2013 Spanish Grand Prix grid

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

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Row 11. Nico Rosberg 1’20.718
Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton 1’20.972
Mercedes
Row 23. Sebastian Vettel 1’21.054
Red Bull
4. Kimi Raikkonen 1’21.177
Lotus
Row 35. Fernando Alonso 1’21.218
Ferrari
6. Romain Grosjean 1’21.308
Lotus
Row 47. Mark Webber 1’21.57
Red Bull
8. Sergio Perez 1’22.069
McLaren
Row 59. Felipe Massa* 1’21.219
Ferrari
10. Paul di Resta 1’22.233
Force India
Row 611. Daniel Ricciardo 1’22.127
Toro Rosso
12. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’22.166
Toro Rosso
Row 713. Adrian Sutil 1’22.346
Force India
14. Jenson Button 1’22.355
McLaren
Row 815. Nico Hulkenberg 1’22.389
Sauber
16. Valtteri Bottas 1’23.26
Williams
Row 917. Pastor Maldonado 1’23.318
Williams
18. Giedo van der Garde 1’24.661
Caterham
Row 1019. Esteban Gutierrez* 1’22.793
Sauber
20. Jules Bianchi 1’24.713
Marussia
Row 1121. Max Chilton 1’24.996
Marussia
22. Charles Pic 1’25.07
Caterham

*Three-place penalty for impeding Mark Webber
*Three-place penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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67 comments on “2013 Spanish Grand Prix grid”

  1. Mercedes have great chances to finish in top10 tomorrow!

  2. doubt we’ll see either of the mercedes on the podium, they’re only quick over one lap and lack a lot of race pace!

    1. From what I’ve seen and heard from long runs in free practice, they have improved their race pace significantly.

      1. They were experiencing similar deg to Red Bull yesterday, not that it means to say they will tomorrow.
        GRO long run had virtually zero deg.

      2. @kingshark I still think they were about 4 tenths slower per lap than Red Bull on average on Friday at least…

  3. the Q2 lap from Hamilton was really stunning but never repeat in Q3…What was that? sort of magic window? Whatever, Mercedes took front rows. Still their tyre management is in doubt so I would consider Vettel, Kimi, Alonso as contenders.

    1. you contradict yourself ;) he pretty much DID repeate his Q2 lap, since the one in Q3 was only 0.03 quicker

    2. what?? Hamilton was quicker in Q3 than Q2..

    3. Oh, Sorry to all, my mistake :D

      1. @eggry I get where you’re coming from – he didn’t really find much of an improvement restive to everybody else ;)

  4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    11th May 2013, 14:08

    Perez beat Button Ooooooooooh!!! something happened? I couldn’t see the quali :(

    1. Traverse (@)
      11th May 2013, 14:09

      Perez showed Mr mediocre cry baby Button how it’s done. :)

      1. He really did put in a mediocre performance. And he cried today too.

    2. LATG (@lotus-grosjean)
      11th May 2013, 14:10

      Button a bit lock up into turn 10

      1. Perez was 7 tenths faster in Q2, I’m pretty sure that cannot be all one lock-up. ;-)

        1. LATG (@lotus-grosjean)
          11th May 2013, 14:16

          True. But the only shot I saw of his lap was that lockup so :D

    3. Hang on, I thought Pérez was supposed to be completely incapable of qualifying well and was just there to give McLaren someone that’ll get out of Jenson’s way. Huh.

    4. button should copy perez set up ….must be the balance of his car

  5. Mercedes just getting better and better. Wouldn’t be surprised if they manage to get both their cars in the podium tomorrow. GO LEWIS!!!

    1. Traverse (@)
      11th May 2013, 14:11

      Agreed, a fantastic performance from Mercedes. Hopefully they’ve improved their race pace. *fingers crossed*

      1. I’m sorry, but how is this a fantastic performance? It’s the 3rd pole for Merc so far this season and we’ve only at race 5.

        If they actually manage to not lose 3-6 places during the race as has been the norm, then that would be an impressive performance.

        1. Traverse (@)
          11th May 2013, 17:20

          @nick101
          I would say 3 pole positions out of 5 races is pretty fantastic, especially when you consider how poor Merc were last year. There race pace isn’t quite there (yet) but they’ve definitely made significant progress.

