The Official 2017 Spanish Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[HustleRussell]

Date(s): Friday 12th - Sunday 14th May 2017

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1, with the Channel 4 highlights indicated below.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0845	-	0900	1000
Practice 2	Fri	1245	-	1300	1400
Practice 3	Sat	0945	-	1000	1100
Qualifying	Sat	1200	1730	1300	1400
Race	Sun	1200	1845	1300	1400

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA



The tyre choices are Softs, Medium and Hard. All drivers get 7 sets of Softs, 4 of Mediums and 2 of Hards for the weekend.



Live Timing here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Event timings, steward decisions, technical reports and laptimes for the weekend will appear here:

http://www.fia.com/championship/events/fia-formula...

Weather forecast:

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Spain/Catal...

---

Perhaps interest has understandably waned since the rather boring Russian Grand Prix. This weekend's Spanish grand prix promises to deliver. The beginning of the European season and traditionally the beginning of the technical development arms race, which this season could heavily influence the fortunes of the leading teams. The top three are all bringing major upgrade packages- whose will be the most effective?

Edited by HustleRussell on Tuesday 9th May 15:08

[HustleRussell]

sandman77 said:

Thanks for getting the ball rolling on this on OP.

ps. the session start time for qualifying needs updated.

Cheers. Done.

I ran out of time to do the 2016 results as per previous races, if anybody knows how to quickly format the table I'll C&P it Into the OP.

sandman77 said:

Seems a strange choice of tyres? no super or ultra soft. Will this be another 1 stopper?

The tyre selection for this weekend's race is not a popular one, Pirelli's tyres are at least one step too durable across the board. I'd imagine a one stop will the plan 'A'.

Will the overly hard tyres once again swing this Ferrari's way?

[HustleRussell]

51mes said:

being pedantic OP thanks muchly for doing this ... - but the Dates "Date(s): Friday 07 April - Sunday 09 April 2017"

are surely Friday 12th May - Sunday 14th? you've re-used the Chinese Dates....

Hoping the results will be different ;-)

S.

[HustleRussell]

Bottas critics. Valterri had an old PU which was less powerful from the off than the revised one Hamilton had. Also, as it had done four races already, there was always a question mark over the reliability.

He did bottle it in turn one but I don't think he was responsible for the collision which took out Raikonnen and Verstappen- Verstappen chose to take the tempting but risky outside line but it backfired as it often does.

A great race and an interesting result down the grid. Superb for Force India and Wehrlein in the Sauber.

Great to see two Mclarens running reliably, and even one of them passing a Williams on the straight.

Nobody has noticed Vandoorne so far but people are so quick to condemn him after one mistake. I hope he doesn't make Button look good in Monaco.

Does anybody else think Hamilton's athsmatic radio messages were a bit exaggerated? Practicing for his future acting career? It's not just the way he was speaking but the fact that at times he was holding the radio button down and breathing into it between messages. Why? The other drivers did not sound as though they were struggling so much and I can't believe Hamilton is much less fit than the fittest out there.

The other thing that puzzled me about Hamilton is how he's so creepy around Vettel, going on about mutual respect between competitors, even where Vettel ran him wide in the style we have become accustomed to tolerating in modern F1... he was ecstatic after the race and barely mentioned it. If anything like that happened with Rosberg he'd have had a face like a slapped arse and would've been coldly explaining that he would be discussing it with the team etc etc.

[HustleRussell]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Red Bull were a huge worry. Ricciardo was no where.

Closest they've been to the Mercedes and Ferrari on pace all season?

[HustleRussell]

Leroy902 said:

I think it's becoming pretty clear now ferrari have a better all round car than the Merc. Let us not forget that if Vettel goes on to win the title, and everyone comes on to claim the Mercs (Lewis) lost this year's drivers championship with the best car.

Not possible to call IMO, especially since the pre-Catalunya upgrades. The Mercedes is more reliable and will likely be better in the wet.

[HustleRussell]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

HustleRussell said:

Closest they've been to the Mercedes and Ferrari on pace all season?

1:15.820 behind the winner??

Hmm....

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Did you miss the part then were 1:15.820 behind 1st

Do you think that gap accurately represents the performance gap between the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull?

I'll give you a clue. With no pressure from behind and no chance of competing with Hamilton and Vettel, they turned the engine down and cruised to the easiest podium of the season.

[HustleRussell]

Stupid mistake by Magnussen too, what was all that about? Looked like a deliberate clash with Kvyat which resulted in a puncture and dropped him out of the points.