2014 Spanish Grand Prix grid

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

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Row 11. Lewis Hamilton 1’25.232
Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg 1’25.400
Mercedes
Row 23. Daniel Ricciardo 1’26.285
Red Bull
4. Valtteri Bottas 1’26.632
Williams
Row 35. Romain Grosjean 1’26.960
Lotus
6. Kimi Raikkonen 1’27.104
Ferrari
Row 47. Fernando Alonso 1’27.140
Ferrari
8. Jenson Button 1’27.335
McLaren
Row 59. Felipe Massa 1’27.402
Williams
10. Nico Hulkenberg 1’27.685
Force India
Row 611. Sergio Perez 1’28.002
Force India
12. Daniil Kvyat 1’28.039
Toro Rosso
Row 713. Esteban Gutierrez 1’28.280
Sauber
14. Kevin Magnussen No time
McLaren
Row 815. Sebastian Vettel* No time
Red Bull
16. Adrian Sutil 1’28.563
Sauber
Row 917. Max Chilton 1’29.586
Marussia
18. Jules Bianchi 1’30.177
Marussia
Row 1019. Marcus Ericsson 1’30.312
Caterham
20. Kamui Kobayashi 1’30.375
Caterham
Row 1121. Pastor Maldonado** No time
Lotus
22. Jean-Eric Vergne*** No time
Toro Rosso

*Five-place penalty for gearbox change
**Did not set a time in Q1 but granted permission to start by the stewards as he set representative times during practice
***Ten-place penalty for unsafe release

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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88 comments on “2014 Spanish Grand Prix grid”

  1. Another weekend, another Mercedes 1/2. Wake me up for next season.

    1. Why so cynical? Unlike last year there appears to be an actual fight for the drivers championship.

      1. @davef1 look at @rcorporon avatar that usually gives a bit of insight to the mentality of this comments. I’m guess if it were RBR it might not be such a big deal, I’m guessing he doesn’t like to see a certain someone broke down after leaving pits with no drive to challenge for spot in Q3

        1. I don’t like to see any race where a team can tell the driver “hey, can you expand the gap to 5 seconds” as any kind of fun to watch.

          Seb won a lot of races but I don’t recall RBR ever dominating as much as Merc is this season.

      2. @davef1, @magillagorilla So you guys still believe Rosberg is a genuine challenger for the title? Have you guys by any chance also missed the last 4 races?

        1. Four races in and he’s still leading the WDC. He’s methodical, and it takes just one mistake from Lewis to tip the balance, so yeah, Nico definitely has the chance.

          1. Really? Methodical? You mean Rosberg disabled Hamilton his car in Melbourne than?

        2. @ardenflo unlike Webber Ros has shown he can beat Hamilton. Im a huge Ham fan and i wish Ros was even slower but he is still not like Webber gap. I mean look at Webber in 2011 lol, he won 1 race which was gifted to him in a dminant car. Also i think Ros has more luck than Ham look at last race Ham would have been out the race with that contact.

          1. When has ROS beat HAM on track racing wheel to wheel? Every win he has was when Hamilton had problems.

            Had it not been for Hamilton’s bad luck in Aus, he would be way up in the championship.

          2. @lancer033 Let us leave these dreamers alone that want to think Hamilton his dominance is not the same as Vettel his dominance just so they can justify for themselves Hamilton is better than Vettel.

            There will never be a fight between the two. I even dare say Hamilton has a bigger gap to Rosberg than Vettel had to Webber is most seasons they were together. For example Webber did took pole in 2011 in the Spanish Grand Prix.

        3. @ardenflo Yes I do believe Rosberg can challenge for the title. Maybe overall he’s not as good a driver as Hamilton but he’s proved he’s able to go toe-to-toe with Lewis in a straight fight.

          1. @davef1 When was that? What race?

          2. @ardenflo Bahrain, you know the race where Rosberg took pole and gave Hamilton a good fight for the lead. If you don’t like F1 by all means stop watching but please stop pretending as if the championship has already been decided.

          3. @davef1 Oh that race where Rosberg only got close thanks to the SC? Where he was on options and Ham on primes and still could not get past?

