Starting Grid 2019 Spanish F1 GP

Grid spaces on the start/ finish straight during the Spanish GP at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Event: Spanish Grand Prix
Track: Catalunya Circuit

Start time: 15:10 (local) | 14:10 GMT | 06:10 PT

Mercedes showed the world they can even more dominant in Spain. The aero and technical updates for the first race in Europe turned out even better than expected.

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen was able to come closer to Ferrari, but not to Mercedes in qualifying. How things will work out in the race is yet to be seen. Hopefully the race pace of Ferrari and Red Bull will be more close.

Start Grid 2019 Spanish F1 GP

* Penalties:

• Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) dropped 3 grid places as penalty for causing a collision during the Azerbaijan GP.
• George Russell (Williams) dropped 5 grid places for an unscheduled gearbox change.
• Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) dropped 5 grid places for an unscheduled gearbox change.
• Nico Hulkenberg required to start from the pit lane for a change of front wing specification following qualifying.

Possible 2019 Spanish F1 Grand Prix Tyres Strategies

Valtteri Bottas headed up a Mercedes one-two in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, also setting a new track record. From start to finish of the session, the P Zero Red soft tyre was used by all the drivers. Bottas was given his Pirelli Pole Position Award prize (for the third consecutive time this year) by WWE Wrestling Superstar Cesaro: one of the biggest names in American wrestling.

The quickest strategy on paper for the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix is a two-stopper. The strategy goes like this: start on the soft tyre for 22 laps, do another soft stint for 23 laps, then medium to the end.

However, as is often the case, the teams will probably aim for a one-stopper: especially as it’s quite hard to overtake in Barcelona. In which case, the theoretically fastest one-stopper would be to start on the soft tyre for 27 laps – managing it carefully – and then switch to the hard until the finish.

A less marginal strategy – which is quite close anyway on overall race time – is to start on the medium for 30 laps, then switch to the hard for the final 36 laps. However, nobody in the top 10 of the grid will be able to try this.

As always, a lot of this will be dependent on race day track temperatures, which will have a direct impact on wear and degradation on the soft tyre in particular.

2019 Spanish Grand Prix Race Notes

Temperatures: Conditions were cool and cloudy for FP3 and then warmed up for qualifying – but were still lower than Friday. Weather seems changeable.

Strategies: Nobody in the top 10 has opted to start the race on the medium tyre, which might mean that a two-stopper is maybe being considered.

The front-left tyre is normally the limiting factor in Barcelona but managing the degradation on the rear tyres is also going to be critical.

Haas. Both cars were in the top 10 and have shown strong pace all weekend.

Lando Norris: the McLaren driver, in 11th, is the first person to have a free choice of starting tyre tomorrow so could opt to begin on the medium tyre.

Have a nice race!

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