2017 Spanish Grand Prix Explained

Type:F1
Country:Spain
Grand Prix:Spanish
Details Ref:[1]
Year:2017
Race No:5
Season No:20
Image Link:Formula1 Circuit Catalunya.svg
Image-Size:250px
Official Name:Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017[2] [3]
Location:Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Montmeló, Spain
Course:Permanent racing facility
Course Km:4.655
Course Mi:2.892
Distance Laps:66
Distance Km:307.104
Distance Mi:190.825
Weather:Sunny
Attendance:177,984[4]
Pole Driver:Lewis Hamilton
Pole Country:GBR
Pole Team:Mercedes
Pole Time:1:19.149
Fast Driver:Lewis Hamilton
Fast Team:Mercedes
Fast Time:1:23.593
Fast Lap:64
Fast Country:GBR
First Driver:Lewis Hamilton
First Country:GBR
First Team:Mercedes
Second Team:Ferrari
Previous Round:2017 Russian Grand Prix
Next Round:2017 Monaco Grand Prix

The 2017 Spanish Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017) was a Formula One motor race held on 14 May 2017 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. The race was the fifth round of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship and marked the forty-seventh running of the Spanish Grand Prix as a World Championship event since the inaugural season in, and the twenty-seventh time that a World Championship round had been held at Catalunya.

Report

Free practice

Both of Friday's practice sessions finished with an identical top six on the timesheet, with Lewis Hamilton heading the list, his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas second and the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel third and fourth respectively. Next came the Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen fifth in both sessions and Daniel Ricciardo sixth.[5] [6] McLaren Honda's run of poor reliability continued, with home favourite Fernando Alonso sitting out most of the first session after his car suffered a major engine failure during his first lap.[7] Alonso was able to take part in the second session, but had to wait until almost half an hour into it while his team was completing an engine change.[8]

The third practice session, on Saturday morning, finished with Räikkönen quickest, Vettel second, and Hamilton third.[9] Bottas was fourth after his engine suffered a water leak and he was only able to run towards the end of the session, once Mercedes had changed the engine.[10] The Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Ricciardo were again fifth and sixth.

Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position from Sebastian Vettel by 0.051 seconds. Vettel was initially ordered to stop the car on track for an engine problem in Q1 but he questioned the decision and the problem was resolved and allowed him to continue. Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen filled up the second row followed by the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Fernando Alonso delivered a shocking result to get his underpowered McLaren into Q3 and then qualifying as the best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. The top ten was filled out by Sergio Pérez, Felipe Massa and Esteban Ocon.

Race

Vettel had a better start than Hamilton and led into the first corner. An incident with Bottas, Räikkönen and Verstappen meant that both Räikkönen and Verstappen retired with suspension damage and Bottas was left slightly handicapped. The incident also caused Felipe Massa to obtain a puncture, while also forcing Alonso off the track, leading them to eventually finish the race outside of the points. This left the top ten as Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Pérez, Ocon, Hülkenberg, Magnussen, Sainz and Grosjean. Hamilton stuck with Vettel for fourteen laps, when Ferrari decided to cover off the undercut by pitting for softs. Hamilton meanwhile stayed out on track for seven extra laps and rejoined around seven seconds behind Vettel on the medium tyres. Vettel lost around four seconds to Hamilton trying to get past Bottas, who hadn't pitted yet, before completing a spectacular overtake on Bottas.

With just over thirty laps remaining, the McLaren of Vandoorne drove into Massa and retired with suspension damage, earning him a grid penalty at the next race. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was brought out so his car could be removed and this allowed Hamilton to pit for the faster soft tyres, while not losing much time to Vettel due to the limited speed. Vettel then pitted for the slower medium tyres as was required, just when the VSC had finished, resulting in Vettel coming out of the pitlane alongside Hamilton. They touched wheels and Hamilton was forced off the track and had to fall behind Vettel. Then on lap 38, the Mercedes of Bottas suffered an engine failure (from the engine he had used for all previous races) and this promoted Ricciardo into a podium place. Meanwhile, Pascal Wehrlein who was doing a one-stop, used the VSC to his advantage and came out of the pits in eighth; he then got promoted to seventh following Bottas's retirement. However, he received a five-second penalty for an error in entering the pit lane.

Hamilton, with faster tyres, then managed to overtake Vettel for the lead on the pit straight on lap 44 and held on to the lead to win the race, reducing Vettel's lead in the championship to 6 points and increasing Mercedes's lead in the Constructors' Championship to eight points over Ferrari. Ricciardo finished third for his first podium of the season and took the fifth place in the Championship from Verstappen. Despite new upgrades, his Red Bull was 75 seconds behind Hamilton, the furthest back they had been all season, and Ricciardo was the only other car apart from the two leaders to finish on the lead lap. The next to cross the line were the Force Indias of Pérez and Ocon. Then Nico Hülkenberg finished in sixth place for Renault, their highest finish since returning to the sport in 2016. Wehrlein crossed the line in seventh but was demoted to eighth with his penalty, still picking up four valuable points for the struggling Sauber team, with the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz being promoted to the seventh in his stead. Kvyat and Grosjean finished ninth and tenth respectively after Kevin Magnussen, who was running in ninth, suffered a late puncture due to contact with Kvyat and fell to fourteenth. Fernando Alonso finished in twelfth, the first time he had finished a race in the season, but he admitted he was lacking the race pace to go with his superb qualifying.[11]

