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Formula 1
Spanish GP
2014 Spanish Grand Prix Sunday - Spanish GP
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Rosberg tells Mercedes that there's no graining on the tyres so far.
EDD STRAW: "Understandable move from Red Bull to bring Vettel in early and put on the hard tyres. Buried in traffic so makes sense to put him on a part of the track that is less congested so he can jump some places. Puts him out of synch, but better than being parked in the pack."
Grosjean isn't able to stay with the Bottas/Ricciardo fight, now 3.3s behind. But still great to see Lotus as high as fifth.
Vettel has pitted from 13th. Takes on a set of hard tyres.
A personal best from Ricciardo as he gets to within six tenths of Bottas's rear wing. But a Renault-powered car passing a Mercedes-powered one is currently a tough ask.
EDD STRAW: "Mercedes will be delighted to see Bottas backing up Ricciardo. While Mercedes doesn't have to be too worried about any other cars given its pace advantage, it's always reassuring to have an even bigger cushion. This will also influence the battle between the top two because it's not going to be too long before they have a whole pit-stop's worth of advantage. Currently, Bottas is 16.7s behind Hamilton."
Ricciardo is sneaking back up on Bottas again, now nine tenths behind the Williams.
Vettel currently less than a second behind Button, and lapping quicker.
Button, meanwhile, is told by the pitwall that everything looks good for "Plan A".
Button, meanwhile, is told by the pitwall that everything looks good for "Plan A".
In the Ferrari battle, Alonso continues to sit on Raikkonen's tail in seventh. He's within DRS range but hasn't made any serious moves since lap one.
BEN ANDERSON: "Already predictions of a processional race appear to be coming true. The pressure will be on the strategists and mechanics to make gains in the pits."
Stopwatch
A new fastest lap for Hamilton, 1m31.776s, bringing his lead up to 2.3s over Rosberg and 15.2s over Bottas.
Vettel through on Gutierrez as well. The Mexican is down to 14th, behind Button and Vettel.
Jenson Button is now just 0.3s behind Gutierrez. Should be able to grab 12th soon.
Kvyat makes a great move on Gutierrez to take 11th place. Brave stuff.
Bottas sets a new personal best in third place, putting him a second clear of the chilling Red Bull behind. He's now 12.1s off the lead.
Now Ricciardo decides his team's suggestion wasn't so bad and says "I'll cool it for a couple of laps."
The Meredes remain at least 1.5s quicker than everyone else, with Bottas now 9.7s off the lead.
Rosberg trimmed a little back from Hamilton's advantage on lap six, with the gap now 1.9s.
Red Bull suggested to Ricciardo that if he couldn't overtake Bottas, he should back off and try to save the car. Ricciardo responds by getting alongside Bottas into the first corner... but he can't make it stick.
Stewards are investigating contact between Ericsson and Maldonado near the back of the field.
EDD STRAW: "What we are seeing at the front now is Rosberg sitting about two seconds off Hamilton, which is the standard gap teams tend to use. Follow too closely and you lose downforce, which makes you use up your tyres much more quickly. Right now, Rosberg is biding is time in the hope that, as in stint 1 in Bahrain, Hamilton struggles with his tyres later in the stint."
BEN ANDERSON: "The Mercs are already over a second a lap quicker than the rest, streaking away at the front of the field. Can Rosberg stay close enough to use strategy to outsmart Hamilton?"
The Ferraris of Raikkonen and Alonso, plus Massa's Williams, are shadowing Grosjean, then there's another gap to the Force India-led midfield group.
Bottas's Williams has Ricciardo's Red Bull close behind and threatening, then there's a small gap to the resurgent Lotus of Grosjean.
The non-Mercedes group cannot keep up: Bottas is five seconds down on Hamilton in third place.
Once again Hamilton is trying to break away early with a run of new fastest laps, though Rosberg is clinging on, two seconds behind.
Relays show Magnussen had to take to the grass off the line after a start rather better than those around him.
He then had a near-miss with Vettel at the chicane at the end of the lap, but McLaren has reassured him that his front wing isn't damaged.
He then had a near-miss with Vettel at the chicane at the end of the lap, but McLaren has reassured him that his front wing isn't damaged.
Hamilton is edging slightly clear of Rosberg immediately, opening a 1.6-second lead after two laps.
Race order after lap one:
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Bottas
4 Ricciardo
5 Grosjean
6 Raikkonen
7 Alonso
8 Massa
9 Hulkenberg
10 Perez
11 Gutierrez
12 Kvyat
13 Button
14 Vettel
15 Magnussen
16 Sutil
17 Bianchi
18 Kobayashi
19 Vergne
20 Maldonado
21 Chilton
22 Ericsson
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Bottas
4 Ricciardo
5 Grosjean
6 Raikkonen
7 Alonso
8 Massa
9 Hulkenberg
10 Perez
11 Gutierrez
12 Kvyat
13 Button
14 Vettel
15 Magnussen
16 Sutil
17 Bianchi
18 Kobayashi
19 Vergne
20 Maldonado
21 Chilton
22 Ericsson
Massive lock up from Grosjean into Turn 1 as he slots into fifth behind Ricciardo, with the battling Ferraris behind the Lotus.
Lights out
Hamilton leads into the first corner as Rosberg resists a big challenge from Bottas for second place.
The Mercedes line up on the front row.
And look out for drivers' behaviour on the formation lap, after an FIA warning earlier this weekend.
The mechanics are moving away from the 22 cars, we're ready to go for the formation lap.
