could have expected – winning the first four races of the year. It's been a great start but I'm just enjoying the moment and the form I'm in, doing my best to keep it going and hoping I can carry it through to the end of the season. Sport is all about ups and downs and being mentally prepared to bounce back stronger when they come. With a season this long you have to just take things race by race. There are 425 points still up for grabs – and anything can happen yet. Next up, it's Barcelona. I got my first pole and win at this circuit last year and I'm connecting really well with the car at the moment, which is great as it gives you this awesome confidence to push the limits. So, I'm excited for the weekend and no doubt a big battle ahead."

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Spanish GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Sauber

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - SAUBER F1 TEAM

Marcus Ericsson - “The Spanish Grand Prix always kicks off Formula One’s European season. We all know the track very well from winter testing. It will be interesting to see how the C35 behaves in warmer conditions compared to the colder ones during testing in February. I am looking forward to racing there and hope we can make another step in the right direction.”

Felipe Nasr - “The Spanish Grand Prix is one milestone in the Formula One calendar. In general we and the other teams have a lot of data from the track in Barcelona, as we ran most of our test kilometres there. For the race weekend it will be important to achieve a satisfying qualifying position, because overtaking is, in general, difficult on this circuit.”

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