Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Recommended for you

How Aprilia's Barcelona collapse showed the pressures of leading MotoGP's title race

Feature
MotoGP
Barcelona Official Testing
How Aprilia's Barcelona collapse showed the pressures of leading MotoGP's title race

Title-winning BTCC Peugeot and Harvey in an MG among Touring Car Rewind: North highlights

National
Title-winning BTCC Peugeot and Harvey in an MG among Touring Car Rewind: North highlights

MotoGP Barcelona test: Acosta fastest as rain curtails running early

MotoGP
Barcelona Official Testing
MotoGP Barcelona test: Acosta fastest as rain curtails running early

Why this year's Indy 500 isn't as straightforward to call as you might expect

Feature
IndyCar
110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
Why this year's Indy 500 isn't as straightforward to call as you might expect

Will Mercedes or McLaren land the next punch at F1's Canadian GP?

Formula 1
Canadian GP
Will Mercedes or McLaren land the next punch at F1's Canadian GP?

The mental challenge Evans takes on at Rally Japan

WRC
Rally Japan
The mental challenge Evans takes on at Rally Japan

Why the Catalan GP chaos may finally force MotoGP riders to unite

Feature
MotoGP
Catalan GP
Why the Catalan GP chaos may finally force MotoGP riders to unite

Why Ford 'loves the V8 idea' in F1 amid changing road car strategy

Formula 1
Why Ford 'loves the V8 idea' in F1 amid changing road car strategy
Feature

Stat Attack: Spain (post-race)

Michele Merlino investigates the records and compiles the stats following the Spanish Grand Prix

Race notes

Mark Webber scored his third career win and his first leading from start to finish. His winning margin at Barcelona was 24.065 seconds - the highest since the wet 2008 British GP, when Lewis Hamilton finished 1m08.577s ahead of Nick Heidfeld. The last bigger gap in a dry race was the 2005 Hungarian GP, when Kimi Raikkonen won, 35.581s ahead of Michael Schumacher.

Michael Schumacher claimed his best result of the year so far in fourth, and for the first time finished ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg, who failed to score points for the first time this year.

Jaime Alguersuari © LAT

Jaime Alguersuari became the only Toro Rosso driver ever to finish a race in Catalunya, scoring a point for 10th place.

Lewis Hamilton suffered just his second retirement due to a mechanical failure in his career - the first having come in Abu Dhabi last season. He had gone 51 races without a terminal failure but has now had two in the last six grands prix. It was the first time this year that McLaren hasn't got both cars to the end, making it the last team this year to post a retirement.

Hamilton also scored his fifth career fastest lap, depriving Webber of a hat-trick of pole position, victory and fastest lap. The last trio was recorded by Michael Schumacher in the 2004 Hungarian GP and he is the only current F1 driver to have done it.

McLaren has now scored back-to-back fastest laps, for the first time since the Monaco and Canadian GPs in 2007.

Kamui Kobayashi and Timo Glock finished a race for the first time this year.

• A Renault-powered car scored points for the 28th consecutive race, breaking into the top 10 for all-time scoring streaks for an engine manufacturer. It has tied BRM's streak from the 1952 Dutch GP to the 1964 US GP. The list is headed by Ford with 228 straight points finishes from the 1967 Canadian GP to the 1983 Dutch GP.

• This was the 10th consecutive year that the Spanish Grand Prix has been won by the pole-sitter, and the first time in 2010 that the pole-sitter has won the race.

• Five races into the 2010 season, no driver has stood on the podium more than twice.

Qualifying notes

Red Bull Racing clinched its 10th pole position and became the 13th team in F1 history to reach the landmark. It was also Red Bull's fifth consecutive pole, making it the first team to achieve that feat at the start of a season since McLaren in 1999.

Lewis Hamilton © LAT

Lewis Hamilton achieved his best grid slot of 2010 in third, while McLaren scored its best combined grid position, of 4.0, since the 2009 Italian GP.

Michael Schumacher started from his highest grid spot since returning to racing, and out-qualified team-mate Nico Rosberg for the first time.

Rosberg and Adrian Sutil had their worst performances of the season and Sutil missed Q3 for the first time.

Rubens Barrichello qualified 18th, his lowest since the 2008 Singapore GP, and was eliminated in Q1 - the first time a Williams has gone out in the first round since Kazuki Nakajima in Japan last year.

• The 0.834s gap between the first Red Bull and the first McLaren is the biggest gap between a team's pole-sitter and the quickest driver in a different team in a dry session this year.

Previous article How Red Bull is demoralising its rivals
Next article Red Bull may run F-duct in Turkey

Top Comments

More from Michele Merlino

Latest news