The 2014 Spanish Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2014) was a Formula One motor race held on 11 May 2014 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain. The race was the fifth round of the 2014 Formula One World Championship, the 44th Spanish Grand Prix held as part of the championship, and the 24th in Barcelona. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the 66-lap race from pole position. His teammate Nico Rosberg finished second and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took third.
Going into the event, Rosberg led the World Drivers' Championship and his team Mercedes led the World Constructors' Championship. Hamilton won the 35th pole position of his career by recording the fastest lap in the third qualifying session. He led the race until his first pit stop at the end of lap 18, promoting Rosberg to first place for the next three laps. Hamilton's Mercedes had oversteer and understeer as Rosberg retook the lead for two laps when Hamilton made a second pit stop on the 43rd lap. He drew to less than a second behind Hamilton by lap 59. Hamilton responded by increasing his speed when he switched to a higher-powered engine setting to keep Rosberg behind for his fourth victory in succession in 2014 and the 26th of his career.
The race result left Hamilton with 100 championship points and the lead of the World Drivers' Championship for the first time since . His teammate Rosberg fell to second and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso remained in third. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull moved to fourth and Ricciardo advanced from sixth to fifth. Mercedes further increased its advantage over Red Bull atop the World Constructors' Championship to 114 championship points. Ferrari passed Force India for third and Williams moved to fifth with 14 races left in the season.
Background
The 2014 Spanish Grand Prix was the fifth of the 19 races of the 2014 Formula One World Championship, the 24th running of the event in Barcelona and the 44th edition since the inception of the series. It was held at the 16-turn Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Catalonia on 11 May. The track is heavily dependent on aerodynamic performance due to its number of quick and medium-speed corners. Overtaking is difficult in Barcelona and it required a balanced car setup between the corners and its more technical portions and the circuit is demanding on every car's tyres.
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the white-banded medium-compound tyres and the orange-banded hard-compound tyres. The drag reduction system (DRS) had two activation zones for the race: one was on the pit lane straight between the final to first corners, and the second was on the straight linking turns nine and ten. After the 2013 round, the kerb on the approach to turn one was renewed and the verge behind it was laid with asphalt. The kerbs leaving turns nine and twelve were replaced and the artificial grass beside it was extended. The wide gravel trap to the outside of turn eleven was replaced with asphalt.
Entering the event, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the World Drivers' Championship with 79 championship points, four ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in second. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third with 41 championship points and Nico Hülkenberg of Force India was fourth with 36 championship points. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was in fifth position with 33 championship points. Mercedes led the World Constructors' Championship with 154 championship points; Red Bull were in second position with 57 championship points and Force India were third with 54 championship points. Ferrari were in fourth place with 52 championship points and McLaren was fifth with 43 championship points.
Mercedes had won every race up to the Spanish Grand Prix with Hamilton winning the previous three races and his teammate Rosberg the season-opening . Despite his recent results, Hamilton spoke of his belief that the momentum would shift between him and Rosberg on different tracks and Hamilton sought to narrow the performance deficit: "My job this year was to try to close the gap a little, which I did – it wasn't [nearly] half a second like it was last year in qualifying – it was [less than] three-tenths. What I'm really trying to focus on is those circuits where I am maybe weaker, or not as close to him." He also said that he anticipated Red Bull and Ferrari to be closer to Mercedes in Barcelona due to his suspicion that their cars were more aerodynamically efficient. Rosberg spoke of his admittance that he needed to regain momentum and sought to win the race and extend his lead in the World Drivers' Championship: "Every weekend is crucial but the results momentum is on his side and I need to try to turn it around."
Several teams made technical changes to their cars. Red Bull introduced a duct near the RB10's rear tyres to redirect airflow and increase its underfloor efficiency. The team also provided Vettel with a new car chassis to improve his performance. Ferrari reverted to using a single pillar rear wing support on the F14 T's centre line, aimed at reducing airflow disturbance and increasing downforce, and therefore grip, produced by the bodywork. Force India debuted a new rear wing mainplane and endplates on the two VJM07s, while McLaren's MP4-29s had their rear bodywork altered to house a revised rear suspension arm and the front wing featured new endplates. Sauber introduced a revised aerodynamic package version of its C33 chassis, which included a modified front wing, new side-pod fins, engine cover and deflectors, reducing the car's overall weight. For both of its E22 cars, Lotus brought a reconfigured engine mapping programme along with a revised cooling system and bodywork package and an updated rear wing.
A total of 11 teams (each representing a different constructor) fielded two race drivers each with two extra participants driving solely in the first free practice session. For the first practice session, Sauber test and reserve driver Giedo van der Garde drove Esteban Gutiérrez's car for the third time in the season, and Valtteri Bottas gave his Williams car to GP2 Series entrant and the team's reserve driver Felipe Nasr for the third race in succession.