        4. @ardenflo He proved he could go toe to toe with Lewis in Bahrain, so it seems quite bizarre you’d question us watching the last four races. And then muck about as if he hasn’t at all fought back at least once. It’s still early and anything can happen and I’m a Lewis fan saying this.

          You speaking out of spite because this isn’t some 2012 with 6 or 7 different winners each race, and then perpetuating cynicism that it’s all over does what exactly? If you have an issue with the goings of F1 while others don’t, by all means we wont stop you from not watching and letting the rest of us get on.

          1. @magillagorilla Ok he fought in Bahrein. But that fight ONLY began because he could get behind him under de SC. Then he had no fuel to save, better tyres and DRS and still could not pass. He is a fine guy and a good driver but just not on Lewis his level. It is not the challenger people hold him for. Webber wasn’t for Vettel either but that is not the point.

          2. @ardenflo they fought at the start and the end of the race, and Nico did pass Lewis and then Lewis got him back and did a better job of defending. Also having new tires under SC does little when they aren’t getting put up to temp to make them as strong as somewhat worn tires.

            Also not sure what relevance him being a good guy has to do with this, I couldn’t care less if he was a good guy or one that had an attitude like Di Resta combined with Jacques Villenueve. the fact is unlike Vettel, Lewis can’t coast or keep his guard down and that makes Lewis a better and faster driver. The point that you’ve severely missed and cant say about Webber outside of say 2009 and 10.

          3. @magillagorilla and that is what I’m saying isn’t true. Rosberg isn’t pushing him. He is doing his best and Hamilton is doing his normal which is plenty to beat Rosberg.

            Remember Nico had options in BAH whilst Hamilton had primes…

      3. yes guys, we’re going to see a huge battle for the title . nico is much better than webber and he is able to challenge Hamilton. yes , obviously lewis is faster than him on qualifications but this mean nothing cause nico will start always p2 with this dominant merceders and in the race everything can happen

      4. You’re kidding yourself if you think Nico will challenge for the title. Ham had his break down and that is the only reason he isn’t leading the WDC yet.

        My prediction: Ham wins tomorrow by a gap of at least 5 seconds.

        1. not sayng nico is going to win tomorrow but just saying to become wc you need continuity through all of the season and nico is proving is a reliable driver and getting out the best of his car.

    2. lol you do make me laugh think how we felt last year get used to it pal.

    3. Your avatar suggests that having one team dominating isn’t a problem. It’s just which team ;-)

      1. Show me where I’ve ever said I enjoy any team dominating F1.

    4. @rcorporon Unlucky dude, now you know what it felt like for myself and many others in 2011 and for most of 2013. Get over it! Only this time with Mercedes way out in front we’re going to see epic battle’s between Rosberg and Hamilton. What’s not to like about that?

      1. @insilico

        Aside from Bahrain when have we seen Ham and Nico battling it out at the front?

    5. Unlike Red Bull at least Mercedes lets their drivers race. If RB would be this dominant it would be an absolute borefest but with Mercedes we might have a great battle between their drivers like it happened in Bahrain, IMO one of the greatest races in years!

      1. Lame excuse. RB had a history between the two drivers. As soon as one of the Merc hits the other one off we’ll see orders soon enough.

        1. Yeah well when an over zealous driver of 21 years of age joins Merc, then sure.

          1. Remember Malaysia last year ‘at least Mercedes let’s it’s drivers race’… They will use orders as discreet as they can but they will be present sooner than you’d think.

          2. @ardenflo unless you have something other than a past time with a team under the helm of a different leader, you really don’t have much to stand on. They have let their drivers race and if they do use orders by all means show me and try to prove me wrong. However, using a time table just to fit your moot point isn’t really going to prove anything.

          3. @magillagorilla Trust me, every team will use them if they see they are needed. Maybe they have seen the commercial advantage of not using them now but when they see things are getting hot I have no doubt they will use them. I’d love to be wrong. But for either of us to be right first Rosberg must effectively challenge Hamilton, which brings us to our other discussion. :)

    6. massa to win tomorrow

  2. 2010 pole: 1:19.995
    2014 pole: 1:25:232

    Well done formula 1.

