The Formula One teams returned to Europe for the FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2017 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which was used for the pre-season testing. Following a win in Russia, Valtteri Bottas needed a second win to ensure that he doesn’t become the number two driver at Mercedes, while a race victory for Sebastian Vettel would strengthen his World Drivers’ Championship lead.
The two Mercedes drivers clearly had the edge going into the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, leading the first free practice session. The duo were evenly matched, with just 0.029 seconds separating the pair. Meanwhile, Ferrari struggled to stay within one second to the session leader. The session was not 100% to plan for Sebastian Vettel, losing time to a mechanical failure early in the session. Red Bull were able to close the gap to their rivals at the front, despite a session filled with breaks in the garage for various work to be performed. The crowd was left disappointed, after the home favourite broke down after only a few corners. A frustrated Fernando Alonso left the circuit to play a game of tennis with his trainer.
Mercedes also led the second practice session of the weekend, with the gap between the two increasing slightly to just under a tenth of a second. Ferrari were able to apply some pressure to the Silver Arrows in front, closing the gap to less than half of a second. The session was not as smooth as Ferrari had hoped, with Kimi Räikkönen being forced to pit due to a detected engine issue developing on the car. Red Bull were also able to come within a second to the leading Mercedes driver’s time. High winds caused a few drivers to venture off of the circuit, but there were no major incidents during the session.
With Mercedes having led both of the sessions of Friday, Ferrari set out on Saturday morning to take over the top spot and were successful. Kimi Räikkönen led his teammate by over 0.2 seconds. Roughly a second was Ferrari’s gap to both Mercedes and Red Bull. The Mercedes team discovered a water leak in the power unit while performing repairs for an electrical issue on Valtteri Bottas’ car. The leak forced the team to fit the previously used power unit for the session and limited Bottas’ laps.
Things were not looking good at the start of qualifying, as Vettel’s team also discovered a water leak at the end of the morning session. During his first laps on the circuit, the team had instructed him to stop on the track, but he ignored the order and subsequently set the fastest lap. In Q2, Bottas ruined his hot lap, running wide in the first corner. This allowed Lewis Hamilton to set the fastest lap of the session. In Q3, Hamilton was able to maintain his performance, earning the pole position, with Vettel, Bottas and Räikkönen behind. However, the highlight of the session was Alonso’s P7 grid position following the team’s reliability issues on Friday.
On Sunday, the Mercedes cars got away fastest of the car in front, but the Ferrari drivers were able to easily accelerate faster. Vettel took the lead from Hamilton, while Bottas was under pressure from Räikkönen. In turn one, Räikkönen went to the outside of Bottas, as the Mercedes driver braked cautiously. Max Verstappen was on the outside of Räikkönen and the Ferrari was just stuck in the middle. Räikkönen and Bottas made contact in turn one, causing Räikkönen to collide with Verstappen on the outside. Both the Ferrari and Red Bull were out with suspension damage. A little while later, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso made contact, pushing Alonso into the gravel. Massa received a puncture. Ferrari was the first of the leaders to pit to cover off the potential undercut from Mercedes, but he unfortunately ended up behind Red Bull and Williams. It only took Vettel a single lap to dispose of Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton waited a bit longer to come into the pits than he would have liked to, eventually pitting for the medium tyres, trying for a two stop strategy compared to the three stop strategy used by Ferrari.
While Hamilton pitted, Vettel had caught up to the other Mercedes. It was vital for Vettel’s race victory to get by Bottas, but he was having issues getting by. It took a few laps to get by with a spectacular overtake into turn one. Vettel motioned to the inside, causing Bottas to go inside for the block, but Vettel motioned back to the outside before diving back to the inside. Vettel’s car just grazed the grass, but he got by without an issue. A virtual safety car was deployed for a collision between Stoffel Vandoorne and Felipe Massa in turn one just after the halfway point in the race. With DRS, Massa moved to the inside of Vandoorne heading into turn one, but Vandoorne turned into the corner as if Massa wasn’t there. The duo collided, causing Vandoorne to stop the car with damaged suspension. Mercedes mechanics appeared in the pit lane for Hamilton to make another pit stop during the virtual safety car, although he delayed the pit stop for another lap, pitting at the very end of the virtual safety car. Vettel pitted after the virtual safety car, coming out alongside Hamilton. In turn one, Hamilton was on the outside of the corner, but Vettel made minor contact with the Mercedes, causing Hamilton to go wide. When going off of the track, Hamilton failed to go to the left side of the bollard in the runoff area, leading some people to worry that Hamilton would be penalized. Shortly after that incident, Bottas’ race came to an end because of an engine failure on the previously used engine. With the fresher tyres, Hamilton was faster than the Ferrari of Vettel. With DRS on the main straight, Hamilton tried multiple times to overtake, but was not quite able to get the job done. Eventually, he was able to get by quite easily, but began complaining about the tyres overheating in the laps that followed.
Things were looking positive for Sauber, as Pascal Wehrlein was running well in the points at P7. However, the stewards handed the driver a five second penalty for failing to stay to the right of the bollard at the pit lane. As the race came to a close, Ferrari were thinking about performing another pit stop to battle the Mercedes, causing Hamilton to react and push the car a bit harder. With not enough laps remaining, the possibility of another Ferrari pit stop evaporated. Vettel was able to close the gap to around three seconds, but he under braked behind Massa and that cost him a lot of time and almost caused a collision. The incident slowed Massa a bit, allowing Alonso to sneak past and then also overtake Lance Stroll on the main straight. Despite an effort from Vettel, Hamilton was able to maintain his lead and take the race victory, decreasing the World Drivers’ Championship gap to six points.
The teams will head to the historic streets of Monaco for the FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2017 on the weekend of May 28. On that same weekend, just a few hours after the race in Monaco, fans will get to watch Fernando Alonso take on the challenge of the Indianapolis 500.
