Top ten pictures from the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Ten of the best pictures which tell the story of the Spain Grand Prix weekend.

Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Friday practice

Last year Ferrari came to the Spanish Grand Prix looking for a leap forward with their underperforming car and found it.

McLaren arrived at this year’s race needing the same. But after a rain-affected first day of practice there was little indication of any improvement.

Sebastian Vettel, Friday practice

Sebastian Vettel drives past the GP2 field on his way into the pits.

Romain Grosjean, Saturday

After finishing on the podium in the previous race Romain Grosjean’s hopes for another top-three finish were dashed when he suffered a suspension failure early in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Leiws Hamilton, Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton should have started from pole position in Spain last year. But he was sent to the back of the grid after running out of fuel in qualifying and only managed to recover to eighth.

He did have a front row start this year, lining up behind team mate Nico Rosberg, but finished out of the points after struggling with his tyres.

Start, Spanish Grand Prix

Rosberg clung to his lead as Vettel past Hamilton – who locked his brakes – at the first corner.

Force India, Spanish Grand Prix

For the second time in four races a Force India pit stop went wrong for Adrian Sutil. A cross-threaded wheel nut meant he had to switch his engine off, and by the time he returned to the track he’d fallen well down the order.

Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, Spanish Grand Prix

Felipe Massa was unable to keep Kimi Raikonen’s Lotus behind meaning Ferrari missed out on a one-two finish.

Esteban Gutierrez, Spanish Grand Prix

Despite collecting a penalty during qualifying Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed his best race weekend of the year, narrowly missing out on a points finish.

Charles Pic, Spanish Grand Prix

Charles Pic used the revised Caterham to finish ahead of both Marussias and was right on the tail of Valtteri Bottas as the race ended.

Fernando Alonso, Spanish Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso celebrates his third win on home ground which restores some of the points he lost in Malaysia and Bahrain.

More Spanish Grand Prix pictures

Share your Spanish Grand Prix pictures and video

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Spanish Grand Prix articles

Images © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo, Pirelli/LAT, Mercedes/Hoch Zwei, Force India, Lotus/LAT, Sauber, Caterham/LAT

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

18 comments on “Top ten pictures from the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix”

  1. Great pictures as always, thanks

  2. Loved the first pic. “Reversal of fortunes”, type. Unfortunately, McLaren slapped themselves in the face by voting against in-season testing. Their correlation problems can only be solved on track, like Ferrari did to some extent last year.

    1. I wish I had a 1.8 lens :'( At least I assume it’s a 1.8 if it can have such a shallow depth of field.

      1. It’s not an f1.8, in that picture at least. The background blurring is down to a slow shutter-speed and the photographer tracking the cars. Telephoto lenses like the one used to take the photo don’t have apertures as large as f1.8, as they would be unnecessarily heavy and very hard to focus. The best telephoto lenses won’t stop down any further than f2.8.

        1. @wificats Yeah I downloaded the image and it said in the properties it was taken at F29. I knew at that point I’d misunderstoon something haha.

  3. The text under the Charles Pic…err, pic, has got me thinking: are Caterham possibly on for their first points score this year after all, considering the difficulties Williams and Sauber are finding themselves in? I think they could definitely do it in a wet race or one with high attrition…

    1. @vettel1 Maybe if they do a Vettel-esq strategy at Monaco from 2011, get in front of 11th place somehow and then block for the rest of the race.

      1. @nick-uk Heikki Kovalinen did a similar thing last year, blocking Button for most of the race and eventually finishing 13th. It’s very possible (especially if we have rain) they could slot themselves into a good track position and then use Monaco’s traditional lack of overtaking to their credit.

        1. @vettel1

          There could be a good chance for them with safety cars if they pit early maybe. If the Mercedes cars get the front row and then have no pace in the race the pack will be tightly bunched up from lap 1, even the mid field cars will be able to keep up. If someone pits very early (like lap 2 or something to guarantee clean air) and then catches back up they might be able to get track position.

          1. @nick-uk that’s a very interesting theory and I can see that happening. I do really want one of the backmarker teams (I would prefer Caterham, but either would do now honestly) to score at least one point – it’s getting to the point where I’m starting to lose faith in them!

            Maybe one could really capitalise on the new regulations in 2014…

    2. We’ve been saying that since 2010. Won’t happen, most likely.

      1. @alfie As a bearded Viggo Mortensen said in 2002: “There is always hope.” Hope can make a mountain out of a mustard seed. A clever man’s vanity is nothing compared to a fool’s hope.
        And no, that four-letter adjective wasn’t for you, @vettel1..

        1. @wsrgo it is probably hope on vain but they seem slightly better than last year (just sadly they have worse drivers by the looks of it)! Get Bianchi in their and I think he could be mounting genuine challenges to the midfield on a regular basis…

  4. Wasn’t there another delamination? I forget who it was. That picture should have been included, as it would have told a thousand words.

  5. Something I’ve been wondering for awhile is what do the numbers on the pitbox tape (50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50) represent?

    1. How far from the sweet spot the driver stopped? Can help to understand pit efficiency

  6. I loved the race. Alonso was superb. Romain suspension failure was scary, it’s a nightmare to drive like that as the car will have a mind of it’s own. He did it well to nurse it back to pits. He could have finished within top 5 but Lotus needs to up their game even if they want to come 2nd in teh WCC.

    Poor Sutil.
    I’ll still say Rosberg is not Championship material. Hamilton, obviously is, but his disappointment is understandable. “Guys I couldn’t go slower” soon after “now the Williams is passing me.” Lol.

    1. I was a bit unhappy with hamiltons complaining, didn’t expect him to carry on so much, obviously looking at what Rosberg did on three stops, Hamilton either severely underperformed, or got the set up totally wrong, either way he has no one to blame but himself.

Comments are closed.