  3. Provided Grosjean finishes the race in a reasonable points position and there is no craziness tomorrow, my driver of the weekend will have to go to him.

  4. Bottas and Grosjean the MVP of Quali, in my opinion.
    Fantastic performances from both of them!

  5. Well done Lewis! Yeah! Bring it on for a 4th consecutive win!!

  6. I’m still okay… nice fight for the championship and pretty tight behind. This season is okay with me. It reminds me of some older seasons, hope Nico can give Lewis something to work with tomorrow.

  7. Ferrari 2 seconds off pace, that is so much, it’s hard to believe.
    Kimi just needs a fist in sight to be faster than Alonso.

    1. i think Alonso will somehow get his way past Kimi by the first turn

      1. He’s on the clean side… But Massa is just behind …

    2. Ferrari being a factory team with a large budget, in house engine and everything should be ashamed. Again.

      It’s almost pathetic how they never manage to build a good car. And they even screwed on the engine too. The champs must be thinking “at least i’m being well paid”. Cuz everything else is just a big waste of time for two guys on the twilight of their careers.

  8. Caterham and Marussia were both slower than the top cars in GP2.

    1. @dysthanasiac saw that and became quite disappointed.

  9. Lewis on his way to second title !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. don’t get too much exited, the stupid double points rules is still valid even if he manage to win the next 10 races and Nico still 2nd he will still have a chance for the championship in the final round. Roseberg can bounce back any time, we have seen it already Lewis with 3 consecutive wins is still behind Nico in the WDC standing because of his DNF

      1. I wish luck should favor most deserving one !!

        1. Perhaps it does, what do we know, perhaps Lewis stepped on too many spiders and swore at an old lady once :-).

      2. And in your head you think that all DNF in the Mercedes team will only come from Lewis side of the garage huh!

    2. He can´t win it really though, as it was pretty much already gifted. He can only loose it, which would be quite disastrous.

      1. By this definition at least 3 of SV’s titles were “gifted” and how many of Schumi’s? Any time a driver has a dominant car, they’re “gifted” the championship? Not sure I buy that.

        I’m no Vettel fan, but I have to admire the way he adapted his driving style to the EBD better than anyone else.

        Likewise I have to admire Schumi’s work ethic during his years at Ferrari…yes he had unlimited testing and got input to the tyres, but he turned the tables in his favour using the rules he had.

        “gifted”? I think not. You have to work for your titles.

        1. By this definition at least 3 of SV’s titles were “gifted”

          Doubt so. Even if everyone is repeating Red Bull were dominant, it´s not clear that was true. Take Vettel away and replace with a Webber-clone, it would have been no driver and only one constructor´s championship. Now if you would take away Lewis from this seasons Merc and replace him with a Rosberg- (or Webber-) -clone, it would still be both championships with quite a margin.

          I don´t want to talk about Schumi until he wakes up, though, as I don´t want to sound disrespectful.

  10. What a psychological blow that was from Lewis Hamilton to Nico Roseberg .Lewis was struggling and then suddenly he got the pole and by what a margin, Mercedes has already said that the psychologist is only supervising the team members not the drivers !!!!!! Just a dry shake hand between the 2 after the qualifying.
    Red Bull confirmed as the benchmark in terms of downforce, even Lotus has made progress. Ferrari another disaster what an absolute blow for the tifosi to see a Lotus that struggles to pay their financial commitments and with the Renault PU mounted behind in front of the 2 Ferrari driven by both Kimi & Fernando now wonder why the grandstand are empty. Even though Kimi’s lap was stunning he used all his rally skills, the car was over steering in the last corner before even he began his flying lap

    1. @tifosi1989 what makes you say that RB are the downforce benchmark? I’m not arguing, I just didn’t see anything through quali that suggested they were miles ahead of Merc (or even just a little bit ahead).

      1. @tifoso1989 (sorry, fat fingers!!)