          1. Like I said, which you don’t seem to have quite picked up on, they have had 2 other pole positions so far this season which have translated into exactly zero wins.

            How you can conclude that they have made significant progress based simply on the fact that they have achieved another pole position is quite beyond me.

            As I also said, if they get through tomorrows race without losing between 3-6 positions, then we can assume they’ve made some progress. Until then, all they have to cheer about is the Saturday afternoon glory – sadly not where you win any points and hardly significant in this day and age of F1.

          2. @nick101: What he means is the quali performance to which I agree.

  6. Watch out for Hamilton vs Vettel at race start, should be pretty interesting first few laps.

  7. I really didnt see the Mercedes front row lockout coming… wow.

    1. @njoydesign, though they are the team I pull for…I too didn’t put them in my prediction (bar Hamilton to finish P4), but instead went with Ferrari for front row. We should have known better thanks to the past 3 qualifying alone…oh dear, wont make that mistake at Monaco.

  8. Alonso underqualifies the car yet again, and this time, Massa follows suit. As for Webber, the less said, the better…

    1. ohh Yeah…. even if he was on pole you would probably say the same :P … I thought he got 5th because MW and RG qualified poorly else he would’ve been 7th..

    2. I dis agree about Ferrari and Alonso he did what he could. Mark was Under perfomed in Q3 and Q2 in my View but he can make up that in race with Better TIRE MANAGEMENT

    3. Have you missed the previous four races? The Ferrari isn’t considered a particularly strong qualifying car – it’s certainly not bad, but it’s not phenomenal. Even a qualifying specialist like Hamilton would probably only get an extra tenth or so out of it at most during Qualifying; which in this case would put Alonso 4th on the dirtier side of the grid. 5th and 6th is a decent effort given the qualifying calibre of the cars and drivers ahead.

    4. I thought the Ferrari was looking to be on par with the Red Bull personally, so the fact Vettel beat him could be interpreted as Alonso therefore having under-performed.

      1. I thought Redbull and Lotus were gonna be the quickest in qualifying… but Mercs have locked out the front row… maybe Vettel and Kimi underperformed… :P
        Just being sarcastic…
        Seriously though I dont think Alonso under performed in qualifying… Ferrari were not fast enough on a single lap respective to Merc, Redbull and Lotus… IMO webber and Romain both had poor Q3 laps and that gave Alonso a couple of places on the grid …
        That was a mighty lap from Nico considering he was 2 tenths faster than hamilton… and Vettel did pretty well to qualify ahead of Kimi….
        Looking forward to the race, I have a feeling that it will be between Vettel and Alonso for the win and Kimi and Hamilton for 3rd…

    5. Here’s the bang. The combined best of the Ferraris’ are actually better for both Alonso and Massa. Strange. Could have been caught out by the sudden drop in track temp in Q3.

    6. Yeah right. He underaualified again and yet beat his trammate once again. And yes he underaualified massively once again even though we know that his setup is always for the race and thinking of race pace while other drivers in front of him are going for the glory and the points on Saturday .

  9. Disappointing show from Ferrari.. Was expecting them to be higher up the grid.

  10. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    11th May 2013, 14:13

    1:20.7 with four races worth of R and D, plus full commitment and 0.6 seconds lower than Hamilton in testing. I simply don’t understand that.

    1. It’ll probably be tyres?

      Softer (faster) tyre used in testing?

    2. This has been going on for years now. There must be many reasons, colder air gives more engine power is sure to be one of them. The tire also should be more rubbered in by the end of testing, and maybe the cold affects the tire deg but not the one lap performance.

    3. The conditions may have been more favourable then, and in testing the track would probably have been far more rubbered in if Hamilton set his time near the end of a test.

    4. @william-brierty softer compounds, a more rubbered-in track and colder temperatures can pretty much explain away that deficit. The engines would be workit better, the tyres better and I’m not sure but were they using DRS more often?

      1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        12th May 2013, 10:04

        Yeah, that’s it. In testing there were no DRS restrictions, and I think Hamilton set that on the softs. Throw in a bit of extra engine power and it all makes sense, and actually makes 0.6 seconds look relatively small. Thanks, Max.

