Stat Attack: Spain

Spain personal scorecard

• Sebastian Vettel has started from the front row in Spain for the past two years and scored his first podium in the race in 2010, albeit giving up a place to Fernando Alonso late-on due to a brake problem. Vettel's last victory at Barcelona was in '06 in the F3 Euro Series. Vettel has qualified no lower than second for the past nine races. Only five times in F1 history has a driver bettered this record, the last time being Damon Hill's run of 17 straight front-row starts between the '95 Australian and '96 Japanese Grands Prix. Everything is set for Vettel to make it 10 in a row in Spain, as he has already had three poles from the first four races of '11.

• Last year's Spanish Grand Prix was almost a perfect race for Mark Webber as he led every lap of the race to win from pole position. He did the same two weeks later in Monaco, but did not set the fastest lap in either race. In 2009 he finished third, behind the Brawns, but ahead of Vettel.

• Lewis Hamilton has never won at Barcelona in any category, but came closest last year, before a last-lap wheel failure put him in the wall at Turn Three. He did, however, make it onto the podium for McLaren in 2007 and '08.

• Jenson Button won in Spain in 2009 on his way to the World Championship, but racked up just seven points from his first eight starts at Barcelona. Last year hew was fifth, having spent a large portion of the race bottled up behind Michael Schumacher.

• Fernando Alonso won his home race in 2006 and has been a factor in almost every one of his appearances at Barcelona. He has qualified in the top 10 for the last eight years, scored points on every occasion except for '01 (in a Minardi) and '08 (when his engine seized after he started from the front row), and finished on the podium five times. His qualifying record is also exceptional, defeat by Jarno Trulli in '04 being the only occasion on which he has been outqualified by a team-mate.

• Felipe Massa won from pole, and with the fastest lap, in 2007, a race marked by his duel with Alonso at the first corner, resulting in the Spaniard driving into the gravel. Massa has scored points in each of the last five Spanish Grands Prix.

• Michael Schumacher, has had more Spanish Grand Prix success than anybody else in F1 history, with six victories, seven pole positions and 12 podium finishes all records. He finished fourth last year, equaling his best result of the season. Like Alonso, he has an almost perfect record in qualifying against his team-mates, the only blot on his 16-1 scoreboard coming in 1999 when Eddie Irvine outqualified him.

• Barcelona has never been a lucky circuit for Nico Rosberg. He has scored only four points in five Spanish Grand Prix starts and has never qualified higher than the eighth place he managed last year. His GP2 record is poor too, finishing only ninth and fourth in what was his title-winning campaign of 2005.

• Nick Heidfeld has scored only seven points from his 10 starts at Barcelona, his best result being a fourth place in 2002. Qualifying has gone badly for him too, only making it into the top 10 on five occasions.

• Vitaly Petrov failed to make the top 10 in either qualifying or the race last year, but did at least finished second in the GP2 feature race in 2009, behind his then team-mate Romain Grosjean.

Barrichello was second in 2002 for Ferrari © LAT

• Rubens Barrichello has finished on the podium four times at Barcelona, finishing second in 2002 and '09 for Ferrari and Brawn respectively. His qualifying scoreboard against his team-mates is an even one, his figures reading 9-9.

• Pastor Maldonado has taken part in eight GP2 races at Barcelona, but scored just a single podium finish, that one coming in last year's reversed grid race. He did take pole position in 2008, however.

• Adrian Sutil scored points only once in Spain for seventh place last year. He has never qualified in the top 10 for any of his four starts at the track, and retired thanks to opening-lap shunts in 2008 and '09.

• Paul di Resta was a Friday tester for Force India last year, but has at least won at the track. That, though, was on the short layout as he triumphed in a DTM race in '08.

• Kamui Kobayashi finished 12th last year, despite starting inside the top 10. He did record a victory in the 2008 GP2 sprint race though, ahead of Sebastien Buemi.

• Sergio Perez has started four GP2 races at Barcelona, a fourth place in the 2010 feature race being the highlight.

• Sebastien Buemi was a victim of 'The Curse of Toro Rosso' (see teams) at Barcelona, an opening lap collision in 2009 and a hydraulic problem last year putting paid to his chances of points. In both cases, he had not made the top 10 in qualifying.

• Jaime Alguersuari scored one point in his home race last year, his last such achievement before the season finale at Yas Marina.

• Heikki Kovalainen was seventh in Spain in 2007, but has not seen the chequered flag fly since. He has covered just seven laps over the past two years.

• Jarno Trulli has third twice in Spain, in 2004 and '05. Since then, however, he has scored just a single point for eighth place in '08.

Liuzzi has never taken the chequered flag in Spain © LAT

• Vitantonio Liuzzi has never finished the Spanish Grand Prix. Even on the two occasions he was listed in the results, in 2006 and '10, he was not running at the finish. One spin and three mechanical failures have been the bain of his life at Barcelona.

• Timo Glock has never scored points at Barcelona, despite starting sixth on the grid in 2009.

• Jerome d'Ambrosio has made six GP2 starts at Barcelona, his best results being a pair of third places in 2009.

Team performances in Spain

• Spain should be a Red Bull race if the historical numbers are anything to go by. The team dominated in Turkey two weeks ago and was also the outfit to beat at Barcelona last year, when Webber took pole by 0.8s and dominated the race.

• McLaren has not won in Spain since 2005, when Kimi Raikkonen took victory from pole position. There have been no podiums or front-row start for the Woking concern since '08.

• Ferrari is the most successful team since the Spanish Grand Prix switched to Barcelona, and has taken seven wins, including four in a row from 2001-'04. Alonso was on course for fourth last year, but late problems for Vettel and Hamilton promoted him to second.

• Mercedes won the 2009 race in its former guise as Brawn. However, fourth place was the best that Schumacher could manage for the squad last year.

• Renault won in Spain in 2006 with Alonso, but has not made the podium since.

• Williams has only distant memories of its last Spanish win (1997) and podium ('02), but it has at least had one car in the top 10 of every Spanish Grand Prix since '81.

• Force India scored points only in the 2010 race, at the third time of asking.

• Sauber scored points in each of its four years with BMW backing, but last year got its best car home only 12th. The Swiss squad has got at least one car into the top 10 in qualifying for the last five years.

• It took until last year for a Toro Rosso to finish in Spain, Alguersuari's 10th place giving the team a point as well.

• Lotus has won six Spanish Grands Prix, but never at the current Barcelona circuit. It's last win came 25 years ago in dramatic fashion as Ayrton Senna beat Nigel Mansell by just 0.014s.

• Both HRTs retired last year due to accidents during the first half of the race.

• The two Virgins were the last two finishers in 2010. It was the first time that both cars from the team had reached the chequered flag in the same race.

Test bench

The Spanish Grand Prix will be a tough test bench for the new rules. Statistically the Barcelona circuit has produced some predictable races.

To sum it up, 13 of the last 14 winners in Spain have started from pole, while since the turn of the millennium, only the 2003 race has featured more than 10 overtaking moves (19, in fact). By contrast, the '05 and '08 races featured only two passing moves each.