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Felipe Massa was gutted to mess up his final qualifying lap and wind up ninth on the grid instead of up inside the top six with his Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas. He expects a difficult race trying to move forward, says BEN ANDERSON, even with a potentially quicker car than those around him.
"For sure it's not good. We have a good car on the long runs so it's important not to lose any opportunity to overtake and to try to get free air," Massa said.
"It won't be easy to start ninth but we'll see. We're fighting hard with McLaren and Force India and it seems like our car is a little bit more competitive here.
"Maybe we can fight with Ferrari. Mercedes forget it, and Red Bull is a little bit faster and more consistent than us."
Massa reckons the "big difference" between the medium and hard tyres will create a "fight between two and three stops" in terms of strategy, which will be crucial today because of the difficulty in overtaking.
"You're going out of slow corners but then you have high-speed corners with a lot of lateral [force] and you cannot go very close to the car in front," he explained.
"This creates the problems to overtake. The DRS helps a bit, but before it was impossible to overtake [here]."
"For sure it's not good. We have a good car on the long runs so it's important not to lose any opportunity to overtake and to try to get free air," Massa said.
"It won't be easy to start ninth but we'll see. We're fighting hard with McLaren and Force India and it seems like our car is a little bit more competitive here.
"Maybe we can fight with Ferrari. Mercedes forget it, and Red Bull is a little bit faster and more consistent than us."
Massa reckons the "big difference" between the medium and hard tyres will create a "fight between two and three stops" in terms of strategy, which will be crucial today because of the difficulty in overtaking.
"You're going out of slow corners but then you have high-speed corners with a lot of lateral [force] and you cannot go very close to the car in front," he explained.
"This creates the problems to overtake. The DRS helps a bit, but before it was impossible to overtake [here]."
Not long now until the grid is cleared here in Spain and the race gets underway.
As usual we'll keep AUTOSPORT Live running post-race for all the driver and team reaction from the paddock.
And if you want to keep an eye on the rest of the motorsport world while enjoying the grand prix, open another tab for AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live, where we'll be commentating on the Jari-Matti Latvala/Sebastien Ogier showdown on Rally Argentina, the final leg of the European Formula 3 weekend on the stunning Pau street circuit in France, and race two of what's become a saturated World Touring Car Championship event in Slovakia, where Sebastien Loeb has just won race one.
As usual we'll keep AUTOSPORT Live running post-race for all the driver and team reaction from the paddock.
And if you want to keep an eye on the rest of the motorsport world while enjoying the grand prix, open another tab for AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live, where we'll be commentating on the Jari-Matti Latvala/Sebastien Ogier showdown on Rally Argentina, the final leg of the European Formula 3 weekend on the stunning Pau street circuit in France, and race two of what's become a saturated World Touring Car Championship event in Slovakia, where Sebastien Loeb has just won race one.
Already today at Barcelona we've had victories for a Brazilian - Williams test driver Felipe Nasr in GP2 - and a Briton; Dean Stoneman winning GP3 for Marussia's junior arm Manor.
Everything pauses on the grid for the national anthem. Last year it rang out after the race too for a Fernand Alonso victory...
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Daniil Kvyat has made a great start to his grand prix career, but was unhappy with his performance in qualifying. He will start 12th following Vettel's grid penalty but made no excuses for his Saturday struggles.
"It's a disappointing day but we have to learn from it," Kvyat told EDD STRAW. "We have to realise what we could have done better and where we went wrong and then we learn from it for the next qualifying.
"We just did not have enough pace. It's a very simple answer. I'm not going to come up with a story about it!"
"It's a disappointing day but we have to learn from it," Kvyat told EDD STRAW. "We have to realise what we could have done better and where we went wrong and then we learn from it for the next qualifying.
"We just did not have enough pace. It's a very simple answer. I'm not going to come up with a story about it!"
Nico Hulkenberg has starred in the early races of the season, taking the fight to Fernando Alonso's Ferrari on occasion and generally being the cat among the big-team pigeons.
But the German is expecting a much tougher race for Force India in Spain, after qualifying outside the top 10 yesterday. BEN ANDERSON heard from him.
"Surely it's going to be a tough race but the midfield is relatively close together," he said.
"We didn't have the performance yesterday for the top 10. It's been a tricky weekend and quite difficult to drive the car, but we have all the chances in the world not obviously for a win or a podium but for points.
"I think everyone is struggling this weekend with the rear of the car being very loose. These long sweeping corners with 50kg more weight seems to have a significant effect here.
"It's going to be a pretty strategic race. We know overtaking is difficult here. If you run behind another car it's only going to be worse for your tyres so the start and strategy is going to be key."
But the German is expecting a much tougher race for Force India in Spain, after qualifying outside the top 10 yesterday. BEN ANDERSON heard from him.
"Surely it's going to be a tough race but the midfield is relatively close together," he said.
"We didn't have the performance yesterday for the top 10. It's been a tricky weekend and quite difficult to drive the car, but we have all the chances in the world not obviously for a win or a podium but for points.
"I think everyone is struggling this weekend with the rear of the car being very loose. These long sweeping corners with 50kg more weight seems to have a significant effect here.
"It's going to be a pretty strategic race. We know overtaking is difficult here. If you run behind another car it's only going to be worse for your tyres so the start and strategy is going to be key."
By: Scott Mitchell, Ben Anderson, Matt Beer, Edd Straw, Andrew van Leeuwen, Dan Cross
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