      2. Just an opinion, they’re still down on power compared to Mercedes, Horner said yesterday that the upgrades have worked like expected and Renault said that they will not run near the 100% of their full potential (which is still inferior to Mercedes ) until Canada

    2. And clearly it is Red Bull fault as why are Torro Rosso so quick with a Ren engine

    3. Graham (@guitargraham)
      10th May 2014, 14:44

      I’m shocked by how much of a handful the Ferrari is to drive. it seemed to be all over the place and on the verge of disaster throughout the lap. its only the top notch skills of their drivers that’s keeping the car on the road and Barcelona is not the place you want to have handling issues. lots of work to do in Italy

      1. Very true. It was simply lacking in traction on all exit of corners!

      2. The car seem to have a conceptual defect (what do you expect from Tombazis, Fry …), Ferrari didn’t capitalize on their innovative cooling system, strangely the very small sidepods are the cause of Ferrari’s lack of top speed and traction !!! It reminds me with Sauber last year when it was super compact but the team struggled at the star of season, the C32 came alive only in the second half of the season when all the rear of the car was revised. Ferrari F14T B will come maybe in Canada or Silverstone, i’m not expecting miracles because of the deficit in terms of power compared to Mercedes but that will be interesting to see because it will be the first time James Allison will have his input on the design since he has joined the team

        1. Its a FIAT B model, thats why;-) Even Ferrari’s Fans realized that before the season began, as they named it.

  11. My rate the race prediction for tomorrow: 5/10. It’s going to be a dull one folks. Rosberg just doesn’t have that extra to take the fight to Hamilton. May be I did have overrate Rosberg after all. I so wish Alonso or Vettel were in that other Merc.

  12. Chandan Pandey
    10th May 2014, 14:26

    good to see RAI at 6th…

  13. The Mercedes are so far ahead that it’s embarrassing, unlike the Brawn double diffuser domination, there isn’t one thing that stands out, just a much better package and I don’t see anyone catching up this year and possibly next

    1. Alex McFarlane
      10th May 2014, 14:39

      I dunno, I think by next season everyone will know what makes/made the Merc power unit tick and will develop their own accordingly. Obviously now that the engines are homologated there’s not much that Renault and Ferrari can do except try and make the most of what they’ve got.

      I don’t envisage any major rules changes for next season apart from the noses maybe, so while this season is a grin and bear it for non-Merc fans, I think next year could be quite competitive.

  14. @Tifoso1989

    Red Bull confirmed as the benchmark in terms of downforce,

    How is this so? Merc were fastest in ALL sectors through ALL the practice sessions. This season so far, Mercedes seems to be the benchmark in ALL areas. People only want to think they have an engine advantage as it makes the “unfair” domination argument easier to trot out!

    1. I agree they are clearly close though in downforce that we cant dispute but i think it is because they run too much wing look at Torro Rosso speedtrap.

    2. @kbdavies

      People only want to think they have an engine advantage as it makes the “unfair” domination argument easier to trot out!

      How much time do you spend analyzing my comment and reading my mind to get out with such a silly statement, i didn’t say anything about Mercedes and their domination i was just giving an opinion and if you want to know my opinion then well done and fair play for who made the most out from the 2014 regulations

      1. I don’t think his comment was directed only at you.

        There is a consensus that the only advantage Mercedes has over Redbull is the engine power, and we can’t confirm if that is true. The crucial advantage may come from the engine, but the engine is not only about power. We know what kind of a aerodynamic difference the tight packaging can make, something that the other Mercedes teams are still lacking.

  15. That is another important message that Hamilton has sent to Rosberg, and from Rosberg’s demeanor before the official top 3 photo I think Rosberg knows it. Hamilton is in sublime form at the moment, Rosberg is going to have to dig so deep to get the better of him.

  16. Never saw this track limiting rear grip, not to mention that the degradation is small. I think we can clearly see who enjoys slippy hot conditions. Ferrari and FI can’t heat up the tyres and can’t enjoy their usual benefits on tyre preservation therefore I can’t see them improving that much on the race, at least their competition is error prone, in Lotus and Williams. The rest of the grid should stay quite static unless there’s reliability problems. A shout out to Max Chilton that after 24 races or so has beaten his teammate for the 1st time in his career, this is if Bianchi hasn’t suffered any mechanical fault.

  17. Very good quali session and what a blow to Rosberg by Lewis. He is clearly rattled and few more blows by Lewis and we’ll see a knockout!

