The 2011 Spanish Grand Prix, formally the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Santander 2011, was a Formula One motor race that was held on 22 May 2011 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. It was the fifth round of the 2011 Formula One season. The 66-lap race was won by the championship leader, Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel after starting from second on the grid. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished in second place, and his teammate Jenson Button completed the podium in third position.

As a consequence of the race, Vettel extended his lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 41 points over Hamilton. Mark Webber, who started the race from pole position, finished fourth in the race but he maintained third place in the championship, 10 points behind second-place Hamilton, and six ahead of Button. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull extended their championship lead to 47 points over McLaren, with Ferrari a further 63 points behind in third position, after only Fernando Alonso reached the finish for the team, in fifth position. Sergio Pérez finished 9th and became the first driver from Mexico to score a point since Héctor Rebaque in the 1981 Dutch Grand Prix.

Report

Background Heading into the race, Sebastian Vettel led the Drivers' Championship with 93 points, 35 more than Lewis Hamilton on 58 points, who had 3 more than Mark Webber on 55 points. Other championship rivals throughout the season, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were fourth and fifth on 46 and 41 respectively.

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound as the softer "option" compound. This was the same tyre selection that Bridgestone had chosen to bring to the Spanish Grand Prix for the past two years.

In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull Racing held an advantage of 43 points over McLaren, with 148 points to McLaren's 105. Ferrari were a further 40 points behind McLaren on 65 points, and were building a gap from Renault – on 42 points - who were now having to fend off Mercedes GP who were on 26 points.

Ferrari introduced a new rear wing for the race, which came under scrutiny from the stewards and was subsequently banned.

Practice and qualifying The first practice session saw upgrades by every single team, and took place in sunny conditions. Mark Webber led at the end of the first practice, 1.007 seconds ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel, with Nico Rosberg in third place in the Mercedes.

In the second practice session, Webber topped the timesheets again, this time with Lewis Hamilton coming second splitting the Red Bulls with Vettel in third.

In the third practice session, Vettel topped the timesheets despite electrical problems that limited his running. Nick Heidfeld's car suffered a fire, causing extensive damage to his car that could not be fixed in time for the qualifying session.

In qualifying, Mark Webber took his first pole of the season, with his teammate Vettel, who had been unable to use his KERS during the session, behind him in second. In third and fifth places were the McLarens of Hamilton and Button, split by the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. Further down the grid Team Lotus celebrated their first ever entry to the second qualifying session on a dry track, with Heikki Kovalainen qualifying 15th, ahead of both Force Indias.

Heidfeld was unable to set a qualifying time, however, he was allowed to participate in the race due to having set competitive times in practice prior to the accident. This was a similar situation to the previous race in Turkey where Kamui Kobayashi had not posted a qualifying time, but had been allowed entry due to his consistent lap times within the 107% time during practice.

Race Fernando Alonso made a perfect start to the race, overtaking both Red Bulls and Hamilton into the first corner to the cheers of the Spanish fans, and leading the race until lap 18. However, Alonso faded after the first round of pitstops where Sebastian Vettel took the lead, a position which he held to the end of the race in spite of the efforts of Lewis Hamilton, who fought him all the way to the close, finishing only 0.6 seconds behind the winner, with his teammate Button over half a minute behind in third. Button had used a three-stop strategy instead of a four-stop strategy, like most other drivers, to get ahead of Webber and Alonso. On lap 31, Liuzzi's car stopped near the Pirelli tunnel due to a gearbox failure, forcing his retirement.

Mark Webber came in fourth, after spending much of the race behind Fernando Alonso, only overtaking him on the 39th lap when the Spaniard pitted. Kovalainen crashed on lap 51, damaging the left side and wheels of his car. On Lap 57, Massa, struggling with his gearbox, beached his car in the Turns 6 and 7 chicane while running tenth, his game was over. Despite starting in the pits, behind all the other cars, Nick Heidfeld had a successful race, bringing his car home in the points with an eighth-place finish. After saving a set of tyres by not setting a Q3 time, Michael Schumacher finished sixth ahead of teammate Rosberg. The race was notable for Ferrari's lack of pace on the prime tyre with Alonso slipping from first to fifth in the pit stops alone. Sergio Pérez scored his first Formula One points with ninth place, after he was disqualified from seventh place at the .

Classification

Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Grid 1 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:23.619 1:21.773 1:20.981 1 2 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:24.142 1:21.540 1:21.181 2 3 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.370 1:22.148 1:21.961 3 4 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:23.485 1:22.813 1:21.964 4 5 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.428 1:22.050 1:21.996 5 6 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:23.069 1:22.948 1:22.471 6 7 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:23.507 1:22.569 1:22.599 7 8 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:23.506 1:23.026 1:22.888 8 9 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:23.406 1:22.854 1:22.952 9 10 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:22.960 1:22.671 no time 10 11 18 Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.962 1:23.231 11 12 17 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:24.209 1:23.367 12 13 19 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:24.049 1:23.694 13 14 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:23.656 1:23.702 14 15 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:25.874 1:25.403 15 16 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:24.332 1:26.126 16 17 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:24.648 1:26.571 17 18 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:26.521 18 19 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:26.910 19 20 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:27.315 20 21 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1:27.809 21 22 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:27.908 22 23 25 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:28.556 23107% time: 1:28.767 24 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault no time 24

Notes: – Michael Schumacher experienced a problem with his KERS device in the final period of qualifying that led to him aborting his single timed lap in Q3. – Nick Heidfeld's Renault R31 caught fire in the final practice session on Saturday morning, seriously damaging the exhaust system and floor of the car. Renault mechanics were unable to get the car repaired in time for the first qualifying session, meaning Heidfeld was unable to set a lap time. As he had demonstrated competitive lap times during free practice sessions, he was permitted to start the race, which he did from the back of the grid.

Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 66 1:39:03.301 2 25 2 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 66 +0.630 3 18 3 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 66 +35.697 5 15 4 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 66 +47.966 1 12 5 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 4 10 6 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 10 8 7 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 7 6 8 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 65 +1 Lap 24 4 9 17 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 12 2 10 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 14 1 11 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 65 +1 Lap 6 12 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 16 13 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 17 14 18 Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 65 +1 Lap 11 15 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 65 +1 Lap 9 16 19 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 64 +2 Laps 13 17 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 64 +2 Laps 19 18 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 64 +2 Laps 18 19 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 63 +3 Laps 20 20 25 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 62 +4 Laps 23 21 22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 61 +5 Laps 22 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 58 Gearbox 8 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 48 Accident 15 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 28 Gearbox 21

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 Sebastian Vettel 118 2 Lewis Hamilton 77 3 Mark Webber 67 4 Jenson Button 61 5 Fernando Alonso 51Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Red Bull Racing-Renault 185 2 McLaren-Mercedes 138 3 Ferrari 75 4 Renault 46 5 Mercedes 40Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also 2011 Catalunya GP2 Series round 2011 Catalunya GP3 Series round

References

External links