2011 Spanish GP – Race Analysis

Sebastian Vettel is in the midst of a humongous purple patch. Four pole positions this year, and now four wins and a second place. Doubts about Sebastian’s racecraft, especially when he was not on pole have been blown away. This was by far and away the hardest win of Vettel’s career, and no doubt, the most well deserved.  The Circuit de Catalunya’s 10 year record of the pole sitter winning the race fell by the wayside as the world champion emerged victorious after a dramatic Spanish GP. The young lad had to push his car to the limit for over 40 laps to defend his lead once jumped everyone at the pitstops.

2011 Spanish GP – Race Results

Sebastian Vettel won an absolutely scintillating Spanish GP ahead of the hard charging McLaren of Lewis Hamilton as the Pirelli tyres, DRS and KERS combined together to produce a cliffhanger of a race at the Catalunya circuit. The two cars fought for the lead in the final stint, and were nose-to-tail every inch of the way till the chequered flag fell. Jenson Button, who started fifth, uniquely ran a three-stop strategy to finish third, while Mark Webber, starting on pole position, lost two places at the start when he spent too much time defending from Vettel and was stuck behind Alonso for a long time.

2011 Spanish GP – Qualifying Analysis

Mark Webber finally derailed the Vettel express today, ending the reigning world champion’s stranglehold on qualifying and putting himself in the best possible position to win the race tomorrow. The Red Bulls went on a rampage in the qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix, with a massive one second advantage to the McLarens, and a two second gap to the other teams. They were comfortably through into Q2 despite using only the harder tyres, and flexed their muscle in Q3 taking away what little hope their rivals had of beating them this weekend.

2011 Spanish GP – Qualifying Results

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel decimated the competition and blazed their way to a 1-2 in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix today. They were miles ahead of the opposition – the margin to the McLarens was one full second and the others were almost 2 seconds adrift. It also means that Sebastian Vettel’s domination of qualifying came to an end, with his team mate bettering his 1:21.181 lap with a blinding 1:20.981 time that put him on pole for the first time this season.

2011 Spanish GP – Saturday Practice Results

Saturday practice at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain gave an indication of just how far ahead Red Bull are in terms of performance. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were much quicker than their rivals expected, lapping in the 1:21s while others barely made the 1:23s mark. And once again, Sebastian is psychologically pounding his team mate into the ground. He did not set a lap time for most of the session, aborting a couple of runs, and completed his first timed lap just after the chequered flag came out, but that was enough to beat Webber’s time by 0.084 seconds. It wasn’t just a lap; it was a statement. A statement to Webber that he, Sebastian, cannot be beaten.

2011 Spanish GP – Friday Practice 2 Results

Mark Webber topped the afternoon session of practice for the Spanish GP today, picking up where he left off in FP1. This time, Lewis Hamilton split the two Red Bulls with a lap that was just 0.039s off the Aussie’s time, strongly indicating that the McLaren upgrades are working quite well. For most of the session, it appeared to be the Vettel show, with a lap that was over a second faster than anyone else at that time. But once the other drivers also bolted on the soft tyres, it appeared to evenly matched.

2011 Spanish GP – Friday Practice 1 Results

Red Bull Racing made a perfect start to their Spanish GP weekend with their cars putting in the fastest lap times in the first free practice session here at the Circuit de Catalunya. Surprisingly, it was the RB7 of Mark Webber which topped the timesheets, rather than his team mate who has been unbeatable this season so far. This is the track in which Webber finally turned the tables on Sebastian last season, and maybe he’s found his ‘zone’ again. But the reigning world champion was over a second adrift, which really is impossible on pure pace.