        1. @william-brierty In testing the teams agreed to only use DRS in the areas where they would be allowed to during the race, i.e. the pit straight and the straight between Campsa and La Caixa.

  11. Very impressive from Rosberg. As a Hamilton fan, I’m finding Rosberg’s speed a little worrying!

    1. Hamilton compromised his Q3 by doing one run, but then having an extra set of new options for the race.

  12. I wonder, how long until FRIC gets banned? :P

    Disclaimer: I’m not saying this as some sort of sore loser Vettel fan, it’s just that I have no faith whatsoever in the FIA after they banned Lotus’ reactive ride height system.

  13. Balaji (@armchair-racer)
    11th May 2013, 14:27

    Lotus or Vettel for the win tomorrow. Really disappointing from the Ferrari’s. Perez once again brillant and if I was Button I would be one worried man.

    1. Why? Because his team mate has out qualified him once in 5 races? Yeah, I’m sure he’s shaking in his boots!

      1. @nick101
        No, because Button has to prevent himself from being beaten over the remaining races by a newbie to the Mclaren team. Qualifying mid-pack (like Spain last year in fact) wasn’t a good start.

  14. I’d really love to see Rosberg winning tomorrow. He’s not my fauvorite driver, but I think he deserves a good result. Beating Hamilton like that in qualifying was impressive. I just watched the comparison between the two, Rosberg was flying compared to his team mate.

    1. Not disagreeing with you but after Bahrain it seems like Rosberg is chasing a more qualifying-centric setup in general than Hamilton, which is one of the things that was pointed out in the Sky coverage comparison, he loves that loaded up, pointy front end.

      I really hope though that both drivers do well in the race. I am more of a Hamilton fan but you can’t really argue with Rosberg’s qualifying recently can you?

  15. Drivers of the day for me : Nico Rosberg , Sergio Perez.
    Honorable Mention :Sebastian Vettel for his Q3 lap to keep him self in contention/

    1. @harsha agreed, and disappointment of the day for me is Perez’s teammate: Button just wasn’t at one with the car at all, and it showed in his ultimate lap time. It’s especially disappointing considering he had been in the top 10 in every previous race of the season.

  16. Looking at that, I have a feeling Lotus might try a 2-stop like in Australia, where the other top teams may be restricted to a 3-stop…

  17. Great lap by Rosberg, and also Vettel putting in a good Q3 lap. Hamiltons’ lap was a bit scrappy, and Webber.. well he’s supposted to be a great qualifier at Catalunya, but he’s nowhere, half a second of his team-mate. I expected Alonso a bit higher up, the Ferrari has been quick all weekend.
    For tomorrow i expect a fierce battle between Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso (as usual, 2013). Raikkonen probably wins.

  18. Does anyone know if someone ran his best Q3 time on hards and/or used tyres?

  19. What? Van der Garde was actually the best backmarker?

    1. He’s no Senna, but he isn’t as terrible as some of the motorsport media make him out to be. He just took too long to get into F1.

      1. Yeah I didn’t really mean to claim he’s terrible, I was just surprised he suddenly beat Pic who was over a second better in Bahrain 3 weeks ago. Now let’s wait and see what he can do tomorrow.

  20. Ted Kravitz on Twitter.

    Both Massa and Gutierrez get 3 place grid penalties for impeding in qualy.

    1. Is there any more to come

  21. Lewis had more pace under him as the Q3 lap was qite scrappy and was quite lucky not to end up on the 2nd row. I was wondering why the team left his run till the dying minutes of Q3, thereby putting him under unnecessary pressure – He makes mistakes when he is under pressure. He should have done like Rosberg – come out early, then go again.

    1. Hamilton only had 1 set of new tyres for Q3, Rosberg had 2. He used his first set to get his ‘eye’ in.

      Hamilton didnt make a mistake under pressure, if you look at the sector times, Rosberg was less than a tenth up in each one.

      1. Yet both of Rosberg’s laps were good enough for pole.

  22. I like how close the Mid-field is, Toro Rosso seem to have improved to the level of Force India/Mclaren, and Sauber seem to have done the same.

  23. Well done ROSBERG! Perfect lap.

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