    Strange incident for Pastor. I’ve seen so many drivers go wide but none of them had lost it. All weekend his rear has been too loose. Anyway we all knew that Romain would have the measure of him. I sense from the facial expressions of the Lotus guys that Pastor isn’t liked by the team and is only being tolerated because of the money bags.

    Another thing I’ve observed is that when the pressure is on, Massa know how to blow it up.

    Finally, I really feel sorry for Seb. That’s not the way to loose your title defense. What goes around, comes around!!

    1. This year, Seb’s luck is worst than unlucky Brian´s…

  18. Given that psychological warfare is an integral part of F1, I wonder whether perhaps Hamilton held back a bit in Q1 and Q2 intentionally. Today’s scenario was the most devastating for Rosberg, and it would have been a no-risk strategy for Hamilton.

    Anyway, looks like Rosberg is the Webber of Mercedes. Patiently waiting while the team and car were developed, only to be upstaged by a newcomer to the team. I actually hope I am wrong here, I’d like him to raise his game and keep the WCD standings close till the end of the season..

    1. @

      Perhaps Hamilton held back a bit in Q1 and Q2 intentionally.

      It’s hard to think he would take such a risk, when he cand devastate Rosberg by simply winning another race. It was obvious that Lewis wasn’t very comfortable with the car in Q1 and Q2. I don’t know weather they changed anything in between sessions, but it was a whole different drive form HAM in Q3.

      Anyway, looks like Rosberg is the Webber of Mercedes.

      I think he’s more like Dani Pedrosa in MotoGP. He has the best machine by far but there’s another guy up there (Marquez) who’s brutally faster and he just can’t do anything about it.
      As I once mentioned in one comment here, it will take Lewis to stretch his wins to Monaco GP for Rosberg to crack definitively. For now ROS has only his team-mate to battle with, but if RBR finally get their act together and surmount a challenge, Nico might start to ‘enjoy coming second to Lewis’.

      1. It’s hard to think he would take such a risk

        That’s actually the point, he would take no risk at all. There are no points nor track position for winning Q1 and Q2, you only have to be in top 16 and top 10, and given the dominance of Mercedes, Hamilton did not have to worry about it. Anyway, I am not claiming Hamilton did it, only raising it as an interesting possibility. To be frank, I would expect such premeditated tactics rather from Alonso than Hamilton :-).

  19. An interesting fact I saw: Alonso has been out-qualified by his team-mate at the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time since 2004 (Trulli).

  20. I hope the FIA doesn’t get the same ideas as in 2011 and starts interfering with the pecking order. I’m a RBR fan and I’m still annoyed how they handled the EBD saga. Mercedes deserves it and no one should try to take it away from them just because the rest didn’t do a good job.
    Other than that I just hope the rest of the field moves closer together – 2011 and the second half of 2013 was bearable because of lots of fights for positions.

  21. Six GP2 cars would have made it into the F1 grid this year. Pole position is 4.514 sec. slower than last year. Pic in the Caterham-Renault, qualifying 22nd in 2013, did a 1:25.070 that would have put him on pole this year. What a joke.

    1. Well, no they wouldn’t. They probably would have been excluded from the session for not running within the regulations.

      1. XD what a comeback!

      2. @ craig-o. Yeah, but you know what I mean.

    2. The circuit of Catalunya is very technical, one of the most challenging of all championship, if a car’s design has more areas of improvement on optimizing a good combination of balance-downforce-speed, they would most certainly show up precisely here, in Barcelona (that is one of the reasons why it is the venue of excellence for testing). Have some faith, I believe is also positive for everyone involved in the sport to see that this 2014 cars still have a lot of room for improvement, they have big potential in performance, in the first 3 races the teams seemed to be focused more on reliability and getting more speed out of the cars, Barcelona will now remind them that they need to start pushing greatly on aerodynamics too and getting the suspension configuration right. By the end of the season, the car performance will be close to those V8 from 2013. Kind regards!

  22. It needs to be updated, Vettel starts 15th.

  23. If Vettel gets a gearbox penalty, he will start 15th.

  24. I’m no superstitious person but I think Maldonado should ask FIA to be able to change it’s car number, to another one than 13. This is getting more and more embarassing for Lotus – Renault.

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