Classification

Qualifying

DriverConstructor
Q1Q2Q3
144 Lewis Hamilton1:20.5111:20.2101:19.1491
25 Sebastian VettelFerrari1:20.9391:20.2951:19.2002
377 Valtteri BottasMercedes1:20.9911:20.3001:19.3733
47 Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:20.7421:20.6211:19.4394
533 Max Verstappen1:21.4301:20.7221:19.7065
63 Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing-TAG Heuer1:21.7041:20.8551:20.1756
714 Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1:22.0151:21.2511:21.0487
811 Sergio PérezForce India-Mercedes1:21.9981:21.2391:21.0708
919 Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1:22.1381:21.2221:21.2329
1031 Esteban Ocon1:21.9011:21.1481:21.27210
1120 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1:21.9451:21.32911
1255 Carlos Sainz Jr.Toro Rosso1:21.9411:21.37112
1327 Nico HülkenbergRenault1:22.0911:21.39713
148 Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1:21.8221:21.51714
1594 Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1:22.3271:21.80315
169 Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1:22.33216
1730 Jolyon PalmerRenault1:22.40117
1818 Lance Stroll1:22.41118
192McLaren-Honda1:22.53220
2026 Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:22.74619
107% time

1:26.147

Source:[12]

Race

DriverConstructorTime/RetiredPoints
144 Lewis HamiltonMercedes661:35:56.497125
25 Sebastian VettelFerrari66+3.490218
33 Daniel Ricciardo66+1:15.820615
411 Sergio PérezForce India-Mercedes65+1 Lap812
531 Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes65+1 Lap1010
627 Nico HülkenbergRenault65+1 Lap138
755 Carlos Sainz Jr.Toro Rosso65+1 Lap126
894 Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari65+1 Lap154
926 Daniil KvyatToro Rosso65+1 Lap192
108 Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari65+1 Lap141
119 Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari64+2 Laps16
1214 Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda64+2 Laps7
1319 Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes64+2 Laps9
1420 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari64+2 Laps11
1530 Jolyon PalmerRenault64+2 Laps17
1618 Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes64+2 Laps18
data-sort-value="17"Ret77 Valtteri BottasMercedes38Engine3
data-sort-value="18"Ret2McLaren-Honda32Accident20
data-sort-value="19"Ret33 Max Verstappen1Accident damage5
data-sort-value="20"Ret7 Kimi RäikkönenFerrari0Suspension4
Source:[13]
Notes

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
DriverPoints
1 Sebastian Vettel104
2 Lewis Hamilton98
3 Valtteri Bottas63
4 Kimi Räikkönen49
15 Daniel Ricciardo37
Source: [14]
Constructors' Championship standings
ConstructorPoints
1 Mercedes161
2 Ferrari153
372
4 Force India-Mercedes53
15 Toro Rosso21
Source:

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017. Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 12 May 2017. 12 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170312084522/https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/races/2017/Spain.html. dead.
  2. Web site: 2017 Formula 1 World Championship Programmes - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project. Malcolm. Mitchell. Progcovers.com. 18 November 2018.
  3. Web site: Catalunya - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project. Malcolm. Mitchell. Progcovers.com. 18 November 2018.
  4. News: F1 reveals overall rise in 2017 attendance. Gpupdate.net. 8 December 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171209011037/https://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/361717/f1-reveals-eight-per-cent-rise-in-2017-attendance/. 9 December 2017.
  5. Web site: Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Practice 1. Formula1.com. 12 May 2017.
  6. Web site: Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Practice 2. Formula1.com. 12 May 2017.
  7. Web site: Lewis Hamilton fastest in Spain as Fernando Alonso breaks down. BBC Sport. 12 May 2017.
  8. Web site: Lewis Hamilton top in Spanish Grand Prix practice with upgraded Mercedes. BBC Sport. 12 May 2017.
  9. Web site: Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Practice 3. Formula1.com. 13 May 2017.
  10. Web site: Kimi Raikkonen heads final Spanish Grand Prix practice. BBC Sport. 13 May 2017.
  11. Web site: Race – Hamilton beats Vettel in Spain to close title race . Formula1.com . Formula One World Championship Ltd . 14 May 2017 . 15 May 2017.
  12. Web site: Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Qualifying . Formula1.com . Formula One World Championship Ltd . 13 May 2017 . 13 May 2017.
  13. Web site: Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2017 – Race Result . Formula1.com . Formula One World Championship Ltd . 14 May 2017 . 14 May 2017.
  14. Web site: Spain 2017 - Championship • STATS F1. www.statsf1.com. 20 March 2019.