Practice
Per the regulations for the 2014 season, three practice sessions were held, two 90-minute sessions on Friday and another 60-minute session on Saturday. In the first session, which took place in clear weather, Hamilton lapped fastest with a time of 1:27.023, 0.868 seconds faster than McLaren's Jenson Button in second who was quickest until Hamilton's lap. Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull, Alonso, Rosberg, Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen, McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Pérez of Force India and Williams' Felipe Massa rounded out the top ten. Van Der Garde's brakes failed on the approach to turn one's run-off area; he avoided hitting the left-hand side wall at high speed. Pérez's front-left rearview mirror detached from the mounting although a retaining strap kept it intact. Adrian Sutil in the second Sauber car ran wide at the uphill turn nine and lost control of his car. Vettel stopped at the side of turn six with a damaged wiring loom that forced him to miss the second session while his team rectified it.
In rising air and track temperatures, Hamilton set the day's fastest lap on the medium compound tyres in the second session at 1:25.524. His teammate Nico Rosberg was second and Ricciardo was third. Alonso and Räikkönen in the two Ferrari cars were fourth and fifth. The McLaren cars of Magnussen and Button, Massa, Maldonado and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat followed in positions six to ten. Engine problems for Max Chilton of Marussia restricted his running early in the session before he completed several laps later on. Yellow flags were waved at the entry to the final corner when a chunk of rear bodywork around the exhaust system of Chilton's car detached, which was retrieved by a track marshal. Chilton later locked his tyres and got stuck in the turn four gravel trap. After the session, Toro Rosso's Jean-Éric Vergne incurred a ten-place grid penalty because the stewards deemed him to have been released from the pit lane with an incorrectly attached right-rear wheel that detached in turn one. The team was fined €30,000.
The third session was held in warm weather and teams analysed how much the hard tyres degraded. Rosberg set the fastest lap of 1:25.887 on the medium compound tyres in clear air. Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Lotus' Romain Grosjean, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Button, Maldonado and Vettel completed the top ten. During the session, where several drivers had rear grip issues, Chilton locked his front-left wheel and got stuck in the turn five outside gravel trap.
Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes, eliminating cars that finished the session 17th or below. The 107% rule was in effect, requiring drivers to reach a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify. The second session lasted 15 minutes, eliminating cars in 11th to 16th. The final 12-minute session determined pole position to tenth. Cars who progressed to the final session were not allowed to change tyres for the race's start, using the tyres with which they set their quickest lap times in the second session; teams were allowed to switch tyres for the third session before changing them back for the race. Hamilton went fastest in the third session on his final timed lap to earn his fourth pole of 2014 and the 35th of his career with a lap of 1:25.232. He was joined on the grid's front row by his teammate Rosberg who was fastest in the first and second sessions to achieve Mercedes's fourth front row lockout in 2014. Ricciardo qualified third and a set-up change put Bottas fourth. Grosjean started from fifth. An improved car balance, grip and rear stability under braking qualified Räikkönen and his teammate Alonso sixth and seventh. Button in eighth had an overabundance of understeer on his final timed lap. Massa in ninth lost control of the rear of his car braking for the turn 10 hairpin.
Vettel did not set a lap time in the final session because of a gearbox fault that emerged when he exited his garage and stopped at turn three. It prompted a brief stoppage with less than ten minutes remaining while track marshals extricated his car. Vettel later changed his gearbox, and incurred a five-place grid penalty, since gearboxes were required to last a minimum of six consecutive races per series regulations. Hence, Hülkenberg, who changed the setup of his car, began from tenth. His Force India teammate Pérez was 11th after slower traffic compromised his final timed lap, which he aborted to conserve his tyre allocation. Kvyat drove on the hard compound tyres for 12th and Gutiérrez was the faster Sauber driver in 13th. Magnussen's running was curtailed by an engine problem that prevented him from recording a fast lap and he had to start from 14th. Sutil in the second Sauber vehicle had overheated tyres that lost him time and took 16th as Chilton began from 17th. His Marussia teammate Jules Bianchi ran deep at turn 10 on his second timed lap. Marcus Ericsson in 19th qualified ahead of his Caterham teammate Kamui Kobayashi in 20th for the first time in 2014; Kobayashi ran two timed laps on the medium compound tyres but a car imbalance and a delay by Bianchi slowed him. Maldonado failed to set a lap after he lost control of the rear of his car on the artificial grass at the exit of turn three and struck the inside concrete barrier, damaging his front right suspension and stopped the first session for seven minutes.
Post-qualifying